AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Start with Scottie Scheffler winning four times in two months.
Now consider the money.
His PGA Tour earnings in his past six tournaments — dating to his first victory in the Phoenix Open on Feb. 13 — come to $8,872,200.
With consideration to purse increases and the Tour Championship no longer offering official prize money, Scheffler has made more in two months than what would have won the PGA Tour money title in four of the past eight seasons.
Golf hasn’t seen a stretch this torrid since Jason Day rattled off four wins in six starts, including the PGA Championship, in the summer of 2015. And he wasn’t even the best player that year: Jordan Spieth’s five wins that year included two majors and the FedEx Cup.
Amazing as what Scheffler has done, it’s too soon to think of him as golf’s next dominant player because no one ever seems to know how long it will last.
If anything, it’s an illustration of golf’s parity.
It also is a reminder of the Tiger Woods effect, and those ripples stretch even further the longer he is able to play.
“I played Tiger’s irons. Wore his shoes. Wore his shirt this week,” Scheffler said. “He is the needle for the game of golf. he has completely changed the PGA Tour from when he came on 25 years ago. And his YouTube clips are such an inspiration for me.”
One in particular that stood out to Scheffler was Woods winning his first Masters in 1997, a watershed moment in golf. Woods led by nine going into the final round and never lost focus even as the lead stretched to a record 12 shots.
“He never really broke his concentration. That’s something that I reminded myself of today,” Scheffler said Sunday. “I tried to keep my head down and just keep doing what I was doing because I didn’t want to break my concentration.”
That only changed when he had a five-shot lead on the 18th green. He four-putted.
“Thank you, Tiger,” Scheffler said with a laugh.
The influence has been around since Woods returned to No. 1 in the…
Source : yahoo
