Where Does Scheffler's 2024 Season Rank All Time?

[csh19792001]

Where Does Scheffler's 2024 Season Rank All Time? 

Scheffler Career Earnings: $96,818,667 (Second all time to Tiger Woods: $120,999,166). 

Scheffler won $75,242,699 the last two seasons, in only 42 starts. That alone would be #3 all time. 

He won $89,289,609 in the past 3 seasons (67 starts). 

Last 3 years: 65/67 cuts made, 19.4% win rate, 42.0% top 3 percentage. 

HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE: 2024 Season 
We probably could have dedicated an entire article to this section as there is an abundance of statistics that validate Scottie’s historic season. These are the most eye-catching of the bunch:

Lowest scoring average in PGA TOUR history (68.0). 

First player to win THE PLAYERS, a major championship and the FedEx Cup in the same season

Fourth player (seventh instance) to win 7+ times in a season including a major

Second player in history win the Masters Tournament and the FedEx Cup in the same season (first since 2015)

Second player in history to win THE PLAYERS and the TOUR Championship in the same season (first since 2019)

First player in history to lead the TOUR in Greens in Regulation (73%) and Putting Average (1.69)

Led the FedEx Cup standings for the final 25 weeks of the season, which is the longest streak to end the season in FedEx Cup history by 21 weeks

50th career week at No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings (second all-time)

68th consecutive week as World No. 1 (fifth-most all-time)

Scottie Scheffler led the PGA TOUR in 40+ major statistical categories in 2024, most notably:

1st in Scoring Average
1st in SG: Total
1st in SG: Approach
1st in GIR Percentage
1st in SG: Tee-to-Green
1st in Birdie Average
1st in Putting Average
1st in Birdie or Better Percentage
1st in Par 4 Scoring Average
1st in Par 5 Scoring Average
Wins
Top-3s
Top-5s
Top-10s
Rounds in the 60s

[iacas]

He won one major, and the $ figures don't mean anything given the inflation they've seen (particularly lately). I'm going with top ten, as Tiger has several that I'd likely take before Scottie's, Vijay may have topped Scottie with his nine-win season… some people think Xander's season was nearly as good (many more did of course before the gold medal and the FEC).

17 minutes ago, csh19792001 said:

1st in Scoring Average
1st in SG: Total (these two are almost the same)
1st in SG: Approach
1st in GIR Percentage
1st in SG: Tee-to-Green
1st in Birdie Average
1st in Putting Average
1st in Birdie or Better Percentage
1st in Par 4 Scoring Average
1st in Par 5 Scoring Average
Wins
Top-3s
Top-5s
Top-10s
Rounds in the 60s

The bold are the only things that really matter… the italics are often sub-pieces to the bold.

[csh19792001]

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

He won one major, and the $ figures don't mean anything given the inflation they've seen (particularly lately). I'm going with top ten, as Tiger has several that I'd likely take before Scottie's, Vijay may have topped Scottie with his nine-win season… some people think Xander's season was nearly as good (many more did of course before the gold medal and the FEC).

The bold are the only things that really matter… the italics are often sub-pieces to the bold.

Forgot Olympic Gold Medal Winner, also. 🙂

And, well said and reasoned, iacas. 

Which specific seasons/players would you take ahead of Scheffler? Do you have a top 10 seasons list all time? Or, by era?

Thanks! 🙂

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, csh19792001 said:

Forgot Olympic Gold Medal Winner, also. 🙂

And, well said and reasoned, iacas. 

Which specific seasons/players would you take ahead of Scheffler? Do you have a top 10 seasons list all time? Or, by era?

Thanks! 🙂

I only have to find five to bump Scottie's season into 6-10, and thus, vote for that option.

Tiger had several multi-major years. And even Tiger's 2008 might rank above Scottie's season given the times he played.

[Zeph]

Even if you calculated inflation, I would never use earnings for this purpose. The purses has grown a lot the past thirty years and inflation won’t explain most of that.

As an example, Tiger won $1m at the Masters in 2001 and Scottie won $3.6m in 2024. Adjusted for inflation, $1m in 2001 is $1.7m today.

Wins, including majors and maybe significance of won events along with the most important SG data is what I would use to rank the best seasons, as Erik already has said.

Top 10-15 seems reasonable, without having done any numerical comparisons.

Datagolf has touched on the topic of peak Tiger vs Scottie: 

Newsletter No. 56

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Letzig's Latest archive.

 

[boogielicious]

Until Scheffler spells his first name with a “y” instead of an “ie”, who can take him seriously? 😜

It was a great season, but he seemed to struggle in the majors after the Masters. His getting arrested was epic though!!!!

I am looking forward to the Masters next year because we always try to make menu items from the current Champion. His burgers and Firecracker shrimp were easier to make than Rahm’s Spanish menu.

[GolfLug]

I think the only one major win knocks it down a few spots. IMO, he needed to win the PGA or the US Open arrest or not to make a serious claim to a spot in top 5.

I still think top 10 considering modern day parity as a huge plus since separation is that much harder. And yes, money is not a apples to apples indicator.

[Ty_Webb]

On 9/2/2024 at 8:15 AM, iacas said:

He won one major, and the $ figures don't mean anything given the inflation they've seen (particularly lately). I'm going with top ten, as Tiger has several that I'd likely take before Scottie's, Vijay may have topped Scottie with his nine-win season… some people think Xander's season was nearly as good (many more did of course before the gold medal and the FEC).

The bold are the only things that really matter… the italics are often sub-pieces to the bold.

Struggling to imagine how scoring average and SG:total don't amount to the same thing. I guess there could be some noise around which weeks you played vs others and so on, but still. 

IMO the best seasons of all time has to start with Tiger 2000 first. 20 events, 17 top 10s, 9 wins, 3 majors, 4 other wins in events I would consider top tier with the strongest fields. I wish we had full strokes gained info for that year. 

After that I think it depends on how much weight you give to the effects of the other players around you - what I mean by that is how much weight do you give to Byron Nelson's 18 win season given that it was during a world war and a lot of potential competitors simply weren't there. Tiger said if we're going on number of wins, then his best season was when he was 11 and he won 30 times (or something like that anyway - I'm almost certainly off on the specifics).

The one thing with Vijay's 9 win season is he played a lot of tournaments (29) - I think 7/19 (or 8/20 if you count the Olympics) is better than 9/29. Also, not to downplay his achievement (much), but Vijay's wins included the Chrysler Championship, the 84 LUMBER Classic, The Bell Canadian Open, The Buick Open, the Shell Houston Open, and the HP Classic of New Orleans, none of which are what I would consider top end events with the strongest players playing (the other three were stronger - especially the PGA Championship). Scottie's included Arnold Palmer, Players, Masters, Memorial, and the Tour Championship which are all pretty high end events. 

[iacas]

2 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

Struggling to imagine how scoring average and SG:total don't amount to the same thing. I guess there could be some noise around which weeks you played vs others and so on, but still.

I didn't say they were different things, even though they slightly are. I just said the bold were the things that mattered.

[Ty_Webb]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

I didn't say they were different things, even though they slightly are. I just said the bold were the things that mattered.

I know - I was agreeing with you. You even said "these two are almost the same" in the bold bit. That's what I was agreeing with. I would think the only real difference is the normalizing that's happening in strokes gained and isn't in scoring average.

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

I know - I was agreeing with you. You even said "these two are almost the same" in the bold bit. That's what I was agreeing with. I would think the only real difference is the normalizing that's happening in strokes gained and isn't in scoring average.

I mean, you quoted me and then said "struggling to realize how they're not the same…" so… 😄 

[Ty_Webb]

25 minutes ago, iacas said:

I mean, you quoted me and then said "struggling to realize how they're not the same…" so… 😄 

That's a fair point 🙂 I think faster than I type. So in my head I go "no kidding, I'm struggling to realize..." and my hands go "struggling to realize..."

[klineka]

On 9/2/2024 at 8:15 AM, iacas said:

The bold are the only things that really matter… the italics are often sub-pieces to the bold.

Why are wins the only thing that matters in terms of results?

If there were two players and Player A won a regular PGA tour event and an opposite field event with 0 other top 3s but Player B's only win was like a signature event or The Players and 6 top 3s or something I'd have a hard time saying Player A had a better season simply because they had more wins. 

[JetFan1983]

I voted top ten all time season.

 

 

Scottie trying to help Tiger with his struggling game:

 

 

 

[Golfnutgalen]

It's really good. I'm not sure why people keep ignoring the Player's Championship. That plus the Masters and an 8 win season? That places him in super elite company. And yes the Olympic Gold definitely counts.

I'd rank it above most Tiger seasons and I'm a Tiger fanboy.

Top 10 season of all time? I think so but only just. Arnold Palmer had 2 seasons of 8 wins including 2 majors (1960 and 1962) and Jack's 1972 with 7 wins including the Masters and US Open is pretty good as well.

The standouts which are untouchable are Tiger 2000, Hogan 1953, and Nelson 1945. Some would throw in Bobby 1930 as well, but that one's a tougher sell in the modern era.

But that's all a long time ago. Scottie's season eclipses Vijay's in my eyes and you have to go back to somewhere around Johnny Miller 1974 to find something close excluding Tiger of course. Yes, I think it surpasses all of Tom Watson's prime years but again it depends on how you value majors.

[Ty_Webb]

25 minutes ago, Golfnutgalen said:

It's really good. I'm not sure why people keep ignoring the Player's Championship. That plus the Masters and an 8 win season? That places him in super elite company. And yes the Olympic Gold definitely counts.

I'd rank it above most Tiger seasons and I'm a Tiger fanboy.

Top 10 season of all time? I think so but only just. Arnold Palmer had 2 seasons of 8 wins including 2 majors (1960 and 1962) and Jack's 1972 with 7 wins including the Masters and US Open is pretty good as well.

The standouts which are untouchable are Tiger 2000, Hogan 1953, and Nelson 1945. Some would throw in Bobby 1930 as well, but that one's a tougher sell in the modern era.

But that's all a long time ago. Scottie's season eclipses Vijay's in my eyes and you have to go back to somewhere around Johnny Miller 1974 to find something close excluding Tiger of course. Yes, I think it surpasses all of Tom Watson's prime years but again it depends on how you value majors.

Only 15 years from 1930 to 1945 and 1945 was during world war 2 - why would 1930 be a tough sell in the modern era and 1945 not be?

[Golfnutgalen]

48 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

Only 15 years from 1930 to 1945 and 1945 was during world war 2 - why would 1930 be a tough sell in the modern era and 1945 not be?

With Jones we're looking at only 4 events, it's not a very good sample size. Plus you know his amateur majors are very tough to rank. However historically that season is definitely mentioned as one of the best of all time.

With Nelson I've done a deep dive on the numbers. He was averaging 68.34 (in 28 measured events) while the next best on tour was Hogan with 69.91 (in 17) and Snead was at 70.40 (in 27). Did you know he won his 16 stroke play titles by an average of 6.25 shots? He wasn't just winning he was obliterating the competition. His other wins were the team event which everyone attended and of course the match play PGA Championship. He finished in the top 2 in 25/30 events. Hogan and Snead had 7 top 2s each. Obviously Hogan played in 10 fewer events so his numbers are more impressive than Snead's.

When Nelson won the 11 straight events it broke the record for most wins in a row which at the time was 3. True Hogan wasn't there in those events, but Snead was. In the second of those victories Nelson beat him in a playoff. Nelson won 4 in a row end of 1945 to 1946 with Snead and Hogan in in the field in each. He was unbeatable during this stretch.

--------------------

As for Hogan he had his own remarkable year in 1946 with 13 wins. It's not quite as good as it sounds because 3 of them were team wins in tiny fields but it's still incredible. He won 13/32 while Nelson went 6/20 and Snead 6/29.

In 1945 Nelson won 18/30 Hogan 5/18 and Snead 6/28.

Edited September 3 by Golfnutgalen

[Golfnutgalen]

Made a mistake there. in 1946 Hogan had 2 team wins and the other one was the round robin. 15 players unique format individual play. All 3 of those wins had Nelson and Snead in the field.