Where Does Scheffler's 2024 Season Rank All Time?

[Ty_Webb]

47 minutes ago, Golfnutgalen said:

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.

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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.

That's all fair, and for sure it's an incredible achievement (and one of the reasons I dislike the Jack vs Tiger arguments is because I wind up feeling like I'm undermining the achievements of someone who was incredibly good), but that's a two year stretch where three guys won 54 tournaments. How many events did someone else win? I guess there were at least 8 since he played in 62 events over that period.

[Golfnutgalen]

38 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

That's all fair, and for sure it's an incredible achievement (and one of the reasons I dislike the Jack vs Tiger arguments is because I wind up feeling like I'm undermining the achievements of someone who was incredibly good), but that's a two year stretch where three guys won 54 tournaments. How many events did someone else win? I guess there were at least 8 since he played in 62 events over that period.

I probably got too deep there haha.

Looks like there were 82 events total (38 in 1945 and 44 in 1946). 9 events were won by someone else besides the big 3 in 1945.

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The way Nelson was playing in the beginning of 1945 was absurd. I mean Snead was hot too but look at those runner ups!

Snead score Nelson score   1st  283 T2 284   13th 289 1st  274   T5 273 2nd 269       2nd 269       1st  264   4th 290 1st * 284   1st * 275 2nd* 275   1st  267 2nd 274

Edited September 3 by Golfnutgalen

[iacas]

5 hours ago, klineka said:

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. 

Because I say so, and it's my opinion.

I don't weight them exclusively, but… in comparing seasons against each other, they carry much less weight.

If A and B both won about the same number of times with the same number of majors, I'd likely reward one with consistency and more higher finishes, but… 8 wins versus, what, three? It's not all that close. And historically, sorry, finishing third carries almost no weight.

1 hour ago, Golfnutgalen said:

Looks like there were 82 events total (38 in 1945 and 44 in 1946). 9 events were won by someone else besides the big 3 in 1945.

I don't give much weight to seasons before about 1970 or so — fields were so shallow and weak, it was very easy to win or finish in the top three or five.

[Golfnutgalen]

23 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't give much weight to seasons before about 1970 or so — fields were so shallow and weak, it was very easy to win or finish in the top three or five.

I mean you can only beat your competition and Nelson handily beat both Snead and Hogan that year. He finished top 2 in 25 events which is just sheer insanity.

I've always looked at it as how much better you are than the competition and by that measure Nelson's 1945 is always going to be up there. Does that mean I think he's better than players today? No, you would think that would be extremely unlikely with all this modern tech and better understanding of the golf swing.

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I was looking at Johnny Miller's 1974 season and as good as it is with 8 wins he didn't win a major and he was not as consistent as Scottie. I'm trying to find a year as good as his in the last 50 odd years and I can't do it. Vijay 2004 is indeed the next best. He had a stretch where he won 6/9 events. 9 wins and 2 runner ups, 14 top 5s in all out of 29 events.

 

Obviously the elephant in the room is Tiger Woods. He is comfortably better than him in 2000 and 2006, but after that it's really close. Tiger's next best seasons are 2005, 1999, and 2002, and 2007 and to be honest Scottie compares very favorably to any of those seasons.

[iacas]

56 minutes ago, Golfnutgalen said:

I mean you can only beat your competition and Nelson handily beat both Snead and Hogan that year. He finished top 2 in 25 events which is just sheer insanity.

Yes, and Adam Scott would have won a lot of events (and finished top two or three) this year if the fields were Adam Scott, Billy Horschel, Sam Burns… and a whole bunch of nobodies.

58 minutes ago, Golfnutgalen said:

I was looking at Johnny Miller's 1974 season and as good as it is with 8 wins he didn't win a major and he was not as consistent as Scottie. I'm trying to find a year as good as his in the last 50 odd years and I can't do it. Vijay 2004 is indeed the next best. He had a stretch where he won 6/9 events. 9 wins and 2 runner ups, 14 top 5s in all out of 29 events.

Again, I weigh strength/depth of field in my considerations. Johnny Miller's season might not crack the top 20.

[ChetlovesMer]

I put Scottie's 2024 in the top 3. 
I didn't look anything up or use and high powered math or charts or anything like that. I'm just going off my memory. I remember Tiger's 2000 and 2006 seasons as simply insane. If you take his run from 2005 to 2006 that was the best I can remember anyone being. During that time Vegas was offering Tiger vs the field and taking Tiger DIDN'T EVEN PAY 1:1, That's re-gosh-darn-diculous!

So, by my standards, and considering I like to pretend golf didn't happen until I started watching it (mid-80's). Scottie's 2024 is the third best season of all time. 👍😁👍

[Ty_Webb]

1 hour ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I put Scottie's 2024 in the top 3. 
I didn't look anything up or use and high powered math or charts or anything like that. I'm just going off my memory. I remember Tiger's 2000 and 2006 seasons as simply insane. If you take his run from 2005 to 2006 that was the best I can remember anyone being. During that time Vegas was offering Tiger vs the field and taking Tiger DIDN'T EVEN PAY 1:1, That's re-gosh-darn-diculous!

So, by my standards, and considering I like to pretend golf didn't happen until I started watching it (mid-80's). Scottie's 2024 is the third best season of all time. 👍😁👍

I put money on Tiger at the Masters in 2001. One of my friends said “surely you gotta take the field”. I was like “no thanks”. I saw him at the Open in 2000. He was other worldly. I don’t think anyone has played golf as well as he did back then. Not sure they ever will again.