Justin Thomas feels that current world number one Scottie Scheffler is the dominant player in the game of golf right now, but is he the most captivating?
Over the last couple of weeks, Schwffler has cemented his position as the man to beat, particularly as the Masters at Augusta National looms large, after back-to-back wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the PLAYERS Championship.
Scheffler is coming off a PGA Tour Player of the Season award – the first player to win it in back to back years since Tiger Woods in 2005-07 – after winning twice and finishing in the top-10 seventeen times in 23 starts, including 13 top-5s.
Speaking at the Valspar Championship, Thomas, who has more major championship wins than Scheffler (2), feels the American is the man to beat on Tour now.
“In terms of consistency and who has played the best, nobody holds a candle to Scottie in the last couple years,” Thomas said.
“But, to me, dominance is winning and winning a lot and often, and I guess when nobody has had Tiger-like kind of things, then it’s whoever’s done it the most. So I would say probably Scottie.”
“When I think of dominant [right now], I mean, yeah, it’s got to be Scottie,” Thomas added.
“You have a two-year period where you peak,” Pádraig Harrington said back in 2022. “You have two seasons, 18 months where you’ve peaked. Pick a player, you’ll see it. Maybe it was made a major, Ryder Cup, maybe won two or three tournaments that year. Maybe he just kept his card for two years. Everybody seems to have that run.”
Harrington’s words ring true, several players have had key stretches over the last decade. Jordan Spieth won ten times and won three majors in two and a half years. Jason Day won eight times in sixteen months, Dustin Johnson fifteen times in four years.
Rory McIlroy won four majors between 2011-2014 and has won once nearly every years he has played on tour. Jon Rahm won four times from January to April last year including the Masters. JT himself won seven times in seventeen months before.
Back in 2016 golf had “The Big Four” of McIlroy, Day, Spieth and Johnson. So, is Scottie the outlier here? Is he the dominant player in the world of golf who could could have a sustained period at the top?
“It’s a really good question,” Thomas said. “I’ve thought about it before, too. It’s probably not fair to say, but I think it legitimately depends who it is. I know that’s harsh…”
“You shouldn’t compare or use Tiger, but anybody’s going to watch Rory or someone like him or Jordan, or whatever, win by seven or eight, just because you still don’t know the fun — Jordan might be leading by six, but he’s still going to have that hilarious conversation with [caddie Michael] Greller in the trees on 16 of how he feels like he can slice this 3-wood onto the green, when it’s not really going to gain him anything, and maybe he pulls it off and maybe he doesn’t — or chips it — you know, there’s the excitement factor versus others,” Thomas said.
“I think it’s better for the game; I know it’s motivating for me when it’s like this, because I feel like there’s a lot of guys that I mean, jealous of, to be honest, of how well they’re playing and all the things they do well in their game where that pushes me to kind of want to do the same. So I guess it just kinds of depends on who you ask.”
Scheffler will be bidding for his third straight win at next week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open.
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