British Open 2025: Is it fair to compare Scottie Scheffler to Tiger Woods? Look at the stats and you decide

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The coincidence—if we can call it that—is almost too incredible to believe. During its broadcast of the British Open on Sunday, NBC put up a graphic over an image of Scottie Scheffler, noting that it would be 1,197 days between when the 29-year-old Texan pulled on the green jacket at the 2022 Masters and him lifting the claret jug at Royal Portrush for his fourth major title.

This was the stunner: That’s the exact number of days Tiger Woods required to win the first four of his 15 majors, from his first Masters title in 1997 to, yes, taking the Open Championship at St. Andrews in 2000 at age 24.

That was, of course, the Summer of Tiger, with Woods capturing the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, the Open on the Old Course, and the PGA Championship at Valhalla to set himself up for holding all four major titles at once following April at the Masters. With 2025’s last men’s major played, Scheffler will have to wait for the Masters next spring to try for No. 5, but he has two major titles this season after winning the PGA at Quail Hollow in May, and will get his shot at the career slam in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills next June (final-round Sunday will coincidentally be Scheffler’s 30th birthday).

Of course, the comparisons, debate and analysis of Scheffler’s last four seasons to some of Woods’ greatest runs are inevitable. And upon closer examination, it’s a legitimate exercise because the ways in which they stomped on their peers are very similar in some respects—and quite a bit different in others.

As Xander Schauffele, who finished tied for seventh, seven shots back, told Sky Sports on Sunday, “I think people are afraid to say it … but he’s doing some Tiger-like stuff.”

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Unfortunately, like social media and smart phones, the PGA Tour’s strokes-gained statistics weren’t yet in the market in the early 2000s during some of Woods’ finest years, with SG not becoming the norm until 2011. The tour has since gone back to create strokes gained before that, but the first season for that is 2004. By then, Woods had won 39 tour events and eight majors.

Still, Woods had five tremendous campaigns after SG arrived, and from 2004-2009—and not counting 2008 when he won “only” four times—he captured 27 more tournaments and another six majors.

When the world was simpler, the math was easy by comparing the top players’ stroke average to the rest of the field. In that, Scheffler may never approach Woods. In 2000, Tiger achieved his highest differential ever at 3.84 strokes gained overall per round, and he had three other years of six wins or more in which the number was greater than 3 (2006, 2007 and 2009). This year and last, Scheffler has topped the tour at 2.64 and 2.56. So, incredibly, Woods’ 2000 beats Scheffler’s best by 1.2 shots.

It gets far more competitive and interesting when it comes to examining the various areas of each player’s game in the strokes-gained era and where they beat the rest of the field. When looking at the top five SG categories—off-the-tee, tee-to-green, approach, around-the-green and putting, Woods finished No. 1 in six of those categories and top five in 14 of the 20 areas (or 70 percent) over the four years we compared. Scheffler has been the best player in half—five of the 10.

Heading into this week’s Open, there was one area that stood out in which they both excelled, and, not surprisingly, it’s ball-striking. In fact, Scheffler’s numbers are mostly comparable in that area, though Woods holds the top stat in SG/tee-to-green when he gained 2.98 strokes over the field in 2006, when Adam Scott finished .75 strokes behind him.

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Tiger Woods' strokes gained total numbers for his best years outpace Scheffler, but the two golfers are suprisingly comparable when looking at strokes gained/ball-striking.

David Cannon

Scheffler has been No. 1 in tee-to-green the last two years, with a best mark of 2.40 gained in ’24, and this season he was 2.27 gained before Portrush. In both cases, he distanced himself farther from No. 2 than Woods did, finishing 0.97 ahead of Xander Schauffele last year and being 0.96 better than Collin Morikawa this season. (The crazy part of those numbers is in both Woods’ and Scheffler’s cases, if the next closest golfer to them in ball-striking doubled his strokes gained number, it still wouldn’t be enough to catch Woods or Scheffler.)

Maybe more telling is where they stood relative to other quality players at the time. In 2007 and 2009, Woods was 1.27 strokes better than the golfer who ranked 10th in tee-to-green. Scheffler’s margin over No. 10 last two years are razor close to that—1.27 and 1.24.

While Woods was the longest of hitters early in his career, he had lost some of that advantage by the mid-2000s, and Scheffler is better in the category. Scheffler is second this year (0.70) and was first last year (0.81), while Woods’ best off the tee was third, and by 2009, struggling with injuries, he was 44th.

Woods’ worst area was his SG/around the green. For three years he never finished better than 74th and was an awful 128th in 2005, when he won six tournaments, including two majors. (He was top five in every other category that year.) Scheffler gets the edge in short game, ranking 17th and 25th in the last two years.

The expertise that has created the biggest span between the two: putting. Woods is considered one of the greatest clutch putters of all time, and in our four years he twice finished second in strokes gained and his most “off” season was being 21st.

In 2022-23, in easily his worst statistic ever, Scheffler lost one-third of a stroke to the field in putting. That’s when he sought out putting coach Phil Kenyon, and he has since climbed from 77th last year to 20th this season.

That ranking was before this Open, and with Scheffler having a marvelous week on the greens to rank second in the field, he’s now the five-tooler who seems to be winning at will. And he’s gaining on Tiger. Fast.

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Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.