These 15 stats help tell the story of Scottie Scheffler’s historic 2024 campaign, which ended with him winning Player of the Year honors.
Scottie Scheffler had one of the most ridiculous seasons in golf history, a year that saw him win nine events overall. He won at Augusta National, stormed back to finish atop the podium in Paris, and took home four Signature Event titles too.
He also never shied away from his character, relying on his faith, his trust in his process, and his growing family to reach a level within the sport not seen since Tiger Woods. It’s no wonder he became the first player since Woods to win the Player of the Year award for the third consecutive season. He dominated 2024, winning more times this year than in 2022 and 2023 combined.
Without further ado, here are 15 stats that help show how remarkable Scheffler’s 2024 was:
1. First Player to win The Players, The Masters, and Tour Championship in the same season
These three wins speak for themselves. Scheffler shot an 8-under 64 on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, overcoming a five-shot deficit to win by one. He also became the first player to win back-to-back Players Championships. He then held off plenty of contenders at Augusta, playing mistake-free golf en route to claiming his second green jacket. And then, in Atlanta in August, Scheffler separated himself from the field despite his disdain for the starting strokes format.
2. First player since Tiger Woods to win Player of the Year three times in a row
As noted above, Scheffler is now in rarefied air. Besides Scheffler and Woods, only Rory McIlroy has won three titles overall, doing so in 2012, 2014, and 2019. But only Woods has won this event at least three times consecutively, doing so twice. Woods won three straight from 2005 to 2007 and then won it on five straight occasions from 1999 to 2003. So if Scheffler keeps this up for the next two years, he will match a remarkable feat and tie the man who put forth the greatest stretch of golf ever played.
3. Best scoring average in a single season on record
Scheffler posted a scoring average of 68.01, which is preposterous. Xander Schauffele ranked second on this list, finishing the season with an average score of 68.52.
4. First in birdie average on PGA Tour and par-breaker percentage.
Scheffler made 4.88 birdies per round and had a par-breaker percentage of 27.93%, meaning he would have a birdie or an eagle nearly a third of the time. From tee to green, he was unstoppable. However, the same cannot be said about his putting, which helps explain why he did not make more birdies.
5. Second in bogey avoidance and second in bounce-back percentage
If you go back and watch the final round of the Masters, Scheffler made zero mistakes. He played conservatively on every shot, not aggressively, similar to how Woods and Jack Nicklaus did during their heydays. That helps explain why Scheffler ranked second in bogey avoidance, dropping a shot only 9.85% of the time. But when he did make a mistake, he usually bounced back, birdieing the next hole at a clip of 31.75%, good for second on tour. Talk about resilience.
Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
6. Third player since 1981 to have 7 wins or more in a season
Only Woods and Vijay Singh have won seven PGA Tour events in one season over the past 43 years. However, Scheffler won an Olympic Gold in Paris, which was not counted as an official PGA Tour event, unlike the DP World Tour. He then capped off his year with a victory at the Hero World Challenge, a 20-man exhibition not recognized by the tour. So if you add those two, you get nine wins, which was the record set by Woods in 2000 and matched by Singh in 2004.
7. Most consecutive rounds of par or better to start a season on record
No wonder why his season-scoring average was so low. Scheffler began the 2024 season with 41 straight rounds under par, a mind-blowing accomplishment. His streak ended during the third round of the PGA Championship at Valhalla—the only round this year in which he did not have his caddy, Ted Scott, on the bag. Coincidence?
8. Fifth player to have multiple back-to-back title defenses since 1995
Scheffler defended his titles successfully at The Players and the Hero World Challenge. He also won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2022 and again this year. The same pattern applies to his two Masters victories in 2022 and 2024.
9. Led three of six Strokes Gained stats
Despite what looks like an unbalanced shuffle on every shot that he hits, Scheffler ranked first in strokes gained tee-to-green, strokes gained approach, and strokes gained total. He split fairways and found greens at an astonishing rate. But he could also rely on his nifty short game when he needed to get up and down. No wonder he ranked above everyone else in these metrics.
10. Deadly wedge play
Scheffler’s wedge game may be his greatest attribute. He can hit any shot with his wedges, a testament to his feel and imagination. He ranked first in approaches from inside 100 yards, first from 50 to 125 yards, and first from 100 to 125 yards. Talk about pinpoint accuracy.
11. Did not matter when Scottie teed off
Morning or Afternoon? It did not matter. Scheffler ranked second in the early wave scoring average, posting a score of 68.39 during the morning. He then fared slightly better in the afternoon, recording a scoring average of 67.85, good for first on tour.
12. Tied for most consecutive top-20s to start a season
All of this otherworldly play led to incredible results. When he did not win—usually because he did not make putts—Scheffler still found himself on the front page of the leaderboard. He began the season with 13 consecutive top-20 finishes, a PGA Tour record. His impressive streak ended at Pinehurst No. 2, where he tied for 41st in the U.S. Open.
13. Fastest to six wins since 1962
After Scottie Scheffler defeated Tom Kim in a playoff at the Travelers Championship, he picked up his sixth win of the season already, doing so by July 1. He thus became the fastest player to earn six titles in a season since 1962, when Arnold Palmer did so. Palmer’s sixth win came at Colonial. Like Scheffler this year, Palmer’s trophy case from 1962 included a win at the 1962 Masters.
14. 77th in strokes gained putting
Much has been made about Scottie Scheffler’s putting, the one attribute in his game that does not rank as highly as the others. So, given that he was second on tour in proximity to the hole imagine if he was a slightly better putter. Double-digit wins this year could have been in play. Nevertheless, after switching to the ‘claw’ grip and using it from inside 15 feet, Scheffler won the Hero World Challenge by six. Perhaps that’s a harbinger of things to come in 2025.
15. One arrest at the PGA Championship
Perhaps the most prominent golf story of the year came on Friday morning, May 17. While on his way into Valhalla Golf Club, Lousiville Metro Police detained Scheffler for allegedly disobeying police orders and assaulting an officer with his vehicle. Prosecutors then dropped the charges two weeks later after camera footage showed them to be exaggerated, but nobody will ever forget the scenes that played out that morning. Hours before his second-round tee time, Scheffler stood in a jail cell with a jumpsuit on. His mugshot went viral, but he was then released in time for him to play. He shot a 6-under 66 that day, an astonishing accomplishment considering the mental toll this episode must have had on him.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
