Scottie Scheffler is Most Dominant Force on PGA Tour

It sounds almost sacrilege to say it, but not since prime Tiger Woods has a golfer emerged so head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field. Scottie Scheffler began this run two Aprils ago when he won his first Masters by three strokes. We say “first,” because it is almost a certainty that there will be more to come.

He followed up his win at Augusta in 2022 with a top-10 finish last year, and he is the betting favorite to win the tournament this year. He is +450 to win the Masters in two weeks, well ahead of Rory McIlroy’s +1000 and Jon Rahm’s +1200.

In 2023, Scheffler’s biggest win of the year came at Ponte Vedra Beach and the Players Championship. Just last week, he defended the title – the first golfer in history to do so – with a 64 in Sunday’s final round. There were three others just one stroke back, yet Scheffler’s comeback win felt inevitable.

It was his second consecutive win on the PGA Tour, his eighth in the last two years, and he now has a huge lead in the FedExCup standings. With two wins and six top-10s in seven starts, Scheffler has 2,293 points. Wyndham Clark is second with 1,531.

Texas Children’s Open Favorite

This week, Scheffler goes for his third straight win in a final pre-Masters tune up, the Texas Children’s Houston Open. The field isn’t wall-to-wall with stars, but it isn’t bad. Along with Scheffler, Wyndham Clark is there, as is Tony Finau, Jason Day, Sahith Theegala, and Will Zalatoris.

But even with those players in the field, including the defending champion at this event, Finau, Scheffler is an embarrassingly heavy favorite.

Scottie Scheffler (+260)

Wyndham Clark (+1200)

Will Zalatoris (+1800)

Sahith Theegala (+1800)

Tony Finau (+2500)

Jason Day (+2500)

Si Woo Kim (+2800)

Keith Mitchell (+3500)

Alex Noren (+3500)

Tom Hoge (+4500)

Stephan Jaeger (+4500)

This is Scheffler’s fourth time playing at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston, and two years ago, he was the runner-up when he wasn’t playing nearly as well. Last year, he finished ninth.

Theegala is 12th on the PGA Tour this year in scoring, and he is coming off two straight top-10s, including last week at TPC Sawgrass. Zalatoris missed the cut at Sawgrass, but he did have a T4 the week before at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Wyndham Clark won at Pebble Beach and finished as the runner-up each of the last two weeks to Scheffler.

You don’t want to put your money on Scheffler because the payoff is so low. But he’s in his home state, he’s the best golfer in the world playing the best golf of his career, and as long as his putter doesn’t fail him, it’s hard to see anyone else actually winning.

Grand Slam in Play

So far the Masters is the only major championship that Scheffler has won. But last year, he was T2 at the PGA Championship, and in 2022, he was T2 at the U.S. Open. He also had a T8 at The Open Championship in 2021. Winning all four majors this year is a possibility.

As we sit two weeks out from the Masters, Scheffler is the betting favorite to win there, to win the PGA Championship in May, to win the U.S. Open in June, and to win The Open Championship in July. The two weeks after that, there are the Olympic Games in Paris. His win at the Players Championship gave him enough points in the Official World Golf Rankings to guarantee his spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

Topping off 2024 for Scheffler is the upcoming birth of his first child. “It’s going to be pretty wild,” said Scheffler. He was talking about fatherhood. On the golf course, he’s cool, calm, collected, and as steady as they come.