Scottie Scheffler Says Playing With Tiger Woods Once 'Completely Changed' His Approach

Add Scottie Scheffler to the long list of golfers who have been inspired by Tiger Woods.

"Tiger inspired a whole generation of golfers. I mean, you've grown up watching that guy do what he did week in, week out. It was pretty amazing to see. I talk about a mental change I made because I played one round of golf with him in a tournament," Scheffler told reporters on Wednesday. "I've only played one tournament round of golf with Tiger Woods, and it completely changed the way I look at how I play tournaments. I mean, I can't tell you the look on his face when we got to the first green. I look over and you're, 'Oh, we're in 20th place, we're kinda playing, yada yada yada.' And I look over and this guy is just locked in. I was taken aback. I was like, 'Holy smokes.' And then we got to the second hole and he had this chip shot. And he looked at it like it was an up-and-down to win the tournament. And I'm like, this is incredible. I've never seen anything before like this in my life."

But while Scheffler may not want to be compared to Woods, it's hard to deny that he's doing Woods-esque things of late. He's won five tournaments this year—including the British Open and PGA Championship—has 10 top-five finishes and 15 top-10 finishes. He has 7,456 points in the FedEx Standings, more than double any other player. He qualified for the Ryder Cup team with 37,180.33 points. The next highest scorer, J.J. Spaun, had 14,851.91 points.

It's a level of dominance that is reminiscent of prime Woods. Scheffler has to continue to sustain it to ever be considered on the overall level of Woods, but there's no doubt whatsoever that he is the best golfer alive at the moment.