Jack Nicklaus is the greatest golfer to have ever graced the game in many fans’ eyes, and Scottie Scheffler is so similar to the great man in the way that he goes about his business.
Just like Nicklaus was from the 1960s through to the early-1980s, Scheffler is the dominant player in the professional game right now, and he has been since his first win in 2022.
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Now the world number one will have his sights set on slowly closing in on the PGA Tour records that Nicklaus set throughout his career.
Jack Nicklaus won 73 PGA Tour titles, including a record 18 major championships, while Scottie Scheffler has 22 wins to his name, including four majors.
However, the man from Dallas, Texas, is only 30 years old, and it will be really interesting to see how much he can actually achieve over the next decade or so.
Nicklaus and Scheffler are huge admirers of one another, and there are so many similarities between them.
Scheffler became the third youngest player to reach 21 wins with his victory at the FedEx St. Jude Championship two weeks ago, behind only Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
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However, his victory at the Tour Championship on Sunday saw him leap-frog Nicklaus on one specific all-time list.
Scheffler’s 22nd win came in his 170th PGA Tour start. That puts his career win percentage at 12.9%.
Nicklaus’ win percentage throughout his career on the PGA Tour stands at 12.2%, although he did play 595 events, compared to Scheffler’s 170.
For context, Rory McIlroy’s career win percentage on the PGA Tour currently stands at 10.4%.
Perhaps even more impressively, Scheffler’s win percentage since his first victory on the PGA Tour in February 2022 stands at 22%.
The 30-year-old loves winning golf tournaments, and if he carries on along a similar trajectory over the next decade, he will be very close to the all-time record of 82 wins, which is currently held by Tiger Woods and Sam Snead.
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Tiger Woods holds the best career win percentage of all-time on the PGA Tour, with his 82 wins in 378 starts putting him on 21.7%.
Ben Hogan is second on the list with a win percentage of 21.3% after recording 64 victories in 300 starts.
Then comes Byron Nelson with a win percentage of 18.1%, after he won 52 times in 287 events.
The only other player ahead of Scheffler’s current win percentage is Sam Snead with 14%, after he won 82 times in 585 starts.
If Scheffler wins three events per season on average for the next 10 years, supposing he plays 20 events per year, he will surpass Snead’s career win percentage by the time he’s 40.
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That should be a more than realistic goal for Scheffler, and if he manages to do just that, he will be on 52 career wins.
Then we will be able to talk about Scottie Scheffler alongside the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Ben Hogan as one of the greatest golfers of all time.
