Traits that Scottie Scheffler’s peers admire explain success at THE PLAYERS Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, especially when it comes from a future Hall of Famer and arguably the greatest player of his generation.

Rory McIlroy is always analyzing ways to get better – it’s one reason for his success over a career that’s spanned nearly two decades – and his offseason analysis in late 2024 led him to look for a new source of inspiration. It wasn’t from a coach, or guru or New York Times bestseller.

Instead, he looked to the No. 1 player in the world, a position that McIlroy has previously held. He took a closer look at Scottie Scheffler and the characteristics that helped him to a historic 2024 season. Scheffler won seven PGA TOUR titles last year, as well as the Olympic gold medal and the Hero World Challenge. He also was the FedExCup champion, held the No. 1 spot in the world ranking for the entire year and claimed his third consecutive PGA TOUR Player of the Year Award.

“I think when one of your peers has the year like he had last year, and honestly the year like he had in '23 as well, you start to take notice at what is he doing and … what has made him or helped him separate himself from the rest of the fields,” McIlroy said after his two-shot win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his 27th on the PGA TOUR.

All 13 of Scheffler’s victories have come in the past three seasons, a span during which he’s established himself as golf’s consensus No. 1. He’s accomplished things that haven’t been done since Tiger Woods’ heyday, if at all.

This week, Scheffler is looking to become the first person to win THE PLAYERS three consecutive times. He already is the first to win the title in two straight years, a testament to TPC Sawgrass’ unpredictable nature and severe penalty for miscues, two characteristics that make it difficult to have consistent success here.

But when his peers discuss the attributes of Scheffler that they most admire and aspire to, his unprecedented success at THE PLAYERS becomes easier to explain. The data shows that he is the best all-around ballstriker on the planet, and the anecdotal evidence testifies to the wide variety of shots at his disposal. Throw in an elite short game, and it is apparent that Scheffler possesses an enviable skill set, one that is nearly impossible to attain. But there are intangibles that are crucial to his success that also feel within reach for his competition.

“I think it's hard to play with him and be like, ‘Oh, I want to play more like Scottie,’” said 2021 PLAYERS champion Justin Thomas. “It's like, 'No duh, who wouldn't want to hit a lot of the fairways and a lot of the greens and be the best ball-striker statistically on Planet Earth for the last couple years?'

“Of course that sounds good. It’s something you can work to get toward, but I don't want to say it's unrealistic; it's just, it's the reality, right? But the times I've spent playing with him or even watched, his demeanor and his mental toughness and the way he plots his way around golf courses, and how he just wears people down, … I think his mental side is what separates him more than people realize.”

Scheffler calls his mind “my best trait.” That fortitude comes in handy at TPC Sawgrass, a course that Pete Dye designed to be a mental torture test. TPC Sawgrass not only contains awkward angles and uneven lies, but also intimidating hazards and optical illusions that deceive even the most experienced player. Scheffler has been able to steer clear of Dye’s trademark trouble and avoid the big numbers that mar so many scorecards here.

No player has ever shot lower in consecutive PLAYERS than Scheffler’s 37-under-par total. Scheffler also is one of just two players to complete all eight rounds of the past two PLAYERS without a double-bogey or worse (Christiaan Bezuidenhout is the other).

Scheffler has only hit two balls in the water over the previous two PLAYERS. No one who has played all eight rounds of those two tournaments has been able to completely avoid the water, and only six players have hit just a single ball in the water in that span.

“I'm a big admirer of Scottie for a lot of different reasons, but every time I play with him and I watch how he plays and how disciplined he is, it's a really cool thing to watch,” McIlroy said. “Honestly, just trying to take a little bit of a leaf out of his book.”

There may not be a movement afoot to copy Scheffler’s unique footwork, something that Scheffler came about naturally in his early days playing the game and, like a fingerprint, cannot be artificially copied. Others would love to hit their approach shots like Scheffler or be as adept around the greens, but that is easier said than done. That’s why many point to Scheffler’s intangible characteristics as the ones that are within reach.

What may make Scheffler’s success stand out the most is that he has been so dominant despite playing a game that is not built in the mold of modern golf’s data revolution, which says Driving Distance is key and encourages players to be aggressive off the tee. Scheffler’s average Driving Distance of 302.3 yards is just one-tenth of a yard above the PGA TOUR average this season (he ranked 64th in that statistic last season).

McIlroy cited Scheffler’s restraint with his club and target selection when he said: “There’s impulses that I have on the golf course that it looks like Scottie doesn’t have, and I have to … rein those in.”

Scheffler doesn’t hesitate to take less than driver off the tee, or hit his longest club with less than maximum effort in order to find the fairway

Thomas, who played with Scheffler in the final round of the Hero World Challenge, said the way Scheffler “plotted his way around” the course was admirable. Ludvig Åberg said Scheffler is “very disciplined in the way that he plays golf.”

“I think that would be sort of a strategy that I would like to emulate a little bit more, just to make sure that you give yourself plenty of chances,” Åberg said. “But you're also being aggressive when you have the opportunity to do so.”

This week, Scheffler has the opportunity to create even more history, thanks to an admirable approach that even his peers seek to emulate.