LA QUINTA, Calif. – In a tournament that so often delivers drama, the fact that the outright leader Scottie Scheffler dumped his tee shot in the water on the famous island par-3 17th on Sunday should have meant something.

Instead, the only material difference it made at The American Express was in the final margin. Scheffler won by four strokes at PGA WEST, shooting a gaudy 27-under over 72 holes to outpace his playing partners, Si Woo Kim and Blades Brown.

Scheffler has begun 2026 with all his ducks in a row. His offseason went exactly as planned. His putting remains a strength. His ball-striking is still his best asset. The American Express was a quick reminder of what happens when everything aligns. There’s no reason to believe anything will go wrong.

Which begs the question: Will Scheffler be even better in 2026?

The early returns are compelling. What began as a one-shot deficit quickly turned into a back-nine coronation at PGA WEST as the top contenders withered away and Scheffler only got stronger. He had a chance at 30-under and more milestones until the water ball on the penultimate hole.

Scheffler will have to settle for these milestones instead. The win was Scheffler’s seventh in his last 13 stroke-play events. It was also the 20th of his career, making him a lifetime member of the PGA TOUR. He’s just the third player to win 20 times, including four or more major championships, before the age of 30.

The other two? Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Since Scheffler recorded his first win at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, he has 11 more wins than anyone else (McIlroy has nine wins).

Scheffler will continue to get lumped in with those names as every successive accomplishment makes those comparisons more and more legitimate. The man himself has no desire to think in those terms, but that won’t stop the rest of us. A generational great is compiling one of the greatest heaters in the history of pro golf. And it’s possible the best is still yet to come.

As outrageous as that sounds, it’s plausible.

In 2024, Scheffler was dominant, but he was still a work in progress on the greens. The changes he was making with putting coach Phil Kenyon were starting to pay dividends, but he didn’t fully weaponize that part of his game until he began using a claw-grip at the start of 2025. Yet Scheffler didn’t maximize his potential in 2025 either because of a hand injury that delayed the start of his year and kept him from his best form until May.

Somehow, despite winning 13 times over the previous two seasons, it felt like he was still spotting the field a few. Scheffler would never admit to that, but he has made no qualms about the difference of preparation to him.

“You look at last year, it is different just because I had made what I felft was so much progress in the offseason,” Scheffler said, “and then to have that basically taken away by four to six weeks of inactivity from golf, that has an effect.

“To fine-tune the skills that we have out here takes a lot of work. Like the chipping. There's a big difference between hitting a chip to a foot versus five feet. If I hit it to a foot I'm probably never going to miss that foot putt. But if you hit it to 5 feet, your percentages of making that putt go down,” Scheffler continued. “When you just kind of see that over the course of four days, that has an effect on where my game is at. So being able to have the whole off-season to prepare to come out here — I did take a nice break at the end of the year, but to have that time to prepare and get my body and mind right in order to compete, I think really paid off early in the season.”

Scheffler has shown the ability to contend on any style of course. He will make his next start at TPC Scottsdale, which is a completely different challenge than Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass and Augusta National, all of which he’s won on multiple occasions and all of which he will play in the next few months with more preparation than he felt a year ago. He’s just as comfortable winning a tournament at 9-under or 30-under, keen, able and motivated to do whatever is necessary every week he tees it up.

Therein lies one of his biggest superpowers. There’s no lull. No dip in focus. He’s the same every week.

That’s what separates him, former world No. 1 Jason Day said.

“Every time he tees it up he's right around the lead," said Day, one of the few active players who spent considerable time at world No. 1. And that is one of the most difficult things to do, to be always stay hungry to the point of not being satisfied. It's very easy to get satisfied out here. You win a couple of times, you're like, ‘Well, I'm kind of relaxed and I can coast for a little bit.’ And it seems like he never wants to relax. He always does his work, needs to do whatever he needs to do to be able to prepare, and he's always around the lead. And that's a very, very difficult thing to do with how much distractions there can be, especially at No. 1.”

Scheffler is better than any player this generation in minimizing anything that could take him away from his golf. His corporate sponsorships are limited, maximizing his time at home and on the golf course. When he’s rolling, nobody can touch him. He’s shown that many times over for the past three seasons.

It’s only natural to wonder when regression might hit. Unless he is this generation’s Woods or Nicklaus, that’s inevitable. It’s just getting harder and harder to envision a world where that regression happens.