This Scottie Scheffler Stat Shows Just How Dominant Prime Tiger Woods Was

Scottie Scheffler’s adjusted scoring average this season (68.63) was the seventh best in PGA Tour history, a statistic that quickly went viral on social media. 

The Texan’s standing on that list is wildly impressive, but it isn’t exactly what captured the attention of golf fans. It was the person who holds all six of the spots ahead of Scheffler: Tiger Woods. 

That’s right, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th best adjusted scoring averages in PGA Tour history were all recorded by the 15-time major winner. 

Justin Ray, the head of content at Twenty First Group and a golf statistics expert, first pointed out Scheffler’s historic position behind Woods.

As Ray notes, Woods’s 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2009 PGA Tour seasons consisted of the lowest adjusted averages in the history of the circuit. (The number is “adjusted” based on the average score recorded by the rest of the field in each tournament round.) 

Woods’s scoring averages for those years of inconceivably consistent golf were as follows: 

2000: 67.794

2007: 67.794

2009: 68.052

2003: 68.415

1999: 68.432

2002: 68.561

Finally, at No. 7, Scheffler’s 2022-23 season enters the picture, with an adjusted average of 68.629.

Scheffler’s 2022-23 number was .146 shots lower than Rory McIlroy’s and .408 better than Jon Rahm’s. He won twice on Tour this year, at the WM Phoenix Open and the Players Championship. Scheffler went on to record 19 consecutive top-12 finishes and ended the season with a T6 finish at the Tour Championship.

There is no denying the world-class consistency that defined Scheffler’s season. He approached the top of a category that Woods has effortlessly dominated, and that is an accomplishment in its own right. 

But as exciting as Scheffler’s milestone was, the statistic was mainly just another indicator of Woods’s remarkable generational talent.