After winning the British Open, Scottie Scheffler was asked about the comparisons he’s drawing to Tiger Woods.
“I still think they’re a bit silly,” Scheffler said. “Tiger won, what, 15 majors? This is my fourth. I just got one-fourth of the way there. I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf.”
However, Woods’s former coach, Butch Harmon, feels Scheffler resembles another one of the game’s greats.
“I got to tell you that the only reason I called in, I was listening to you talk about him and all the comparisons and stuff to Tiger and this and that,” Harmon said on Sirius XM’s “Gravy and the Sleeze.” “I think his greatest attribute that he has is he’s the closest thing to Jack Nicklaus I’ve ever seen mentally. He makes no mental mistakes. He dumps the ball in the middle of the green when he has to. His iron control is beautiful.
“He reminds me more of Jack than he does of Tiger, Tiger in the winning ways, but Jack in the way he plays golf. I’ve never quite seen a guy that can mimic Nicklaus the way he does.”
But the most important part of Scheffler’s game is how he attacks the mental aspect of the sport.
"He's the closest thing to Jack Nicklaus I've ever seen mentally."
— SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) July 21, 2025
With so much discussion on the Scottie Scheffler-Tiger Woods comparison, Butch Harmon takes it a different direction w/ Colt & Drew on Gravy & The Sleeze.@ColtKnost | @thesleezyman
📻: https://t.co/NmEfdRTY9U pic.twitter.com/tnkRGc4R5x
“I mean, can you imagine if all the great players we talk about had Scottie Scheffler’s head,” Harmon said, “how much better they’d be?”
Nicklaus, of course, has 18 major wins. And after Scheffler’s victory at Royal Portrush, he joined Nicklaus and Woods as the only players in the last century to to win four majors by three or more strokes.
Scheffler might be the most dominant player golf has seen since Woods, but Harmon, one of the sport’s most revered coaches, knows that Scheffler has a long way to go to catch Woods and the Golden Bear.
“Well, I guess they’re justified if he can do it for 20 straight years like Tiger did,” Harmon said. “I think, yes, he’s on that track, barring injury, barring whatever. Look, there’s only one Jack Nicklaus, there’s only one Tiger Woods, let’s just face that. Scottie Scheffler has been the best player in the world by far the last three years in a row.
“Everything he’s accomplished is amazing, but when you look at Nicklaus’s longevity and Tiger’s longevity, he’s got a long way to go to be put in that category, I think.
“And that’s not putting Scottie down because he is phenomenal.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tiger Woods's Ex-Coach Makes Stunning Comparison for Scottie Scheffler.
