Scottie Scheffler is the current men's World No.1 and has held that position since the end of March 2022.
Racking up some huge victories, including three Majors, two Players Championships and six PGA Tour Signature Events, Scheffler has been, arguably, the flag-bearer in men's professional golf this decade.
Because of this incredible success, and the fact Scheffler has led the PGA Tour's scoring average every season for the last three years, we at Golf Monthly were interested to find out what his handicap would be if he weren't a professional.
At the Tour Championship in August 2024, the man himself stated that, when he plays social golf games with his buddies, he will play off a handicap of +7.
According to the USGA, the average golf Handicap Index for a male American is 14 and, with a handicap of +7, it means that Scheffler is, supposedly, seven shots better than a scratch golfer.
However, is that really the case?
Well, midway through 2025, the American possesses a stroke average of 68.647 on the PGA Tour and, in that time, he has won the PGA Championship, as well as the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and the Memorial Tournament.
In total, he has played 48 rounds in 12 events this season and, below, we have taken a look to find out what Scheffler's handicap would be if he wasn't on the Tour.
Before jumping into the table below, it's worth noting that we have taken into account the 'Course' and 'Slope Rating' of the layouts used from the championship tees.
What's more, we have also kept the 'Score Differential' as 0, due to the fact that information was unavailable at the time.
For those who don't know, the 'Score Differential' represents how well a player performed on a specific course on a given day, taking into account the course's difficulty.
What Is Scottie Scheffler's Handicap?
Sitting an incredible 142-under-par through 48 rounds, Scheffler has produced just three rounds over-par in 2025, with 28 of those scores being in the 60s.
In terms of his handicap, we will be using the World Handicap System of taking the best eight scores in terms of the Score Differential. The rounds are listed below:
- -11.83 (TPC Craig Ranch)
- -11.83 (TPC Craig Ranch)
- -10.77 (Memorial Park Golf Course)
- -10.32 (TPC Craig Ranch)
- -10.31 (Colonial Country Club)
- -9.89 (Memorial Park Golf Course)
- -9.77 (Torrey Pines South Course)
- -9.04 (Quail Hollow Club)
Adding the eight scores above together, we get a figure of '-83.76' which, when divided by eight, comes to '-10.47'. That equates to a mind-boggling handicap of +10.5!
Obviously, the Course and Slopes above will be slightly different given that PGA Tour pros play a different course. In the case of Memorial Park Golf Course, for example, that went from a par 72 to a par 70.
Also, the likes of Quail Hollow and Muirfield Village will have had their course set-up made even harder as they were hosting either a Major championship or Signature Event.
Previously, Scheffler has insisted "one of the great things about golf" is the handicap system, with it allowing his friends to be on a level-playing field to the three-time Major winner.
At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the American stated: "I still love cutting it up with my buddies on weekends and playing money games and gambling. I played last weekend and one of my buddies, who is not a very good golfer, he's like a 10 handicap, he beat me in our side bet for the day.
"Kind of one of the great things about golf is I can go out with a guy who is going to shoot 90 and I can give him enough strokes to where we'll have a good competition. That's what makes it so fun about the game of golf."
The handicap for that match wasn't revealed by Scheffler but, given that he has mentioned playing off a +7, it's unlikely he'll be wanting to play off a +10.5 when he meets up with his buddies in the future.
