It indubitably takes a talented athlete to take the top spot in the game of golf. Well, Tiger Woods had, throughout his 27-year-long professional career, raked in a huge amount of wins through his exquisite gameplay. However, the top spot now seems to be in the hands of another golfer, none other than Scottie Scheffler who has claimed the No.1 spot of the OWGR. Even Justin Thomas seems to agree with the rankings.
The 30-year-old, on March 20, Wednesday, during an interview ahead of the Valspar Championship, was asked about the most dominant player he has seen in the past decade. While answering the same, he went to dish out praise after praise for the fellow American Pro despite dubbing him a “dominant” golfer who is different from Woods!
Justin Thomas gets blown away by Scottie Scheffler
“Nobody holds a candle to Scottie,” said the 2-time major champ when faced with the intriguing query. Doubling down on his opinion, Thomas admitted, “He has, I would think, probably the most wins in the last couple of years,” as he pointed out the victories that the current No.1 has raked in during recent times, a total of 8 PGA Tour wins from February 2022 to March 2024.
Elucidating more on the definition of dominance, the 15-time PGA Tour champ explained, “I think of dominant and I think of people winning four, five, six times in a season or going on a stretch.” Moreover, he also mentioned how dominance for him is winning many times frequently before alluding to Scottie Scheffler for the same, “I guess when nobody has had Tiger-like, obviously, kind of things, so then it’s whoever’s done it the most. So I would say probably Scottie,” as he alluded to the whopping 82 wins the legend had raked in with his insane talents and instincts.
Meanwhile, he couldn’t help but reminisce about the accolades he garnered during the years 2017 and 2018 when explaining what he thought about dominance. “I think I had won like seven events in 30 starts or something like that,” as Thomas referred to the number of tournaments he won between January 2017 til August 2018, a total of seven, just like the golfer recounted. But even so, he couldn’t help but commend the current No.1; “Scottie’s obviously the first person that comes to mind, but when I think of dominant”
Interestingly, such a response from the PGA Tour Pro is not unwarranted, especially after Scottie Scheffler’s two back-to-back wins on the circuit while defending his title as the PLAYERS Championship winner. He has managed to increase his lead as a result of the others on the world rankings.Is Scheffler golf’s new heir?
The 27-year-old had reached the top spot on the OWGR after the PGA Championship, in May 2023. Since then, he has cemented his position at the top for 43 consecutive weeks, increasing his total tally to an impressive 78 weeks. If he manages to hold on to the spot several more weeks into the future, he has every chance to beat Dustin Johnson who stayed No.1 for a consecutive 64 weeks.
Nevertheless, he still has a long way to go if he is to beat the likes of the legend of the game. Fascinatingly, Woods has stayed at the top of the OWGR for a total of 683 weeks. Out of the same, the athlete has managed to stay at No.1 consecutively for a total of 281 weeks. Although Scottie Scheffler now has the same number of PLAYERS Championship titles as the 48-year-old, there is still a long way to go for the American Pro.
