Scottie Scheffler smashes long-standing Tiger Woods record

Despite the best efforts of Tom Kim, Akshay Bhatia and a cabal of climate change protestors, Scottie Scheffler racked up his sixth win of 2024 at the Travelers Championship on Sunday.

The 28-year-old defeated Kim at the first hole of a sudden death playoff to secure the latest piece of silverware in what is fast becoming one of the most dominant seasons in tour history.

The $3.6million he trousered pushed his earnings for 2024 to $27,696,858 – more than double what his closest challenger, Xander Schauffele, has banked – whilst he has also become the first player since Arnold Palmer in 1962 to win six times in a season before July.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Scheffler has also broken a long-standing record held by none other than Tiger Woods.

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According to @VC606 on X (formerly Twitter), the Masters champ has smashed Woods’ record for most Official World Golf Ranking points earned in the first six months of a year.

Back in his career-defining season in 2000, Woods accrued 532 points from January to June.

However, Scheffler has now ploughed through that record with a whopping 583 points in the same timeframe.

The American has almost doubled his advantage at the top of the standings over world No.2 Rory McIlroy, with 17.6257 average points compared to the Irishman’s 9.3119.

He has now spent 93 weeks at the top of the OWGR and is only five weeks away from leapfrogging Sir Nick Faldo into fifth place on the all-time list.

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Despite that, Scheffler remains some way short of that particular Tiger record. Woods has spent a total of 683 weeks at the top of the world rankings.

For Scheffler to overtake him, he’ll need to remain No.1 for another 591 consecutive weeks – until October 22, 2035, by which time he will be 39-years-old.

Speaking of Scheffler, he’s not the only one enjoying a profitable 2024. His caddie Ted Scott is, too. Assuming he receives 10% of Scheffler’s on-course earnings, Scott has earned just over $2.7million so far this season.

That would be good enough to rank him 44th on the PGA Tour money list this year, ahead of the likes of Viktor Hovland, Jordan Spieth and Billy Horschel, and comfortably ahead of the tour average of $1,555,579.

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor