For the second consecutive year Scottie Scheffler is the best player on the PGA Tour. In 2023 as in 2022, the world number 1 won the Jack Nicklaus Award overcoming competition from other big names such as Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Wyndham Clark.
Not since 2005-2007, when Tiger Woods achieved the feat three consecutive times, has a golfer secured the player of the year award twice in a row. Scheffler thus emulates Fred Couples (1991-1992), Nick Price (1993-1994). The record always belongs to Woods who managed to win five times in a row, from 1999 to 2003.
Scottie Scheffler, results
Double success for Scheffler who also received the Byron Nelson Award for recording the best scoring average (68.63) on the PGA Tour, the lowest since 2009 (Tiger Woods with 68.05). The American closed a super 2023 on a high note, tarnished only by the poor performance offered with Team USA at the Ryder Cup in Rome.
He was born in the municipality of Ridgewood, in the state of New Jersey, on June 21, 1996 into a wealthy family, the son of Scott and Diane Scheffler. He became passionate about the world of golf as a child, playing at the city’s Highland Park.
At the age of seven he moved with his family to Dallas. Scheffler is married to Meredith Scheffler. They met in high school and married in 2020. Scheffler is Christian. His sponsor for his confirmation into the Catholic Church was Rocky Hambric, founder of Hambric Sports, a sports management agency that has had Scheffler as a client since he turned professional.
Scheffler and his close friend Sam Burns host an annual retreat with members of the College Golf Fellowship, a faith-based ministry. He made his professional debut in 2019. With the victory of the first major of his career in April 2022, the Masters tournament, he achieved the fourth success in his first six starts: the period of time between the four victories, of 57 days, is the shortest in the history of the PGA Tour.
He also becomes the fifth golfer to win the aforementioned tournament as world No. 1, after Ian Woosnam (1991), Fred Couples (1992), Tiger Woods (2001 and 02) and Dustin Johnson (2020).