Scottie Scheffler refutes Tiger Woods claim ahead of Ryder Cup at Bethpage

Scottie Scheffler might be going some way to prove he's the best golfer to have ever emerged since Tiger Woods - but the runaway World No.1 is not interested in drawing any comparisons with the golf legend ahead of this week's Ryder Cup at Bethpage. 

With victory at The Open this summer, Scheffler, 29, became the fourth player to win The Masters, PGA and The Open all before the age of 30, joining Woods and fellow golf legends Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player in the record books.

Scheffler's dominating win at Royal Portrush this July moved him one leg away from the career grand slam, something he can now achieve at the US Open on his 30th birthday on Sunday 21 June, 2026. 

The American's first major title to his fourth was also 1,197 days apart, which was rather fittingly exactly the same amount of time it took Woods.

But despite drawing comparisons with eventual 15-time major champion Woods wherever he goes these days, the clear standout player on Keegan Bradley's US Ryder Cup team is not getting carried away with his status in the game. 

Scheffler considers the aura carried by Woods potentially made it much tougher for his teammates to deal with at past Ryder Cup matches. 

Despite arguably being the greatest golfer to have ever played our sport, Woods, now 49, only ever won 39% of his Ryder Cup matches.

Woods' playing record at the Ryder Cup has likely now ended for him at 13-21-3 - albeit he went 4-2-2 when on his own in the singles. 

He played in eight Ryder Cups, and only left one of them a winner - 1999 at Brookline. 

The majority of Woods' lost points came in foursomes and fourballs matches.

Captains regularly chopped and changed players to partner alongside Woods - but very few ever worked. 

Scheffler considers the "aura" of Woods was potentially the biggest difficulty within his US Ryder Cup pairings.

But the four-time major champion considers Bradley will have no such problem with himself at Bethpage this week. 

Scheffler is expected to play alongside Russell Henley in the foursomes this week, just as he did at last year's Presidents Cup, and he is most likely to partner with either his good pal Sam Burns, Collin Morikawa or JJ Spaun in the fourballs. 

"I think we have 12 guys that are all equal," Scheffler replied to a reporter when asked whether he feels a similar responsibility of being the best player on the team that everyone looks up to like American players tended to do with Woods back in his prime. 

"I don't think one player is more important than another. I think that is something that is through our team room.

"I'd like to think that I'm not difficult to pair with people. I'd like to think of myself as someone that's a nice guy and easy to get along with. I've had different partners over the years and have had some success. I would definitely not put myself in that category.

"I think some of the difficulty you had with playing with Tiger -- I mean, I don't even know what it could be. It could just be the aura that was Tiger Woods. There was some times there when he was doing nothing but winning golf tournaments and just beating the absolute crap out of people time and time again.

"I couldn't tell you what was difficult for those partners because I wasn't there. For me, I'd like to think I'm an easy guy to pair with."

When further pushed as to whether there's an aura to being to Scottie Scheffler, the 19-time PGA Tour winner replied with a wry smile: 

"Not really. I don't have much to elaborate on that..." 

Scheffler is making his third straight appearance on the US Ryder Cup team, having amassed a 2-2-3 points record so far, which is 50%.

But his game has significantly gone up a notch since being on the defeated team in 2023. 

Scheffler has won an incredible 13 times on the PGA Tour including three majors since Europe won the last Ryder Cup by five points in Rome. 

He is priced up as expected as the 6/1 favourite to be the top combined points scorer at the 2025 Ryder Cup, and he's 7/2 to top score for USA.