{"id":52954,"date":"2026-08-19T18:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/52954\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T18:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:34:22","slug":"how-scottie-schefflers-driving-iron-play-and-putting-this-year-compares-with-tiger-woods-2005-stats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/52954\/","title":{"rendered":"How Scottie Scheffler’s driving, iron play and putting this year compares with Tiger Woods’ 2005 stats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

The 2026 season is likely to be remembered as one of the most remarkable of Scottie Scheffler\u2019s career, largely due to the world number one only registering two victories so far. <\/p>\n

If anything, this season has seen Scheffler prove his greatness. He has finished inside the top five on 12 occasions, while he has registered five runner-up finishes. <\/p>\n

How many times do you think Scottie Scheffler will win in 2027? <\/p>\n

He has now won 21 times on the PGA Tour!<\/p>\n

\"FedEx <\/p>\n

And statistically, there is absolutely no question at all that Scheffler has been the PGA Tour\u2019s best player in 2026. <\/p>\n

But how does his season so far compare with Tiger Woods<\/a> back in 2005?<\/p>\n

Where Tiger Woods was heading into the 2005 season<\/p>\n

Heading into 2005, Tiger Woods had a point to prove. He had not won a major since the 2002 season, while his most recent win on the PGA Tour<\/a> had come in February 2004. Incredibly, Woods \u2013 who was revamping his swing \u2013 had not won a standard PGA Tour event since July 2003. <\/p>\n

But 2005 saw Woods return to something like the peak of his powers. He won six times, including The Masters and The Open Championship. <\/p>\n

It would appear that he took a very different approach to Scottie Scheffler<\/a>. <\/p>\n

How Scottie Scheffler\u2019s season compares with Tiger Woods 21 years agoDriving<\/p>\n

Scheffler is currently fourth on the PGA Tour for strokes gained off the tee this year. That was exactly the same position as Woods 21 years ago. <\/p>\n

Woods has the slight edge, however, as he gained nearly 0.9 shots per round on his peers. <\/p>\n

It is fascinating to see Scheffler in 45th for driving distance \u2013 at 311.3 yards \u2013 and 29th for driving accuracy. <\/p>\n

Woods was second for driving distance in 2005 as he averaged 316.1 yards, but he was down in 191st for accuracy. He hit 54.6 per cent of his fairways. <\/p>\n

\"ScottiePhoto by Stacy Revere\/Getty ImagesIron play<\/p>\n

For much of this year, it has felt as though Scheffler has not been quite as impressive with his irons. It previously seemed that no one could get close to the 30-year-old when hitting from the fairway. <\/p>\n

He is down in sixth this year for strokes gained approach, meaning that this season is likely to be the first since 2022 where he will not finish first in that category. <\/p>\n

Woods was fourth in the same category in 2005, gaining a fraction less per round than he had been with the driver. <\/p>\n

Woods also had the slight edge over Scheffler when it came to how close he would hit his approach shots on average, with the 15-time major champion just over one foot closer. <\/p>\n

Short game<\/p>\n

Apart from driving accuracy, there is no bigger gap between Scheffler and Woods than there is when it comes to their short game statistics. <\/p>\n

Scheffler is sixth for strokes gained around the green, while Woods was 128th in 2005. <\/p>\n

Scheffler is also first for scrambling this year. Woods performed better in that category, as he found himself 14th. <\/p>\n

Putting<\/p>\n

It may surprise some to learn that Scheffler has had a better year on the greens than Woods in 2005. Scheffler is third on tour this season, while Woods was fifth. <\/p>\n

Obviously, it has been well-documented that Scheffler has made enormous strides with his putting since the 2024 season when he was average. <\/p>\n

But it is truly frightening to think that Scheffler is now one of the best in the game on the greens. <\/p>\n

Tiger Woods (2005)Scottie Scheffler (2026)Wins62Strokes gained off the tee0.896 per round0.661Driving distance316.1 yards311.3 yardsDriving accuracy54.58%64.52%Strokes gained approach0.8900.653Proximity to hole35\u2032 836\u2032 10Strokes gained around the green-0.0150.379Scrambling62.09%67.45%Putting0.6590.680Credit PGA Tour<\/a>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover The 2026 season is likely to be remembered as one of the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[208,1142],"class_list":["post-52954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scottie-scheffler","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-tiger-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}