Scheffler's actual scoring average on tour says plenty about his and Tiger's dominance

ATLANTA (AP) — Scottie Scheffler closed out his season with a 264 at East Lake, lowering his scoring average to 68.01. NBC pointed out during the telecast it was the lowest in the history of the PGA Tour.

What gets recognized is the adjusted scoring average, which accounts for how the score compared with the rest of the field. Scheffler's adjusted average was 68.65, still the best by some margin this year which will earn him the Byron Nelson Award (the PGA of America stopped awarding the Vardon Trophy two years ago).

The record is held by Tiger Woods, who was at 67.79 in 2000 and 2007.

What makes Scheffler's actual scoring average impressive are two factors. First, he was an average of 0.5 shots ahead of Xander Schauffele. Only two other players in the last 15 years have led the actual scoring average by a larger margin — Webb Simpson in 2020 (0.7) and Steve Stricker in 2013 (0.69).

The second is how Scheffler started the year. He went 41 consecutive rounds without a score over par, a streak that ended the day after he was arrested at the PGA Championship. Scheffler also had 28 consecutive rounds under par.

The actual scoring average also highlights the dominance of Woods in his peak years. His scoring average in 2000, the year he won nine times in 20 starts, was 68.17. That was an average of 1.18 shots better than the next player, Phil Mickelson.

Woods also had one other year when he was at least an average of one shot better than anyone else, in 2007 when he was at 69.1 and Jeff Overton was No. 2 at 70.1.

Scheffler setting the actual scoring average record should not be a surprise. Not only is he very good, scoring has been coming down in golf as long as the game has been played.

Rory's long year

Rory McIlroy decided to ramp up his pre-Masters schedule by adding the Cognizant Classic to start the Florida swing and the Texas Open the week before the Masters.

Now at the end of the year — almost for the 35-year-old from Northern Ireland — it sounds as though that might have been a mistake. Throw in the Zurich Classic with Shane Lowry (which they won) and the Olympics, and McIlroy is headed for his busiest year since 2010.

He has the Irish Open, Wentworth and the Dunhill Links (with his father). And he still has Abu Dhabi and the European tour season-ender in Dubai. That adds to 27.

McIlroy said he's typically in the range of 22 tournaments — that's his average over the last four years — he added that was “when I was sort of in my 20s and didn't have the responsibilities that I do now.”

Not to be overlooked was how much the U.S. Open took out of him, when he missed a pair of short putts on the last three holes and was runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy skipped a signature event the next week to get his head straight.

He had only two top 10s the rest of the year, and this was the first time since 2017 that McIlroy failed to register a top 10 in the PGA Tour postseason.

McIlroy said he would try to cut back to between 18 and 20 tournaments in the future.

“It’s been a long season, and I’m going to just have to think about trying to build in a few extra breaks here and there next year and going forward because I felt like I hit a bit of a wall sort of post-U.S. Open, and still feel a little bit of that hangover.”

Aberg's knee

Jordan Spieth isn't the only player taking time away to get healed. Ludvig Aberg is having surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee.

He won't be out as long as Spieth, who had surgery Aug. 21 on his left wrist and is unlikely to play until 2025.

Aberg's manager at Wasserman, Butler Melnyk, says the Swedish star has been dealing with his left knee since the spring. He said it didn't affect his golf as much as it kept him from training with weights how he prefers.

Golf Channel was first to report Aberg will be on the mend for about a month and plans a limited golf schedule in the fall. He is No. 8 in the Race to Dubai on the European tour. Aberg was not able to defend his title in the European Masters in Switzerland this year. He also is defending champion in the RSM Classic at Sea Island in November.

The cup is not running over

Great Britain and Ireland won the Curtis Cup for the first time in eight years, meaning the American only hold one trophy — the Walker Cup — in the matches between the U.S. and opponents from across the Atlantic (GB&I or Europe).

That can change in two weeks when the Americans try to win back the Solheim Cup against Europe. And if they don't, all eyes shift to the Sept. 6-7 matches in 2025 for the Walker Cup at Cypress Point.

The Americans at least can claim the Presidents Cup, which involves every country outside Europe. They have won nine in a row dating to a tie in 2003, with the next edition in three weeks at Royal Montreal.

Scheffler and Schauffele

Jim Furyk was on the Ryder Cup teams when Ben Crenshaw sent out Tiger Woods and David Duval as a fourballs pairing at Brookline, and when Hal Sutton put together Woods and Mickelson at Oakland Hills. Neither ended well.

Scheffler and Schauffele are the best two players in golf and became closer friends from their time at the Olympics (and being paired nine times this year at big events).

Furyk, the U.S. captain at the Presidents Cup, didn't even wait for the question Tuesday.

“No,” he said. “I'm not playing Scottie and X together, if that's what you're asking.”

Furyk said both have a similar demeanor with no real weakness in their games. He hasn't given it any thought because he sees no reason to put No. 1 and No. 2 together when they could put their games in two matches with other partners.

He also said it was not entirely certain Scheffler would be playing with Sam Burns, a captain's pick and his closest friend on tour. They have an 0-3-1 record in two cups.

Scheffler and Burns played three matches in the Presidents Cup (0-2-1), lost the opening match of the Ryder Cup and didn't play the rest of the week together at Marco Simone.

“Marco Simone, they were probably both struggling with parts of their game,” Furyk said. He said at the last Presidents Cup, they scored well enough to have won nearly every match except against the opponents they faced.

“I wouldn't rule it out, but it's definitely not a given,” Furyk said of a Scheffler-Burns partnership. “I think both of them know that, and I’d have no issue pairing them together in certain formats.”

Divots

Keegan Bradley is the only one of six captain’s picks for the U.S. that won a tournament this year. ... Scottie Scheffler stayed atop the FedEx Cup standings since winning his first tournament of 2024 at Bay Hill, a span of 25 consecutive weeks. ... Matt Fitzpatrick is the only player who started the year in the top 10 in the world ranking (No. 8) and dropped outside the top 25 (No. 27). ... Haeran Ryu became only the second player from South Korea to win on the LPGA Tour this year. The other was Amy Yang at the Women's PGA. Neither were ranked inside the top 15 in the women's world ranking at the start of the year.

Stat of the week

Only twice in the six years of the “starting strokes” format at the Tour Championship has the player with the lowest score won the FedEx Cup — Rory McIlroy in 2019 and 2022.

Final word

“He makes more birdies than I do and he makes less bogeys. That sort of adds up to him being a little bit better right now.” — Rory McIlroy on Scottie Scheffler.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf