Tiger Woods' Former Coach Offers Up Legendary Comparison For Scottie Scheffler
Butch Harmon is using Scheffler and Nicklaus in the same sentence
Scottie Scheffler drawing comparisons to Tiger Woods is only natural. Since Woods in the early 2000s, Golf has not seen a player put up the type of statistics and win at a clip like what we've seen out of Scheffler over the last two-plus years.
Scheffler picked up his fourth major championship victory at The Open last week, but he still has to put together many more years of consistently dominant play – and win more than a handful of additional majors – to even begin to think about being on the same page as Woods in the game's history books.
Having said that, making comparisons and trying to predict the future are key components of any sport.
Scottie Scheffler is being compared to Jack Nicklaus. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
Speaking of Woods, not many people around golf know him or his game better than legendary swing coach Butch Harmon, who spent years in The Big Cat's corner earlier in his career.
The 81-year-old Harmon is also old enough to remember Jack Nicklaus, who he believes is the better comparison for Scheffler, not Woods.
"I got to tell you that the only reason I called in, I was listening to you talk about him and all the comparisons and stuff to Tiger and this and that," Harmon said on Sirius XM’s ‘Gravy and the Sleeze’ show. "I think his greatest attribute that he has is he’s the closest thing to Jack Nicklaus I’ve ever seen mentally. He makes no mental mistakes. He dumps the ball in the middle of the green when he has to. His iron control is beautiful.
"He reminds me more of Jack than he does of Tiger, Tiger in the winning ways, but Jack in the way he plays golf. I’ve never quite seen a guy that can mimic Nicklaus the way he does."
Plenty in the golf space have compared Scheffler to Woods, but Harmon may very well be the first to bring up The Golden Bear and Scheffler in the same sentence.
By no means did Harmon insinuate that Scheffler is going to go on and win 18 major championships in his career, but that's still quite the comparison to make.
Scheffler's overall ball-striking has long been the best in the game, but his iron play en route to his four-shot victory at The Open was otherworldly, as Harmon alluded to.