Scottie Scheffler’s comparisons with Tiger Woods have been reinforced after his 20th PGA Tour win

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler started his season in inauspicious fashion by winning a historic 20th PGA Tour event to fuel comparisons with Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

Scheffler is the second-fastest player to reach this mark in terms of days taken, the third-fastest in events played, and the third-youngest player to reach the milestone.

While Woods and Nicklaus remain the standard, Schaeffler, who won the American Express in California by four shots on Sunday, continues to post impressive statistics in this era of the game.

Scheffler won the £1.236 million ($1.656 million) top prize 1,442 days after his maiden win at the WM Phoenix Open in 2022. Woods took 1,351 days.

This was his 151st appearance on the PGA Tour. Woods has played 95 events with 20 wins to Nicklaus’ 127.

Schaeffler is the first player since Rory McIlroy in 2021 to reach this number, and to obtain a lifetime exemption from the American circuit.

The 29-year-old also joins Woods and Nicklaus in being the only players to have won 20 PGA Tour events and four majors under the age of 30.

Woods has won a combined record of 82 PGA Tour titles and 15 major titles, and still hopes to better those numbers. Nicklaus holds the tournament record with 18, along with 73 PGA Tour victories between 1962 and 1986.

Scheffler, a four-time major winner, also became the third player – after Woods and McIlroy – to win $100 million on the PGA Tour.

Naturally, given the increased prize money on offer, he did so in a much smaller number of events. McIlroy, who has 29 PGA Tour victories, has earned $107,981,766 in 273 PGA Tour starts, while Woods’ total career earnings of $120,999,166 have come from 378 events.

“It’s pretty wild,” said Schaeffler, who finished with a six-under 66 to move ahead of overnight leader Si-Woo Kim of South Korea and win his first Tour event of the season at age 27.

“It was a great start to my career and I had some great wins there. It was special and I try not to think about those things too much.”

“Coming into the season, I was just trying to do the things I needed to do in order to be ready to go out and play this week. I’m going to go home, get some rest and rinse and repeat.”

Scheffler recorded seven birdies to pull away from the chasing pack, before a double bogey on the 17th, after finding the water, saw him miss the chance to become the first golfer in 16 years to reach 30 under 30 in a tournament.

He finished the race ahead of his compatriots Ryan Gerrard (65), Matt McCarty (68), Andrew Putnam (68), and Australian Jason Day (64), who all finished 23 under par.

Blades Brown, 18, who was bidding to become the second-youngest golfer to win a PGA Tour event, faded to finish 18th at the 19-year-old.

The American teenager and Schaeffler were one shot behind Kim after Saturday’s match, with the Korean earning 72 points to finish sixth.