SCHEFFLER'S TIGER-LIKE 2024 SEASON

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler's year is reminiscent of Tiger Woods in his heyday.

- JIM MCCABE

Should you be among those who circle December 30 each year to make note of another birthday for Tiger Woods, no doubt you know that he's on the threshold of No. 49.

Forty-nine? Say it isn't so and help us understand how time has passed by so quickly.

Especially for those who were rabid PGA TOUR followers circa 1996-2013, a golden period during which Woods won 79 times in 309 starts, with each and every birthday, there is a feeling of melancholy. Perhaps we ask ourselves: Will we ever see such greatness?

Well, for now you can stifle your fears because Scottie Scheffler during the 2024 PGA TOUR season delivered a Tiger Woods-like campaign. It was filled with seven victories, another green jacket from the Masters, emphatic rolls by five and four strokes, nailbiters, the dramatic playoff, and the end-of-season FedExCup-clinching TOUR Championship.

Oh, and the 28-year-old put a delicious box on his superb season by coming from behind to win an Olympic Gold Medal in Paris.

“We'll look back on 2024 and it's obviously one of the best individual years that a player has had for a long time,” said Rory Mcllroy, whose season wasn't all that bad - wins No. 25 and 26 in his PGA TOUR career.

It's just that only the magic performed by Scheffler can get us comparing it to the sort of stuff Woods did. As for where Scheffler shined brightest, it is hard to look past the mid-March to late-April stretch. In the middle was the four-stroke Masters win, his second in three years at Augusta National but what he did on each side of the major was pure brilliance.