“Scottie Scheffler is the best player in the world” - Wyndham Clark, others comments on the ‘gap’ between Scheffler and rest of the PGA Tour field
There are a lot of good players on the PGA Tour, but right now, it's Scottie Scheffler's world and everyone else is just living in it. Scheffler has been on an incredible run of late, cementing himself as the premier talent in golf at the moment, and he shows no signs of slowing down.
He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and followed that up with a win in the Players Championship, becoming the first-ever back-to-back winner. A T2 at the Houston Open broke his streak before he won the Masters.
Wyndham Clark and several other golfers were asked at a press conference about the world's number-one golfer, and they all had glowing remarks for him. Clark said:
"Scottie's the best player in the world right now and he's been so consistent. And that's one thing that I've really been trying to get better at. I think when my game's on and his game is on I think we both can battle it out. And I believe I can win tournaments against Scottie when he's playing well. But the thing that I really am impressed by him is just the consistency that he's always in contention and either he wins or he finishes kind of top five." (5:16-5:59)
Clark believes there is certainly a bit of a gap right now between Scheffler and everyone else but hopes to progress as a player mentally and physically and eventually close that gap.
PGA Tour stars praise Scottie Scheffler amid epic run
Ludvig Aberg, who came up second in the Masters to Scheffler, said it certainly seems like he's a level above everyone else. The Swedish golfer said he is going to continue working and continue getting better regardless, but that he can't help how good Scheffler is.
He said :
"Obviously I can't do anything about Scottie. He's an unbelievable player in a person and I respect him so much. And I think it's good to have him here because he's pushing everyone else to get a little bit better as well." (10:42-10:54)
Max Homa also joined the conversation, saying that the gap is pretty big. When asked about the gap between Scheffler and the rest of the players, Homa praised Scheffler's recent results and consistency, saying:
"Three of those events are the best fields we've got. One of them is another good field on a really difficult Golf Course. I think we've seen people do this over the years as far as excellence for time over a little bit of time. He seems to be sustained a bit longer than I can remember from a lot of people." (5:23-5:44)
He went on to compare it to the runs that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy went on during their primes and added that it's different to actually experience it playing against Scheffler.
The gap is, as Homa alluded to, pretty big. Scottie Scheffler is world number one with an astonishing 13.9912 average points. The next closest is Rory McIlroy with 7.6539, which is as big as the gap between McIlroy and OWGR rank 80. Last year, the top rank changed hands a few times, but it might be a while before it changes again.