Scottie Scheffler recalls the only time he played with Tiger Woods: “I’ve never seen anything like this”

Every elite sports star will have their role model - the person they look up to and learn from. Scottie Scheffler is no exception. Fresh from his recent triumph at the BMW Championship at Caves Valley, the four-time major winner spoke about the various people who have influenced and shaped his game. And playing alongside one of the greatest players the game has ever witnessed had a significant impact on his mental approach to playing major tournaments.

The only time Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods played together

Scheffler has only coincided with Tiger Woods once on the professional circuit. They played the rescheduled Masters in November 15, 2020. Scottie, in his PGA Rookie year, qualified for the tournament after sneaking into the Official World Golf Ranking Top 50 (he held 45th position). Woods meanwhile, was invited as one of 16 past winners taking part (he entered as the defending champion).

It proved to be a pivotal moment in Scheffler’s fledgling career, as he explained this week at the Tour Championship in Atlanta: “I’ve only played one round of tournament golf with Tiger Woods, and it completely changed the way I play tournaments.

Scottie explained what happened on that cold, icy morning in Augusta: “I can’t tell you - the look on his face when we got to the first green. We’re in 20th place, kind of playing yada, yada, yada, and this guy is just locked in. I was taken aback, I was like, ‘Holy smokes, this guy is in it right now!’”

Scheffler was impressed by Tiger’s approach once again when they arrived at the second: “He had this chip shot, and he looked at it like it was an up-and-down to win the tournament. I’m like, ‘This is incredible! I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life.’”

Watching the master in action was in an important step in his own learning curve. “The reason I felt like I hadn’t won yet is I hadn’t put myself in position enough times and that’s one of the things I learned from playing with Tiger. My biggest takeaway was the amount of intensity that he took to every shot, it was like the last shot he was ever going to hit.”

Tiger’s mental strength and determination were two of the attributes that Scheffler was most impressed by, and skills which he tries to copy to this day. It was right at the fore when he fended off Jon Rahm to lift the 107th PGA Championship in May - his second of five victories on the PGA Tour in 2025. “To step up when I needed to the most, I’ll remember that for a while,” he told reporters afterwards. “I always try to lean as much as I can on my mind. I think that’s probably my greatest strength”.

Tiger Woods is out on his own, says Scheffler

At 29 years old, Scheffler is in his prime, with 18 PGA Tour wins, four major championship wins and an Olympic gold medal, but he prefers to shy away from any comparisons with Woods: “I don’t like comparisons to other players because I’m doing the best I can to be the best version of myself. He completely transcended the game. I think Tiger is a guy that stands alone in the game of golf, and I think he always will. Tiger inspired a whole generation of golfers. Watching what that guy did week in, week out, it was pretty amazing to see.”

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