Butch Harmon, as he’s talking about Scottie Scheffler, wonders about other players.
In doing so, he asks a rhetorical question.
“I mean, can you imagine if all the great players we talk about had Scottie Scheffler’s head,” Harmon said, “how much better they’d be?”
High praise. But this may be higher. One player led to a different thought — one the GOLF Top 100 Teacher hall of famer so believed that he called into a radio show on Monday to make it.
Harmon also said that Scheffler’s mind was closer than anyone’s to golf’s all-time major winner. One day after Scheffler won the Open Championship, won his fourth major championship and moved within a U.S. Open victory of the career grand slam, Tiger Woods’ one-time coach was comparing him to Jack Nicklaus.
“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.”
Such is the talk in the moments after Scheffler’s victory. Or, maybe more accurately, the questions. The ones that ask: How is he doing this? And whom does he compare to?
To Colt Knost, one of the show’s co-hosts and himself a longtime pro, what stood out was Scheffler’s play on Royal Portrush’s signature par-3 16th hole. On Sunday, Scheffler parred it. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, he birdied it.
“What he did, I don’t know how anybody else could do it,” Harmon said on the radio show. “Look, you probably played, I played there in May, and that hole is a you-know-what. I mean, it is so tough. Yes, you can bail out to the left and get it on the hill to come down, but when you miss it to the right, it’s just disaster.
“And his control of his ball through the air, guys, is as good as anybody since maybe [Lee Trevino]. I mean, he controls his ball through the air. The thing that I like, and I have to give Randy Smith a tremendous amount of credit for this, he has kept his natural swing his whole career. He hasn’t changed. You know, everybody talks about his footwork and all that. At impact, his footwork’s perfect. And then after that, it goes because of momentum. But his control of his golf ball through the air, distance and then how smart he is, I mean, you just said it a minute ago, I think the thing that’s impressed me the most watching him is just he’s not afraid to dump the ball in the middle of the green and make a 15- or 20-footer. And Nicklaus was the best in the world at that.”
With Harmon, though, the questions naturally move toward Woods.
On the show, co-host Drew Stoltz asked if the Scheffler comparisons to the 15-time major winner were justified.
“Well, I guess they’re justified if he can do it for 20 straight years like Tiger did,” Harmon started. “I think, yes, he’s on that track, barring injury, barring whatever. Look, there’s only one Jack Nicklaus, there’s only one Tiger Woods, let’s just face that. Scottie Scheffler has been the best player in the world by far the last three years in a row.
“Everything he’s accomplished is amazing, but when you look at Nicklaus’ longevity and Tiger’s longevity, he’s got a long way to go to be put in that category, I think. And that’s not putting Scottie down because he is phenomenal.”
He added this:
“You know, we used to say anyone that could beat Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods.
“I think this man is in that same category at the moment.”
Editor’s note: To listen to Harmon’s appearance on Sirius XM, please click here.
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Nick Piastowski
Golf.com Editor
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
