Xander Schauffele Vs Scottie Scheffler - How Do Their 2024 Stats Compare?
Xander Schauffele has won two Majors this year, Scottie Scheffler has won six times including The Masters, but is the world number one the best player this year? Let's see what the stats say
![Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/nUmt38TghLdHLFTzVe3enb-415-80.jpg)
Almost down to the letter in their surnames, there's not much between Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler who have both had stellar seasons - but what do the stats say?
The biggest stat in golf is easiest to see, and that's the win column, where Scheffler has six victories this season including that one Major at The Masters but also several other huge events including The Players Championship - the PGA Tour's flagship event.
And with those six wins coming in the space of 10 starts, it's a truly remarkable run of form from Scheffler, especially when you remember that during all this he not only welcomed his first child into the world but also spent the morning in prison at the PGA Championship!
Schauffele can't match the volume of victories but he can sure pick his triumphs, with just the two wins this season but both of them Majors - picking up the PGA Championship with a winning putt on the last to quash talk of him not being able to close out.
Then he picked his moment perfectly on the back nine on Sunday at Royal Troon to add the Claret Jug to the mix and go from nearly man to half a Grand Slam in the space of two months.
Even before the wins, Schauffele had been the only man in touching distance of Scheffler in the major statistical categories, as the two-time Masters champ was producing numbers not seen since Tiger Woods was in his pomp.
The consistent excellence was something most players could just not live with. Schauffele was right there with him, as neither has missed a cut this year, but while he finished outside the top 10 five times Scheffler only fell that far twice out of 16 events.
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That in itself is incredible, but it was his stunning play with the irons that really stood out from a statistical point of view - as overall although Schauffele is his leading competitor it's really not that close.
Elsewhere, though, it's a much closer call between the two Americans and Xander has the upper hand in a couple of categories - most notably on the greens.
Scheffler vs Schauffele 2024 stats
(Individual events only)
Header Cell - Column 0 | Scheffler | Schauffele |
---|---|---|
Tournaments | 16 | 17 |
Overall Wins | 6 | 2 |
Runner-up | 2 | 2 |
Top 10 | 14 | 12 |
Majors | 1 | 2 |
Prize money | $28,148,691 | $15,867,160 |
Score average | 68.462 | 69.010 |
Season total to par | -206 | -186 |
Strokes Gained (PGA Tour rank) | 2.760 (1st) | 2.201 (2nd) |
SG: Approach | 1.485 (1st) | 0.779 (5th) |
SG: Putting | 0.037 (89th) | 0.581 (10th) |
Birdie average | 4.87 (1st) | 4.28 (10th) |
Driving distance | 301.4 (70th) | 305.7 (37th) |
Scheffler's putting woes raised their ugly head again at Royal Troon and while Schauffele is 10th in Stroke Gained: Putting, the world number one is ranked all the way down in 86th on the PGA Tour.
It's the flat stick that prevented Scheffler from winning Majors last year, but we thought he'd got on top of that until his poor effort up in Ayrshire in Scotland.
Overall, Scheffler still leads the way in Strokes Gained, which is even more impressive considering those putting numbers, and he's the best birdie maker on the tour too, with Schauffele in 10th.
The diminutive Schauffele can knock it past his taller opponent off the tee though, with Scheffler's shoe-shuffling drives not quite making it as far down the fairway.
Schauffele fans will point to the two in the Majors column, which means they're level with two career wins, and rightly so as when it's all said and done Majors are why most players play the game.
But Scheffler is so good elsewhere, and has won so many other tournaments that, backed up by the stats, he can rightly claim to be the best in the world right now - but the gap is closing.
Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.
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