Jack Nicklaus spills the harsh truth about Scottie Scheffler’s dominance

"I think that great players are ones who rise to the occasion and ones who know how to play coming down the stretch in important events," Nicklaus told reporters after the final round. "Looking at the leaderboard today, [Scheffler] didn't have — I mean, Ben Griffin's a nice player, Sepp Straka is a nice player, Nick Taylor is a nice player. Those were all the guys that were there basically coming down the stretch. But he knows that those guys, you know, are not in his league."

As much as that feels like a subtle shot at Griffin, Straka and Taylor, Nicklaus has a point. That group isn't exactly the cream of the crop on the PGA Tour. There was no Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau or Jon Rahm in contention to put pressure on Scheffler. Instead, the Memorial contenders wilted down the stretch, allowing Scheffler to cruise to a four-shot victory. 

This is nothing new for Scheffler's recent run of dominance. The 28-year-old won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson by eight shots, and the next-closest players on the leaderboard were Erik Van Rooyen and Sam Stevens. At the PGA Championship, Scheffler won by six because contenders Alex Noren, J.T. Poston and Si Woo Kim didn't put up much of a fight. 

Winning on the PGA Tour is a skill, one Scheffler has mastered in recent years. Many of the players he competes against on Sunday don't know how to handle that pressure, which leads to blowout victories in the end. 

To Nicklaus' point, it's a shame we don't get to see Scheffler go toe-to-toe with the best players in the world on a weekly basis. With professional golf in a fractured state, major championships are the only tournaments that include all the best golfers in one field. Scheffler has bested those fields just twice in his last 13 major starts. 

Maybe Scheffler wouldn't be winning at this rate if every tournament had a major-level field, but that's just the reality of professional golf in 2025.