Scottie Scheffler's honest six-word statement makes feelings on The Open crystal clear

Tiger Woods called it the ultimate achievement in golf, Seve Ballesteros described it as the greatest moment of his life and Jack Nicklaus believes a career is not truly complete unless it happens.

Regardless of who you prefer, the message is clear – and Scottie Scheffler has been listening. He admits: "Only the greats get this done"

For all his undoubted brilliance, the 29-year-old knows it is what happens at The Open, this year or any other, that will define whether he’ll truly become an all-time great. Scheffler might be a three-time major winner, a two-time Masters champ and the reigning Olympic gold medallist but if he looks through the names engraved on the Claret Jug he’ll see very few superstars are missing. Everyone who is anyone is there, and often more than once.

Woods has three of these on the mantlepiece, the same as Gary Player, Nicklaus, Ballesteros and Nick Faldo. Arnold Palmer has two, just like Lee Trevino, Greg Norman and Ernie Elis, while the great Tom Watson and Peter Thomson have a scarcely believable five.

Add in single winners Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Nick Price and you have a who’s who of golf – and that’s not even including all those winners who helped forge this game in the 100 years before. The Open may have a reputation for creating a level playing field, and on the links you have to be ready for anything and adapt on the fly.

The elements serve to heighten the unpredictability, with rain, wind and sunshine all expected to add to the truest of tests which only links golf can provide, its no-hiding nakedness a key part of its charm. But evidence tells us the cream rises to the top – and it’s at the top of men’s golf that you currently find Scheffler.

The Texan, who is the best player in the world and perhaps on a journey to Nicklaus and Woods levels of dominance, needs it. And he wants it.

“To win The Open would be everything,” he said. “Only the greats get this done. I prefer to keep things simple and take it one tournament at a time but I think about it, how could I not.”

Scheffler need not panic yet, he has plenty of time, with this only his fifth Open. It took Phil Mickelson 20 attempts before he finally cracked it. At The Open, you have three types: those who love it, those who learn to love it and those that hold their noses, believing this to be a version of the game that should be long left behind.

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Steady with your 300+yard drives here, they don’t always work on fairways that run off into gorse bushes, and forget about smacking it as high as you can – the wind could well blow it back. Links golf is a thinking player’s game, it takes a calculating brain and a deft touch to succeed. Scheffler, therefore, should be right at home.

“As far as the learning curve goes, I just feel like you have to be more creative here,” he said before last year’s event. “I love that part of it. I feel like, when I do come over here, this is really how golf was intended to be played. I feel like there's a lot more opportunity for shot making and being creative around the greens.”

As he is seemingly there or there abouts every time he tees it up, it is easy to forget just how rapid Scheffler’s rise has been. In a sport where you can play at the highest level comfortably into your mid-40s – and occasionally beyond – Scheffler sits third on the PGA Tour all-time money list.

He has earned an amazing $88m for his hard work, and almost all of that has come since the pandemic. Scheffler had not won a PGA Tour event until February 2022, but has since racked up 16 of them, including those three majors, while the Olympic gold comes on top.

His major record is phenomenal as well. He has 15 top-10 finishes, eight of them top-fives, and nine since the start of 2023. With a driver, he is accurate and long, but it is his iron play and wedge game that truly stand out. Give him a fairway, and he will invariably fire the ball to within 20 yards of the pin. Every. Single. Time.

His putter – the one weakness of his game – can blow hot and cold. In 2023, it cost him titles. In 2024, it helped him win seven. This year, he has added the US PGA Championship to the pair of Masters wins in 2022 and 2024, a significant victory as it not only proved he can win majors outside of Augusta National, but more accurately reflects his stranglehold over the men’s game.

The post-Woods era has been diverse, with dozens of players sharing the limelight, instead of one dominant force. Brooks Koepka and McIlroy have won five majors each and Jordan Spieth has three, but so many others – Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffle, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm – have two.

Winning majors is the only currency that truly matters. Vijay Singh has 66 professional wins and went toe-to-toe with Woods, and often beat him. But he has three majors next to Woods’ 15. And no Opens.

“I feel like I've always been a guy that just let my golf clubs do all the talking for me,” Scheffler said. “I guess that's kind of the cliche. I never really thought of myself as anything but a golfer. I was never trying to be famous. I didn't want to be a celebrity or whatever. I just wanted to become a good golfer and get the most out of myself.

“It's brought me this far, so I continue to just try to keep my head down and put in the work that got me here and just continue to practice and hopefully continue to get better.”

With wife Meredith and son Bennett often in tow wherever he goes, Scheffler portrays a quiet family man, happier changing nappies than he is on TV talk shows. When he won his first Masters in 2022, he was still driving a banged up 2012 GMC Yukon XL truck with more than 180,000 miles on the clock. The only flashy thing about him is his golf.

“Believe it or not, this isn't my favourite thing in the world to do,” he told the media. “It's a pretty cool feeling to be able to make someone's day by signing an autograph or taking a picture. It's a pretty fun feeling. I'm trying to embrace more of that side of it than not being able to sign everyone's autograph.

“People are upset because you can't get to them throughout the day. That's not a fun feeling. I'm trying to lean into more of making somebody's day.”

The safest way to do that is to lump on a fiver. Nothing is guaranteed in sport – and especially at The Open. But the greats tend to get the job done here, and history is starting to show few are greater than Scottie Scheffler.

He just needs the Claret Jug to confirm it.