Scottie Scheffler has entered The Chat

His career has eight prime years to go - at least. He hardly makes mistakes, and he plays "boring" golf. Fairways and greens, up and down, etc.

He somehow went from being a bozo putter to an elite one in a short window of time. Without that piece, he's a fun guy to have around. With the putting dialed, he's the kind of guy who gets buildings named after him.

The trajectory, statistical probability and momentum are all optimally tuned. He can achieve something that has eluded player after player over the decades and the centuries: becoming one of the greatest to ever play a game that is riddled with iconoclasts, pioneers and virtuosos.

Francis Ouimet, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Ben Crenshaw, Freddy Couples, John Daly, Payne Stewart, Ken Venturi, Johnny Miller, Billy Casper, Freddy Couples, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Raymond Floyd, Curtis Strange, Hal Sutton, Lee Trevino... All of them left indelible marks, a moment (or moments) we won't ever forget, or for which we weren't even alive but saw it on YouTube because our dads told us about it.

But they couldn't quite join Tiger, Jack, Ben, Byron, Arnold, Gene, Gary, Bobby, Sam, Tom, Phil and Seve. These men's surnames aren't even necessary to list. The great Golf Men of History.

Mark my words: it's all happening for Scottie Scheffler. It's all right in front of him, and the only thing derailing it is calamitous injury.

This is not a "Patrick Mahomes is better than Tom Brady" conversation: that one is for amateurs. This is a "Scottie Scheffler is better than Phil Mickelson" conversation.

But people said these things about Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, who have won a combined one major since 2017. What of that?

Of those two, Spieth is most like Scheffler in that they are "old souls" and believe in something higher than themselves. One must tip his hat to Scheffler, who less than a week ago intimated that winning is not fulfilling, not soulful, and then goes ham on the field once again, in Rory's own backyard.

Rory, however, is a classic narcissist; the only thing bigger than Rory is his bank account. He tries too hard to be "one of the guys," while making sure everyone knows that he is of elite stock. He'd rather roll the ball back for everyone, including the amateurs, and if it were up to him, would limit the field and block more guys from getting their card. In the name of ratings? His mind is not at peace; it's obvious.

Scheffler's is, though. This guy could win nine more majors, then go on one of those Batman retreats with the League of Shadows and become a chess Grandmaster. He could also become a minister in a small town on the prairie. This is only chapter one.

Some are comparing Scheffler to Tiger Woods, and on that, they are wrong. They're two different guys. Many of Tiger's most memorable shots were to make up for the mistake he made right before (the shot none of us remember). Nobody could touch prime Tiger. It wasn't close. He was a wrecking ball. Scottie, however, is the thinking man's golfer, the shot maker, the consistent deliverer. His putting is now perfect, and most shockingly, it wasn't that long ago that it was the opposite of this. Scottie is not Tiger, no, but many will remember Tiger for what might have been. If not for his world-class penchant for recklessness, he could have been even greater. And many will remember Scottie for believing in a power that is greater than himself. Golf (and all sport) needs guys like Scottie Scheffler, and just like Tiger Woods, his persona is equally his signature as is his scoring.

Scottie Scheffler is the athlete for the next American Era, the Age of Accountability. This is not an era for strivers, for virtue signalers, for "credentialists". Not poseurs, not influencers, not clout chasers. (Ironic is that in the same week Scheffler won his fourth major, one of the biggest names in YouTube golf, Grant Horvat, turned down participating in a PGA Tour event because he couldn't bring his camera jockeys.) Traditionalism is back, shot making is back, Faith is back, because the Zoomers, who are stuck in a machine that seems purpose-built to deny them everything their parents promised, need to believe in something. Something bigger. The ad Nike ran right after the Open Championship is perfect:

Let this be the message that resonates now, and forever.