Scottie Scheffler accepts the Memorial Tournament trophy from Jack Nicklaus. (Photo Provided for Press Pros Magazine)
He’s raising competitive pride and dominance at a time when America has never needed it more. And as the dynastic qualities of Tiger Woods pass, Scottie Scheffler has picked up the mantel without missing a beat.
Scottie Scheffler is doing all of us a huge favor. That’s right, he’s doing America a huge solid by racking up major title wins and all that money.
In the same tradition of the ’27 Yankees…John Wooden’s UCLA basketball Bruins…Nick Saban’s Alabama teams…Tom Brady’s New England Patriots…and Babe Ruth.
The best there ever was in their day. People called them dynasties!
And now Scheffler stands in golf with Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus with such competitive qualities and winning dominance that the rest of the world looks in awe. The only thing questionable…is that Mt. Rushmore of which he’s being compared did it for decades. Scheffler has only done it for seven years.
But what a seven years – 17 tour titles, four major wins, and career winnings of $143 million dollars!
Like the afore-mentioned, Scottie Scheffer is America’s newest sports dynasty.
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America is a better place when we lead the world in sports. We’re a better place as the world’s economic dynasty. What others aspire to be, we look at as part of being secure in who we are – untouchable.
More important, as Americans we can look at our best as an inspiration for future generations who follow. Which is why 98 years after Brooklyn Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson called the 1927 New Yankees “the greatest ballclub ever put together”, we still use the reference of the ’27 Yankees as a standard for nearly everything you can name.
It’s why Columbus sports writer Kaye Kessler once told me that Jack Nicklaus has done more for pride of life in Ohio than every governor in Nicklaus’s lifetime, put together – John Bricker, Thomas Herbert, Frank Lausche, John Brown, C. William O’Neil, Michael DiSalle, Jim Rhodes, John Gilligan, Dick Celeste, George Voinovich, Bob Taft, Ted Strickland, John Kasich, and Mike DeWine.
14 of them!
What Nicklaus accomplished was memorable…admirable…inspiring…charitable…and unanimously appealing.
The politicians never had a chance.
Tiger Woods won 82 times on the PGA tour, including 15 majors, and many call him the greatest professional golfer that ever lived. But he couldn’t overtake Nicklaus’ majors total of 18. Nicklaus was then, and still is, the standard.
This country, and every civilization, needs standards. Something to shoot for, to hang our hat on…something to brag about. Americans like a sure thing.
The Olympic team…Ohio State football…even the local high school team. On our worst day we all feel better when they win.
Think, for instance, where high school football would be in Ohio if it weren’t for Marion Local’s record…64 consecutive and 15 titles in 25 years – a playoff winning percentage of nearly 90% (113-16). And now every year the question asked is…can Marion win again? And the expectation is…somehow they’ll find a way.
Even in a day when the value of winning is questioned compared to participation and broader opportunity, the standard we talk about is Marion Local; and it used to be St. Ignatius, whose record they replaced.
People hated the Yankees back in their heyday, but they never talked about the teams they beat. They talked about the Yankees – the standard…the best…a comparative for the next hundred years.
And then there’s that big rock with Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt. No other civilization can claim a Mt. Rushmore for anything, or even the argument about who to so honor!
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and Buckeyes baseball for Press Pros Magazine.com.
If you like your heroes squeaky clean? Who better than Scheffler, who in a press conference prior to winning the British Open last week said, “I would much rather be a great father than a great golfer.”
He added: “I would leave professional golf if it affected my family life.”
And, who can root against anyone whose proven they can be both?
No one, it’s been said forever, likes a poor loser.
On the other hand, everyone likes a good winner whose priorities are correct and on public display. That is, if we’re being honest.
Who’s thought of more highly than Arnold Palmer?
Who was more popular to fans in his day than Babe Ruth?
And who doesn’t root now every week for Scottie Scheffler?
Because he’s one of the few sure things left.
And how is that not a good thing for America?
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