Jim Nantz, Dottie Pepper, and the CBS Golf Team Wax on Scottie Scheffler's Greatness

Though Scheffler didn’t play at Torrey Pines, he remains the measuring stick for the 2026 PGA TOUR season, an ever-present standard hovering over leaderboards whether he tees it up or not.

CBS Sports’ broadcast team and leadership held a media call last week and lead analyst Trevor Immelman’s perspective as a former player has him really feeling for Scheffler’s peers right now and the sheer juggernaut they’re all up against this season, especially as Scheffler prepares for his next start in Phoenix coming off a four-shot win two weeks ago at the American Express.

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“(Scottie’s) like the ocean. Like he doesn’t stop. He just keeps coming. That absolutely keeps his competition awake at night,” Immelman said.

Immelman’s particularly impressed with Scheffler’s problem-solving abilities in turning a former weakness into a strength with the putter.

“A couple years ago, you could say, ‘Oh well the putter is a little bit balky, and the stroke looks a little bit funky at times and he strikes it out of the heel and misses putts to the right.’ But he’s gone ahead and turned that weakness into a strength over the last two seasons,” Immelman said.

“If you go back to two years ago at the end of the season, he was 151st in putting. At the end of 2024, he was 70th. And at the end of 2025, he was 18th. So now by the way he’s one of the best putters.”

Mental toughness, an elite iron game, and a coolness under pressure help the world number one as well according to the 2008 Masters champion.

CBS Sports’ on course reporter Dottie Pepper is convinced that Scheffler’s staying power once he enters the hunt gets into fellow competitors’ heads, and that will be an interesting factor for golf fans to observe as the 2026 season unfolds. A presence that can be felt even on weeks like this past one, when he isn’t there to apply it directly.

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“I think he does make people do things that they wouldn’t normally do because they know he’s not going to go away,” Pepper said on the call. “Even when he doesn’t have his great stuff, he makes great decisions. That summed up Jack and Tiger. It was great decision-making that lulls everybody else-sucks them in to doing something that they might not be too comfortable with.”

Pepper is also impressed with Scheffler’s ability to stretch a lead and how that super-strength stacks up against others over the past six decades.

“For players who have won at least 20 events on the PGA TOUR dating back to 1960, Scottie Scheffler is now fourth on the margin of victory list. Johnny Miller is first, Dustin

Johnson, Tiger Woods and then Scottie Scheffler,” Pepper said. “That’s pretty rarified air and that’s taking a lead and running with it.”

And I think he does make people do things that they wouldn’t normally do because they know he’s not going to go away.

As the media call wrapped up, Nantz jumped in with one final question. The veteran voice of golf said he’d been impressed with Immelman’s ability to make predictions in 2025 that ultimately proved correct, then posed a multiple-choice question about Scheffler’s 2026 win total.

“Here it is,” Nantz smiled. “Scottie Scheffler’s total wins in 2026. A: 1–4, B: 5–7, C: 8 and above.”

Immelman took A, and specifically predicted Scheffler would end up with four wins. Nantz then went with choice B, 5 to 7 wins.

It’s really anyone’s guess what Scheffler’s total wins will look like for this year. Scheffler has won 14 times in his last 35 starts—an alarming clip that explains why his absence rarely feels like relief.

Scheffler’s consistency of late has also gotten the attention of 2013 PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner.

“Scottie’s one of the guys who’s become a really, really good player and he’s figured out that special secret that works for him for the last couple years,” Dufner told Skratch. “That secret gives him a little bit of an edge when he shows up, and good for him.”

In early 2022, soon after Scheffler picked up his first TOUR win, I would periodically ask his caddie Ted Scott how he thought a given week’s course matched up with Scottie’s strengths.

“I like my guy’s game anywhere, to be honest,” Scott would say.

Looking back, he was right, and he was early.

Scheffler’s winning at 27-under in the desert at 11-under to win last year’s PGA at Quail Hollow, or 10-under to win Memorial. He can survive on the TOUR’s toughest setups and sprint when it turns into a birdie fest.

Scheffler’s got all the tools to add generously to his 20 PGA TOUR win total. And now we’re back to TPC Scottsdale where only four short years ago he tacked on win number one.

Time flies.

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