Xander Schauffele, Not Scheffler, Creeping Up On Tiger Woods With Massive Help from PGA Tour

If you go down the record books of golf, undoubtedly, at least in a quarter of them, Tiger Woods would be at the top. The man has built himself a legacy that cannot be forgotten, but still, some of the records from his 3-decade-long career do get underestimated. How Woods missed zero cuts from the 1998 Torrey Pines, Buick Invitational to the 2005 Byron Nelson Championship and made the record for the most consecutive cuts made on the PGA Tour, coming to 142.

No man in the history of the Tour has done that and no man seems to be getting closer to the record except for Xander Schauffele. Yes, the PGA Tour Player of the Year award may be given to Scottie Scheffler as the world no. 1 won the Olympics gold, a second green jacket, six other PGA Tour events, and earned $62 million in a single season. But what he failed to do was to make consecutive cuts. The last time Scheffler missed a cut was at the 2021-22 FedEx St. Jude Championship. It has been more than two years but Schauffele has made more cuts consecutively.

The last time, the world no. 2 missed the cut was at the 2022 Masters, a good eight-star extra in his resume before the world no. 1 missed his last cut. Thus, Bob Harig, the veteran journalist said on the Flushing It Golf podcast, “Xander is closing in on 60 straight cuts now, and that’s the longest streak anybody has since Tiger got to 142.”Harig is not completely off from the record, Schauffele has made 56 straight cuts. On the other hand, Scheffler is second with 44 straight cuts.

The Sports Illustrated journalist also highlighted that the record for the longest before Schauffele and after Woods was held by Steve Stricker in 2012 when he had a streak of 49, and by Adam Scott who had 45. However, still, Schauffele is not even halfway close to Woods’s record, but he has one advantage or say two to get a bit closer to the mighty record.

PGA Tour changes may benefit Xander Schauffele

In the last two years, the PGA Tour has made many formative changes in the league. Although the circuit was against LIV Golf, they still started with the fixed limited field and no cut events. And that’s one advantage Xander Schauffele could use to always cut. In the 2024 season, there were eight signature events out of which five were no cuts, and Schauffele easily made it through them all.

Then, the three FedExCup playoff events, the St. Jude Championship, BMW PGA Championship, and the TOUR Championship, all were without any 36-hole cut. That’s how, although Scottie Scheffler won the season finale, Schauffele got ahead of him by making the cut. With these differences, and the 2-time major winner being in his form, it would not be wrong to assume that he will get closer to the magic number 0f 142 in the 2025 season.