Scheffler swings into the New Year on the back of a barnstorming 2024

TORONTO — While professional golf's future is as uncertain now as it was a year ago given the pace of negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi backers of LIV Golf, one thing was made crystal clear in 2024 — Scottie Scheffler is the man to beat.

Scheffler became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2007 to win seven or more times in a PGA Tour season and added an Olympic gold medal in a year where he spent each week as the No 1 player in the world and 72 minutes behind bars.

In a shocking turn of events, Scheffler was handcuffed and booked into a Kentucky jail for an alleged assault on a police officer outside the PGA Championship. A mug shot of a bearded Scheffler in an orange jumpsuit is one of the sport's enduring images of 2024.