SCOTTIE Scheffler's unerring, freakish consistency has kept him at world number one for 43 out of the last 67 weeks but he nevertheless heads into The Open looking to avoid ending the year without a Major.
The 27-year-old made his breakthrough at the 2022 Masters and, despite results this season – he has 15 top-10s in 19 events and has not finished lower than 12th – reaffirming his status as the most in-form golfer, he has not been able to add to his solitary triumph at Augusta in six events since.
His two wins this year came at the WM Phoenix Open and The Players Championship, which has the nickname of golf's fifth Major even though it is well short of carrying the same prestige, but the affable American is sanguine about the situation.
"A year without winning a Major would be pretty similar to the other 25 years of my life, I guess," he said at Royal Liverpool.
"I think that I like to focus more on the way I approach things and my attitude than I would the actual results.
"Yes, it's so fun to win Majors, but I'm not going to sit at the end of the year and look back on the year and be frustrated or upset because I didn't win a Major.
"I step up on the tee at every tournament hoping to win, and every time I don't win I'm usually pretty frustrated.
"That's kind of the nature of the game is at the end of every year you're usually fairly frustrated.
"Tiger (Woods) didn't even win that much, he lost a lot more than he won. It's not like other sports.
"It's really fun winning. It's not as fun finishing third. I'm very proud of how I've competed all year and continued to put myself in position."
Scheffler's time at the top of the rankings has been helped by the competition provided by world number two Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, the man who succeeded him in wearing the Green Jacket, in third.
"I think I'm always striving to get a little bit better at a time. Any competition is healthy for sure," he added.
"As long as I show up with a good attitude and play with a good attitude, that's mostly what I try to focus on.
"At times I'm really good at that and at times I struggle with that, but that's what I focus on.
"It's nice when you get to actually see the results because a lot of times in this game you put in the work and the results are never really that immediate."
