The player with the best combined majors score? It’s not Tiger, McIlroy or Scheffler

Scheffler, Woods and McIlroy: None have the best combined majors score

While Rory McIlroy’s victory at Augusta may have been the standout moment in the 2025 majors, there’s no doubt that Scottie Scheffler was the dominant force when all four were in the bag.

Scheffler won two of them, capturing May’s PGA Championship by five and The Open Championship in July by four.

But perhaps most impressive of all was his overall body of work across those four major championships.

By shooting -8 at The Masters (4th), -11 at the PGA Championship (1st), +4 at the US Open (T7th) and -17 at The Open (1st), Scheffler was a combined -32 for the four majors.

To give it some context, the next best combined score from those who played all 16 rounds (i.e. made the cut in all four) was McIlroy’s 11-under.

In other words, Scheffler was a mighty 21 shots better than his nearest rival.

However, where do Scheffler’s 2025 heroics sit historically? The best we’ve ever seen?

Remarkably, we only have to go back to 2024 to find the last time a player shot -32 across the four majors.

That was Xander Schauffle. Like Scheffler, he also won two majors and his combined scores of -1 (Masters), -21 (PGA), -1 (US Open) and -9 (Open) also added up to -32.

And, like Scheffler, he was also a mile clear of the rest.

In 2024, Schauffele’s mighty tally was 15 shots better than the man in second, a certain Scottie Scheffler on -17. Collin Morikawa was -15 across the four big ones and Shane Lowry -6 – and they were the only four under par overall.

So can we beat -32?

How about Rory McIlroy, who won the final two majors of 2014 in a memorable summer stretch?

Rory comes close but count up his scores over those 16 laps of major championship golf and his combined tally comes in at -27.

Inevitably, we now zoom in on Tiger Woods who enjoyed numerous multi-major winning seasons.

Tiger had some outstanding campaigns but did he ever beat -32? The initial search sees him falling short.

Woods was -24 across 2002, -26 in 2005 and -28 in 2006 when he actually only made the cut in three majors after missing it in the US Open that year shortly after his father, Earl, had passed away.

But Tiger followers will know there’s one epic season that we haven’t accounted for yet.

That was his 2000 campaign when he smashed the field by 15 in the US Open at Pebble Beach and landed The Open by eight at St Andrews.

Tiger shot -12 and -19 in those those two majors so he’s up to -31 already, just one short of that figure set by Scheffler and Schauffele.

How about the other two? Well, Tiger fired -4 when fifth at the 2000 Masters and -18 when beating Bob May in a playoff in the PGA Championship.

In other words, he’s way clear. Add it up and Tiger was a stunning -53 in those four 2000 majors.

Take a bow. Another Tiger record that may never be broken.

But wait! There’s a twist! Remarkably, there’s a player who went even lower. A player who went one better and shot -54!

The year was 2015 and the golfer who lit up those majors was one Jordan Spieth.

Spieth started his year to remember by shooting -18 to win The Masters, a tally that matched Tiger’s 72-hole record.

Still just 21 years old, the Texan made it two out of two when edging the US Open by a single shot with -5.

At The Open at St Andrews his fourth place finish was achieved with -14, Spieth finishing just one stroke out of the three-man playoff.

He rounded off a record-breaking campaign when finishing runner-up in the PGA with -17.

Put those four performances together and Spieth’s numbers read: -18, -5, -14 and -17 = -54.

Okay, par is just a number and courses can vary in difficulty but for Spieth to beat Tiger’s 2000 tally – and to eclipse the runaway tallies of Scheffler (2025) and Schauffele (2024) by 22 strokes – really is quite amazing.

Spieth’s 2015 season is held in high esteem but perhaps it deserves ever greater plaudits.