With his unbroken 18 major championship record, Jack Nicklaus’ career is the definition of legendary. Comparing him with the current World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, one insider noted they have more in common than just their decorated careers. That similarity is rooted in their defiance of the set standards of golf. So how have these golfers gone against everything we know and still come out on top?

Danny Maude and Peter Flinch joined for a Q/A session with listeners of the Rough Cut Golf podcast on October 14. Discussing visually appealing golf swings, the insiders dismantled the difference between aesthetic and performance. They argued that it’s often the beautiful swings that attract our attention. However, it’s often the “eccentric weird moves” that bring about results for the top performers of the sport. “It’s just what works,” Flinch insisted.

Agreeing with him, Maude brought Nicklaus as an example to set up their arguments. “If you take one of the greatest golfers I’ve met, Jack Nicklaus. Nobody’s talking about modeling Jack Nicklaus’s swing. We talk about Ben Hogan’s swing. But Ben Hogan didn’t win half as many matches as, say, Jack Nicklaus, right?” Maude told in the podcast. While he acknowledged Hogan’s beautiful swings, the difference in the golfer’s resumes speaks for itself.

In fact, if we take a closer look at the game of Jack Nicklaus and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, we can find more similarities than we can find with Hogan. “If you look at the world’s number one golfer, he has more resemblance, I think, to Jack Nicklaus in the way he kind of swings. He’s got his elbows up, he’s nice and high with the hands. He’s got a bit of a slide going on. He does a lot of things that are similar to Jack Nicklaus, but he doesn’t look like a Ben Hogan at all,” Maude explained.

It’s not so to say that Scheffler has necessarily copied his swing from Nicklaus. Instead, it’s more about their refusal to fit the society’s mold for what a ‘perfect swing’ looks like. A look at Nicklaus’ swinging style confirms that.

The golfing veteran adopted a more unorthodox approach with his clubs, with his hands very high and an upright plane of motion. This posture suited his powerful frame and individual torso better. Moreover, Nicklaus lifted his left heel higher on the backswing, creating a full turn and massive coil for distance. His stable head positioning ensured balance despite the movement.

Similarly, Scheffler also keeps his hands high, above his shoulders, while keeping his elbow flared. This is not your picture-perfect swing, but his consistent No. 1 position for over 150 weeks shows that it is effective. In fact, he’s considered one of the best ball-strikers in modern golf. Despite being only 5 years old on the PGA Tour, Scheffler has already claimed 4 majors.

His eccentricities might place him outside of the discussion forums about perfect swings, but they have definitely flooded his bank account with prize money. This prompts a deeper discussion about what a rising hopeful should focus on during their training.

While visual learning can help clarify the fundamentals of the sport, it can only take you that far. What’s far more important is understanding your own individual game and finding what brings results for you, as Maude and Flinch both argued.

Getting back to our iconic duo, do Nicklaus and Scheffler share any other similarity besides their swings? And what does the golfing world think of these legends?

Jack Nicklaus and Scottie Scheffler: A holistic comparison

While swings are one of the more recent comparisons brought into the equation, it’s not new for Scheffler and Nicklaus to often find themselves sharing the spotlight. When Scheffler began dominating the greens, naturally, the first look went to Tiger Woods for his unwavering dominance. However, a closer look suggested the styles of the golfers couldn’t be more different from each other. Woods displayed immense strength and raw intensity in his swings. In contrast, Scheffler focuses on a more reliable and stable approach towards fairways and greens. Something Nicklaus has himself found endearingly similar to his own gameplay.

Both golfers prioritize smart-course management over flashy risk-taking. Not only does that bring forward the similarities in their mindset, but it also highlights commonalities in their game. While Scheffler relies on dynamic weight shift and balance to extract power for his swing, Nicklaus also utilizes ground force for his swing. As Maude and Flinch already pointed out, both golfers also have a common slide in their feet for the downswing. Despite the movement, their balance and stability don’t let them compromise their power.

“He plays a lot like I did,” Nicklaus commented. “And that’s the way he’s playing. He reminds me so much of the way I like to play.” Butch Harmon agrees with the sentiment. “He makes no mental mistakes… he reminds me more of Jack than he does of Tiger,” Harmon remarked. “He’s the closest thing to Jack Nicklaus I’ve ever seen mentally.”

Ultimately, both Jack Nicklaus and Scottie Scheffler show that mastering consistency, balance, and smart strategy outweighs chasing a “perfect” swing, proving that results define greatness.