Scottie Scheffler’s vanquished opponents at the British Open have hailed his Tiger Woods-like procession at Royal Portrush, but the increasingly dominant champion was quick to dismiss the comparisons with the great 15-time major champ as “silly.”

Such was the sense of remorseless inevitability about Scheffler’s fourth major triumph by four shots over the field on Sunday, his pursuers were reminded of the dominance of Woods.

“I don’t think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon, and here’s Scottie sort of taking that throne,” said Bryson DeChambeau, while dethroned champion Xander Schauffele smiled: “People are shy to say it, but he’s doing some Tiger-like stuff.”

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But the comments left the modest 29-year-old Scheffler responding about the comparisons on Sunday night: “I still think they’re a bit silly.

“Tiger won, what, 15 majors? This is my fourth. I just got one-fourth of the way there.

“I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf. He was inspirational for me growing up. He was a very, very talented guy, and he was a special person to be able to be as good as he was at the game of golf.

“I don’t focus on that kind of stuff. That’s not what motivates me. I’m not motivated by winning championships. I don’t look at the beginning of the year and just say, ‘hey, I want to win ‘X’ amount of tournaments, I want to win whatever it is’.

“I have dreams and aspirations that I think about, but at the end of the day I feel like what motivates me is just getting out and getting to live out my dream.

“I get to play professional golf, and I feel like I’m called to do it to the best of my ability.”

There were a few faint echoes of earlier in the week when Scheffler gave the pre-tournament news conference that reverberated beyond his sport when he said his biggest golf triumphs weren’t “fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.”

On Sunday night, when the subject was inevitably raised again, he was adamant he hadn’t been disrespecting the game or making light of his achievements.

“It really underestimates what I was trying to communicate. Maybe I didn’t do as effective of a job as I hoped to in communicating that,” said Scheffler, who again paid tribute to the importance of his loving family.

“At the end of the day, I have a tremendous amount of gratitude towards moments like these.

“I literally worked my entire life to become good at this game and play this game for a living. It’s one of my greatest joys of my life to compete out here.

“This is amazing to win the Open Championship, but at the end of the day, having success in life, whether it be in golf, work, whatever it is, that’s not what fulfils the deepest desires of your heart.

“Am I grateful for it? Do I enjoy it? Oh, my gosh, yes, this is a cool feeling. It’s just tough to describe when you haven’t lived it....”

The American had confessed at the start of the week, amid some rather startling soul-searching at a news conference, how winning golf championships didn’t give him a lasting feeling of fulfilment.

So it’s to be hoped that even the world’s top golfer may find more than fleeting satisfaction from this consummate display which again showcased the 29-year-old as a supreme generational talent.

“It’s a pretty special feeling. It was a tough week. I battled hard all weekend and, fortunately, I’m standing here holding the trophy,” said Scheffler.

“It’s pretty fun. I mean, I grew up waking up early to watch this tournament on TV, just hoping and dreaming I’d get the chance to come and play this championship. And it’s pretty cool to be sitting here with the trophy. It’s hard to put into words.”

Scheffler, starting off four shots ahead, effectively sucked all the drama out of an eagerly anticipated final day as his lordly control on the Dunluce links ensured no-one else could even land a blow on him.

From the moment he put his glorious approach from 143 yards to within 16 inches of the hole at the first for a tap-in birdie in lovely, unthreatening conditions at the storied Northern Ireland course, this most brilliant of front-runners made it feel like a Sunday afternoon seaside stroll.

That four-shot gap was never relinquished as a really tight battle unfolded for second place, with a dozen players, who all ended within four shots of each other, contending for that accolade until fellow American Harris English’s five-under 66 won the day.

But Scheffler was in a world of his own out front. How good is he when he holds a 54-hole lead? Well, he won the PGA by five earlier this year, last year’s Masters by four and the 2022 Masters by three. In the game’s annals, no-one else has ever won each of their first four major titles by three or more.

His mastery, at 17 under for the Championships (267 - 68, 64, 67, 68) made it a one-man show.

Chris Gotterup, the surprise American winner of the Scottish Open seven days earlier, completed his amazing week on his 26th birthday with a 67 to finish third on 12 under, while Wyndham Clark’s final 65, Matt Fitzpatrick’s 69 and Li Haotong’s 70 as Scheffler’s final-day playing partner got them to tied-fourth on 11 under.

Even Rory McIlroy, cheered on by his fabulous armada of fans, simply ran out of magic, trying to conjure up some cheers just to try to rattle the stoic figure in the group behind as he finished with a 69 for joint-seventh, alongside defending champion Xander Schauffele (68) and Bob MacIntyre (67).

There was just one blip amid Scheffler’s majestic progress. After birdieing three of the first five holes to move seven clear, he found a fairway bunker at the eighth hole and “got a little too greedy”, leaving the ball in the sand as he tried to blast out.

It led to a double-bogey six and his first dropped shot in 33 holes. “It was kind of a silly mistake, but I feel like one of my greatest strengths is being able to reset,” Scheffler reflected.

“Teddy (caddie Ted Scott) snapped me back in, and we did a good job bouncing back.”

Indeed, at the next, he hit his approach to five foot for birdie, before sinking another at the long 12th. From there it was simply cruise control as he eased to victory with six straight pars, not looking stressed in the slightest.

He’s moved into a different league to his rivals, even the best of his chasers agreed.

As McIlroy put it: “You could argue there’s only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on the sort of run Scottie’s been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive.”