SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Scottie Scheffler has three-peated as PGA TOUR Player of the Year, a mind-bending run of success that the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs are looking to match at the Super Bowl this weekend.

Before they were the class of the modern-day NFL, the Chiefs were a franchise with intriguing potential, knocking on the door before the floodgates opened. For both Scheffler and the Chiefs, the dominance hasn’t stopped – and might not stop for some time.

“I think they’re both machines,” said former NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who played in Wednesday’s WM Phoenix Open pro-am alongside TOUR veteran Mark Hubbard. “If you look at Kansas City, it’s just like automatic. If they get in a situation at the end of the game where they’ve got to have it, you know they’re going to come through.”

“Scottie does that too,” concurred Hubbard, a die-hard Denver Broncos fan. “It’s like he’s playing a video game sometimes. It’s just so point-and-shoot, and it seems like all the emotion’s out of it and he’s just going about his business.”

Like the modern-day Chiefs (who ended a five-decade title drought in 2020 and have now won three of the last five Super Bowls), Scheffler needed some reps before earning his first TOUR title. This week, he returns to the site of his breakthrough moment, the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, where he outlasted Patrick Cantlay with a birdie on the third playoff hole. Before that win, Scheffler was a young TOUR pro with promise. He had fared well at the prior fall’s Ryder Cup, going 2-0-1. He had notched 29 top-25 finishes across his first two TOUR seasons, including a fifth-place finish on the FedExCup as a rookie, after winning 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year honors. But the questions remained: Was he good enough to find the winner’s circle? It harkened back to his junior golf days, where he notched a series of runner-up finishes in American Junior Golf Association events before breaking through in a big way at the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur. “I always come in the top 10, but I never win,” said Scheffler, then 17, at the time.

Now, it seems, all he does is win. He successfully defended his maiden WM Phoenix Open title in 2023. He has won two of the last three Masters. He’s the only player to successfully defend at THE PLAYERS Championship (2023 and 2024). He has won 13 TOUR titles overall, and he’s a comfortable No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking. Last fall, he captured his first season-long FedExCup crown.

Like the Chiefs, it doesn’t always look perfect. Scheffler’s unorthodox footwork might not scream “best player in the world,” and his putting has drawn criticism at times, but he’s usually in the mix at the end. In his last 43 starts dating to early 2023, he has recorded 34 top-10 finishes. He hasn’t missed a cut since 2022 (and the Chiefs haven’t missed a Super Bowl since 2022).

“Chiefs being at the top of the NFL the last two years, I'm sure at times they haven't looked like the best team, and that's where I would compare Scottie,” said defending WM Phoenix Open champion Nick Taylor. “Xander (Schauffele) had an amazing run last year at the majors, but I feel like Scottie is kind of at the top of the golf podium, if you want to call it that, probably the last two-and-a-half years, so I'd give him consistency maybe a bit more of how … maybe the eye test versus the results. The Chiefs just keep winning, so it's impressive that way.”

“Very elite, very good every week, and just win a lot,” added PGA TOUR rookie Matt McCarty, who won three times on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour. “So that’s the comparison.”

Florida State junior Luke Clanton, who played a practice round with Scheffler at last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, recalled Wednesday that Scheffler felt like a “video-game character” as he arrived on the tee box for that round. Clanton’s past eight months have included some of the best TOUR golf by an amateur on record (in 2024, he became the first amateur since Jack Nicklaus in 1961 with three or more top-10s in a TOUR season), but Scheffler’s magnetism hit differently, similar to the effect of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Scheffler has earned his success. He has diligently honed his technique alongside swing instructor Randy Smith for roughly two decades; even as a preteen, Scheffler wore pants to practice in the sweltering Texas summer heat to emulate the pros. The same can be said for the Chiefs, whose coaching staff led by Andy Reid leaves no stone unturned in meticulous game-planning for every schematic advantage.

As other NFL franchises search for clues within the Chiefs’ process, hoping to eventually catch up, PGA TOUR pros are doing the same regarding Scheffler. After winning last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, world No. 3 Rory McIlroy said he admires Scheffler’s ability to restrain aggressive impulses at crucial times in rounds, something McIlroy has struggled with at times in his career. McIlroy laid back when necessary at Pebble Beach and won by two strokes for his 27th PGA TOUR title. “I'm a big admirer of Scottie for a lot of different reasons, but every time I play with him and I watch how he plays and how disciplined he is, it's a really cool thing to watch,” McIlroy said. “Just trying to take a little bit of a leaf out of his book.”

Scheffler is the first player since Tiger Woods (2005-07) to win three straight PGA TOUR Player of the Year awards. Can Scheffler maintain his otherworldly run for years to come? His Chiefs counterpart is confident.

“I don’t need to give Scottie Scheffler any advice,” Mahomes said Monday at Super Bowl Media Day. “All he knows how to do is win. It might be the Texas in him. The Texas guys are always the best.”

There’s one caveat to the Scheffler-Chiefs parallel, as Hubbard and Fitzpatrick pointed out Wednesday after playing the stadium par-3 16th at TPC Scottsdale. Some NFL fans have proclaimed a readiness to see a new regime at the top. There’s no such sentiment in the golf world around Scheffler.

“I don’t think anyone gets tired of watching Scottie win,” Fitzpatrick said.

“Everybody loves Scottie Scheffler,” agreed Hubbard. “I don’t think there’s any comparison.”

Golfbet’s Casey Johnston contributed reporting from Super Bowl media day