When Scottie Scheffler queried the point of it all earlier in the week, he might have spared a thought for those nurturing daft notions of catching him on a leaderboard. If there is a more futile task in sport, then Portrush was not the place to attempt the argument.

He crushed the chasers, buried them deep among the thorns and briar roses, and after this four-shot mauling was completed with a final lap of 68, he was handed the Claret Jug. Champion Golfer of the Year? Try era.

Those conversations have been running for some time already and they will run faster now, such was the manner in which he won his first Open title, his second major of the season, and his fourth in the space of three.

By the time he drained his 267th shot of the week, a one-foot putt for par on the 18th, any sense of jeopardy had already left this beautiful tip of Northern Ireland. That’s simply what he does to tournaments. To fields of the elite.

Some might mistake it for boring, but the truth points far closer to a level of quality unseen in golf since Tiger Woods and so do the numbers – the gap between their first and fourth major wins is an eerily identical 1,197 days. Our comparisons are getting easier to make, even if Scheffler did brand them ‘silly’ on Sunday night.

‘Tiger won 15 majors and this is my fourth,’ he said. ‘I just got one-fourth of the way there. I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf.’

A relentless Scottie Scheffler sealed his first British Open triumph by four shots on Sunday

Scheffler finished 17 under for the tournament and never looked under serious threat

Scheffler produced a level of golf that has not been seen in golf since Tiger Woods’ prime

In this tournament, no one stood within the same postcode as Scheffler. The closest to his 17-under-par total was Harris English, four back, and Chris Gotterup, who was one further behind.

But it wasn’t about them. Nor was it about Rory McIlroy’s tie for seventh after a Sunday charge that never materialised, and it wasn’t about Bryson DeChambeau’s round of 64 that suggested he might eventually crack links golf.

No, this was the Scheffler show, and has been since he sat in a media tent on Tuesday and spoke in existential terms that bordered on shocking about the lack of fulfilment that accompanies his wins.

Goodness, he even predicted in advance that a win here would feel ‘awesome’ for all of two minutes, such are the demands of staying on top. At the time it sounded a little burnout; by the close of the weekend, Scheffler claimed he had been misunderstood, and that his broader point was about putting golf beneath family and faith in his priorities.

‘I don’t know why I’m so lucky that I get to live out my dreams, but it’s something I’m very grateful for,’ he said. ‘It 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.’

Be that as it may, his place among the all-time greats is forever taking on a new look.

Perhaps McIlroy put it best on Sunday evening: ‘He is the bar that we’re all trying to get to. In a historical context, you could argue that there’s only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have had a run like the one that Scottie’s been on here for the last 36 months. Incredibly impressive.’

The fact Scheffler is only 29 makes the possibilities all the more glaring, especially as he possesses an unflappable mind and that invaluable gift of being able to rise at precisely the right time.

The world No 1 celebrated with his wife Meredith after completing his round to win the title

Scheffler claimed the fourth major title of his golfing career in style at Royal Portrush

Scheffler was left with a simple putt on the 18th hole to seal glory in Northern Ireland

His three-under final round was more than enough for him to finish clear of the chasing pack

Harris English finished second, four shots behind the victorious compatriot Scheffler 

He showed as much on Saturday in pulling away from Matt Fitzpatrick, and he did so again on Sunday, by doing exactly what was necessary and rarely anything more. At one stage his lead grew as large as seven strokes and not once did it fall to less than four, even after he carded a double bogey on the eighth.

Tellingly, they were his first and last dropped strokes since the 11th hole on Friday; he doesn’t bludgeon a field with birdies, he breaks the collective spirit by avoiding mistakes.

Sure, he rarely seems to offer anything as artful and dramatic as Woods, he of the drained chip and pumping fists from behind the 16th at Augusta, but equally, he seldom needs to play a recovery shot in the first place. A reliable putter doesn’t always make for a glorious highlights reel, but 13 PGA Tour titles since early 2022, four majors, and an Olympic gold medal are a reasonable compensation.

Is he better than McIlroy? That remains a fascinating discussion about two wildly contrasting characters and players. But it is interesting to note that once McIlroy completed the career slam at the Masters in April, taking his haul to five majors, something ignited in Scheffler from May onwards.

Aside from two tour-level titles in May and June to end what had been depicted as a five-month slump, brought on when he cut his hand on a wine glass at Christmas, the world No 1 has also won the PGA Championship and now the 153rd Open. There’s that sense of timing again – he needed to rise and he did. At seven years younger than the Northern Irishman, he would now be odds-on to pass him in the historical standings, if such predictions are ever advisable in golf.

At the very least, we are still waiting to see the world’s two best swingers locked in a Sunday duel when both are at their best. The sport deserves to see whether fire can beat ice and vice versa.

Here, it was a huge victory for the man with a steady pulse. China’s Li Haotong was Scheffler’s playing partner in the final group and he had already admitted on Saturday evening that he was playing for second, which was quickly supported by the evidence.

Scheffler’s first shot of the day found the first cut of rough and the second, from 143 yards, came to rest one foot from the hole. He was never going to capitulate.

Whether Rory McIlroy is better than Scheffler remains a fascinating discussion about two wildly contrasting characters

McIlroy’s push never materialised – he shot 69 and closed seven behind – and Li managed only a 70. English and Gotterup jumped past both of them.

Wyndham Clark, a cartoon villain of the game, stormed to a tie for fourth after an excellent 65 and Bob MacIntyre joined McIlroy in seventh, a month after finishing second at the US Open.

But none got close to Scheffler. The two shots he required to escape a fairway bunker on eighth amounted to his only iffy moment, and even then it was temporary – he recouped the strokes by the time he reached the 13th tee.

He celebrated by hugging his wife and toddler and, as it happens, the grin last longer than two minutes.