Scheffler waiting to earn his place in golf history

The best player on the PGA Tour is not about to rank himself among some of the greats in the game, even as he is about to become the leader in all-time career earnings.

Scottie Scheffler enters this week's BMW Championship set to pass Tiger Woods on the career money list, but scoffs at the notion that he is anywhere near to making the same impact on the PGA Tour that Woods did during a record-breaking career.

While Woods has collected $US120,999,166 in earnings, Scheffler is second at $US119,964,411 after claiming $US3.6 million to open the FedEx Cup playoffs last week at the St Jude Championship in Memphis.

"I mean, that has a lot to do with the purses and all that," Scheffler said. "I'm not really too close to him in terms of career wins, so ..."

Indeed, purses are far greater now than in Woods' heyday. The last time Woods won a US Open was in 2008 when the total purse was $US7.5 million with a winner's share of $US1.35 million. This year's US Open had a $US22.5 million purse, with $US4.5 million to the winner.

"Tiger did a lot for the game of golf and he put us in a position where we're able to earn some pretty good stuff financially, so that's something we're very grateful for," Scheffler said.

"Tiger's contributions to the game, when you look at where the purses were at before he came out on tour to where they're at now is a pretty stark difference and we're very thankful for his contributions to the game, and hopefully we'll see him back out here competing again soon."

To get to his total earnings, Woods won 82 times on the PGA Tour, which is tied with fellow American Sam Snead for first all-time. Scheffler's win last week was his 21st.

"What, am I like a fourth of the way there? Something like that," Scheffler said with a laugh.

Another way to put Scheffler's career in perspective: he has 50 top-three tournament finishes, while Jack Nicklaus had 165 of them.

He might be nowhere near Nicklaus's top-three total, but Scheffler is proud of his number.

"The best way to win tournaments is to give yourself as many opportunities as you can," Scheffler said.

"So that is nice for me to have some numbers where I'm giving myself opportunities to win.

"The consistency of putting myself in contention week in week out is something that I'm very proud of."