Scottie Scheffler may lead Rory McIlroy by over double the points at the top of the Official World Golf Rankings but he admits the six-time major champion is someone who he looks up to for his work ethic and longevity at the very top level of professional golf.
Indeed, McIlroy’s average points of 8.76 is closer to world number 4755 Soonsang Hong of Korea than he is to hunting down Scheffler’s total of 17.69. Scheffler roared to an eight shot victory on Sunday at the FedEx St Jude Championship while McIlroy languished in third last.
McIlroy conceded that Scheffler should be named PGA Tour Player of The Year despite ending the season with no major title and insisted that everyone is “eff’d” if the American continues to pick up nine strokes on the field in putting like he did last week in Memphis.
Scheffler, however, still uses McIlroy as someone to aspire to, despite his apparent dominance at the top of the world rankings.
“Well, he’s competed at a high level for such a long time. Rory’s a guy that when you look at when he won his first tournament to where he is now, he’s a guy that’s just been one of the best players in the world and sustained it for a really, really long time,” Scheffler said.
“He works extremely hard. He’s a guy that I always see in the gym, on the practice range, he’s always doing the things that he needs to do in order to play well. He’s definitely a guy that I look up to in a sense just because of how long he’s been able to do it for. It’s quite impressive.”
McIlroy wasn’t too open armed for welcoming LIV players back to the PGA Tour for next season or the revamped 2028 campaign if the Saudi backed tour goes bankrupt, a scenario LIV CEO Scott O’Neil hasn’t ruled out. Scheffler would like to get back competing against the likes of Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau on a regular basis and would welcome a route back for them like Brooks Koepka was afforded earlier this term.
“When we talk about the best players, you know, LIV has a few players that are really good. I think the depth that we have on our tour is bit unmatched, but I think when you look at the higher levels of LIV Golf there’s definitely some players that would provide a lot of value to the Tour, and guys that I love competing against as well. So I think going forward there obviously has to be, I think, some sort of penalties. What those are, I’ll let Rolapp and all those guys figure it out. We have great leadership within the tour now.
“But I think having those guys come back and competing with whatever happens with LIV, whether those guys want to leave, I mean, you got to ask them. But I think for me being able to compete against the best players in the world there’s certainly some guys on that tour that can compete out here and I look forward to the chance to compete with them more often.”
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