There’s no doubt that the two standout players in men’s golf this year have been Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.
Scheffler’s season has been magnificent throughout with the highlight being a win at The Masters and an Olympics gold medal along with five other victories, including at the PGA Tour’s flagship event The Players Championship.
As for Schauffele, he’s never had a better season, demonstrating remarkable consistency in not missing a cut while picking up his first two Majors along the way – the PGA Championship and The Open.
While the astonishing achievements of both players has set off a debate as to whose season has been the best, Rory McIlroy is in no doubt who has the edge.
The four-time Major winner spoke to the media ahead of his appearance in the first of this week’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, and he came down firmly on one side of the debate. He said: “Scottie's. I think winning the Masters, an Olympic gold medal, winning, whatever it is, six times, it's pretty hard to top that.”
McIlroy went further in his praise for Scheffler, recalling his incredible final round at the Olympics, where his back nine 29 on the Sunday at Le Golf National saw him storm to victory. Of that achievement, McIlroy, who finished T5 at the event, said: “Yeah, it's up there. I thought I was on course for a 29, as well, at one point.
“But for him to just keep it going, yeah, he's amazing even when you think he's not really in the tournament or he's sort of on the fringes of contention.
“He always seems to find a way to hit the shots or hole the putts. I've described Scottie as relentless, and this is just another example of that. He's had an incredible couple of years. It was sort of like once he won that first one, it's just like the floodgates have opened and he's found a next gear and a next level.”
While McIlroy’s own form this season has been some way short of Scheffler’s, he still has two wins on the PGA Tour, at the Wells Fargo Championship and Zurich Classic of New Orleans, but he admitted that even that had fallen short of his own incredibly high standards, saying: "I certainly don't want to sit up here and belittle my achievements at all this year and what I've done, but at the same time, yeah, I expect a certain standard from myself.
“Yeah, I've won a couple of times. I've had an opportunity to win a few more times than that and haven't been able to get over the line. So I would have liked to have added a couple more to that win column.”
That’s something he hopes to put right in the next three weeks of the Playoffs as he looks for his fourth FedEx Cup triumph. He added: “There's still three tournaments left in this PGA Tour season. I think I've actually got eight or nine tournaments left this year, but three on the PGA Tour, to turn an okay season into a very good one.”
To do that, he admitted he needs to be more clinical at the end of tournaments. He said: "Yeah, I just have to finish off tournaments better. There’s been glimpses where I have done it. Like Quail Hollow, for example.
"But obviously the US Open, Olympics. Yeah, it’s just sort of - I feel like this year and maybe the last couple years I’ve just found a way to hit the wrong shot at the wrong time.
"That might go into preparation and trying to practice a little more under pressure at home. I mean, you go through these things in golf, and you go through these little challenges, and you just have to try to figure out a way to get through it, and my challenge right now is that. It’s really good but not quite good enough to sort of take home the silverware. It’s just something I’m having to work through."
McIlroy begins his challenge alongside Collin Morikawa, with the pair’s first-round beginning on Thursday at 10.45am EDT (3.45pm BST).
