Rory McIlroy could have hardly dreamed of receiving more vindication for the work that he had done on his game over the winter, with the Northern Irishman’s third victory of the season seeing him win The Masters and completing the career grand slam.
Rory McIlroy gave absolutely everything to get across the line and win The Masters. It was certainly far from pretty at times – particularly on Sunday – but everyone knew that the 35-year-old was never going to win at Augusta National without plenty of drama along the way.
McIlroy fought back from a nightmare end to his first round to post two scores of 66 to leave himself two shots clear heading into Sunday. And when he managed to make a birdie on the first playoff hole, he was given reason to let out 11 years of emotion on the spot in which he had secured sporting immortality.
Had the scars of history not been present, you would have said that McIlroy would have been the overwhelming favourite to win The Masters this year. He won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and then The Players Championship. And he did it despite being far from his best.
But this is a different McIlroy – and that seems to have partially been down to Scottie Scheffler.
Scottie Scheffler returns the favour as Rory McIlroy wins The Masters
The world number one enjoyed a historic 2024 season, winning nine times worldwide. That included a second Masters title in three years, victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players Championship, The Memorial, the Olympic Games and the Tour Championship.
It appeared that golf had found its most dominant player since Tiger Woods. Certainly, Scheffler had the kind of year not seen since Woods was near his peak.
Unsurprisingly, McIlroy spoke of wanting to play more like Scheffler heading into 2025. Unfortunately, McIlroy had not won a major since 2014, while he had a number of close calls in the last handful of years – most painfully at Pinehurst, where he lost the US Open last year by one shot.
“I’m a big admirer of Scottie Scheffler for a lot of different reasons and every time I play with him – and watch how he plays and how disciplined he is – it’s a really cool thing to watch,” he told Sky Sports.
“I’m trying to take a little bit of a leaf out of his book. When one of your peers has the year like he had last year, and honestly the year like he had in 2023 as well, you start to take notice of what he is doing and what has made him or helped him separate himself from the rest of the fields.”
It would be naive to say that McIlroy played like Scheffler on Sunday at Augusta National. That was the performance of someone who knew that they may never get a better opportunity to end their long wait to win the first major of the year.
But McIlroy only got into that position because of the things he appears to have taken from Scheffler’s game. He has been so much more precise with the iron and wedge shots which would needlessly trip him up in the past. And his course management skills have arguably never been better.
That confidence that he would have gained from winning at TPC Sawgrass would have fuelled the belief which he desperately needed heading into Friday at Augusta. So many of us were ready to rule out a player who, in truth, has actually never got that close to contending down the stretch at The Masters during his career.
McIlroy however, realised that he had more time to turn his tournament around. Similarly, many would have lost their heads when he made a double bogey on the first on Sunday. However, those who have watched him on the PGA Tour this season will have been more worried when he had a four-shot lead later on.
Scheffler showed McIlroy the path back to being the best player in the world once again – which in turn led to Masters glory.
So perhaps it is safe to say that he has more than returned the favour for a piece of advice McIlroy gave Scheffler at last year’s Genesis Invitational.
The advice Rory McIlroy gave Scottie Scheffler at the Genesis Invitational
The one part of Scheffler’s game which had not been elite in the opening weeks of the season had been his putting, with the 2022 Masters champion finishing between third and 17th in his first five events of the year.
McIlroy suggested that Scheffler should switch to a mallet putter. And, while it seems that Scheffler had already been working with a more forgiving putter behind the scenes, it was interesting that it was not long before the change did come.
In fact, Scheffler won his first event, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, using the mallet. It was also his first appearance following the Genesis.
Obviously, Scheffler is not the finished article on the greens. He was 77th for strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour in 2024. But that was more than good enough to completely dominate.
And he is up to 42nd at the start of this year. So if he can rediscover the magic in the other parts of his game, he will quickly become a force again.
It is often said that two great rivals will end up elevating each other. It certainly seems that both Scheffler and McIlroy have gained a great deal from the other being around.
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