Paul McGinley names who he thinks is the best golfer in the world right now ‘by miles’

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The OWGR says Scottie Scheffler is the best golfer in the world right now but with Xander Schauffele winning two majors in 2024 and Rory McIlroy continuing to shine, there’s still a debate of sorts to be had.

Scheffler was the standout player in 2024 as he won the Masters as well as an Olympic Gold medal to go with a number of signature event wins as well.

Of course, Schauffele snatched both The Open and the PGA Championship, while McIlroy’s consistency ensured another great 2024 for him, albeit without quite as much glory.

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At the moment, Scheffler is miles ahead of the field in the OWGR, sitting nearly 300 ranking points above second placed Scheffler.

And according to former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley, there is one standout from those three players in golf right now.

Paul McGinley names the best golfer in the world out of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele

Speaking in an interview for the Irish Independent, McGinley covered a range of topics in the current golfing world.

But when it came to who the number one player is, McGinley was absolutely certain it was Scheffler.

“Scottie Scheffler by miles. I think it [his putting] is vastly improved. There are different styles of putters and when he went to Phil Kenyon I knew that was a good move. Phil Kenyon was not good for Rory, because Rory is kind of unstructured but a structured guy like Scottie Scheffler going to a structured coach like Phil Kenyon. That was a good match. I think he’s a much better putter with Phil Kenyon, just like Rory is with Brad Faxon,” McGinley said.

“He is [the best by miles]. He has 90% top tens this year. That’s off the scale. I follow the stats very deeply and the best year ever recorded in playing golf was Tiger Woods in 2006. We have stats down to the inch with the lasers out there, every single shot is documented on the PGA Tour and the majors. And that’s been going on since 2000, so we have a big database.

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“Tiger dominates the best five years ever played, Vijay Singh was up there and David Duval was up there too. So the best was 2006 Tiger. But the second best ever recorded was this year with Scottie Scheffler, that’s how close to Tiger Woods he has got.

“He is not as charismatic as Tiger, but he has won seven times this year, 90% of tournaments have been top 10. It’s phenomenal. The nearest to him is Xander Schauffele, he is a hell of a player. He is 70% top 10, he has only had two wins. But again his ball striking and he’s a much better putter than Scottie. I expect him to come in a bit.”

Scottie Scheffler is going to be world number one for some time

It’s going to take quite the collapse from Scheffler and quite the improvement from either McIlroy or Schauffele to dislodge him at the top spot.

Scheffler is so far ahead in the rankings at the moment that he’s almost need to not play or make the cut in multiple huge events to drop down.

We’ve seen periods of dominance in golf in the past with the likes of Tiger Woods and even Rory McIlroy himself at one point.

But right now, it feels we are in a new period of dominance for Scheffler and until he significantly drops his level, he’s going nowhere anytime soon.