Paul McGinley picks who has the best short game out of Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler

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If you tried to build the perfect modern golfer, you’d be hard pressed to look outside of including Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, and Scottie Scheffler in there somewhere.

The world’s top three players are a cut above when they’re on their game and after being put together at The Players, there’s been plenty of eyes on them in round one at TPC Sawgrass.

Of course, right now, Scheffler is the world number one, while McIlroy is the more in-form player out of he and Schauffele thanks to the American’s recent injury troubles.

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And when it comes to putting together the best elements of all three, former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley admitted he’d have a bit of all three.

Paul McGinley builds his perfect golfer from Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele

McGinley knows McIlroy very well and given his expertise on the European circuit working for Sky Sports, he gets to see the world’s best plenty.

But when it came to piecing together the ideal golfer out of the world’s top three, he was left with no question as to who contributes what.

Speaking as the three were making their way around Sawgrass in round one, McGinley went with the following assessment.

“Driver with Rory,” McGinley quipped.

“Then iron player…certainly Scheffler. Course management would be included in that. As for short game – Schauffele, whether that be around the greens or on the greens, that’s my ideal of the three of them.”

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Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele’s 2024 season in numbers

At any given point, any of these three golf superstars can win on the PGA Tour and it’s no surprise they mopped up between them in 2024.

As we know, Scheffler won seven PGA Tour events outright but McIlroy and Schauffele chipped in with two wins apiece as well.

Going into the rest of the 2025 season, the record might not look the same as last season but come the season end, you can almost guarantee all three will be on the winner’s board.

In terms of the short-game, Schauffele hasn’t played enough yet in 2025 to be measured, while McIlroy is ahead of Scheffler in strokes gained so far.

Interestingly though, McIlroy actually gained more strokes – 0.248 – around the greens than Schauffele – 0.195 – in 2024.

However, it was in the approach where Schauffele excelled, gaining 0.678 strokes against the field to McIlroy’s 0.260.