PGA Tour winner admits why he was left amazed with Rory McIlroy after playing in the same group as him

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It is fascinating for mere mortals – in this case, amateur golfers – to hear what some of the best players on the planet think of Rory McIlroy.

Rory McIlroy will go down as one of the all-time greats of the game. The Northern Irishman was the heir to Tiger Woods.

And while he should have arguably won more majors, he still managed to write his name in the history books by completing the Career Grand Slam at The Masters this year.

Although Scottie Scheffler has been the game’s most dominant player since Woods, McIlroy is perhaps the most talented.

Ryan Fox names the two stars who left him amazed after playing with them

Justin Thomas recently noted how Scheffler seems to do nothing out of the ordinary. But it appears that the same cannot be said for the ability McIlroy has.

Like Thomas, Ryan Fox – who won the Canadian Open earlier this year – has struggled to put his finger on Scheffler’s brilliance.

But speaking in a video on Taco Golf, the New Zealander picked out the two stars he has played alongside who he felt were on a completely different level.

“I played with DJ [Dustin Johnson] in my first year on tour, in 2017. Saturday at Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi’s a pretty strong golf course for me. It was long rough, you had to drive the ball really good. I played with him and Rickie Fowler. That was a pretty cool group to play in,” he said.

“And I played really good. Shot three under, didn’t make a bogey. Rickie shot one under. And DJ shot 64 like it was nothing. And that’s the first time I’ve walked off the golf course and gone, ‘—-, I don’t have that’.

“The other one was Rory. I’ve played with Rory a few times now, quite a few practice rounds with him. But we played the first round at the Dubai Invitational, a couple of years ago, in 2023. It was the first event of the season. I was pretty rusty and I scrapped around for 71 again or something like that. And Rory went out and shot 62. It just looked easy.

“He holed a couple of putts, but it wasn’t anything crazy. A couple of 20 footers, but it’s not like he holed 150 foot of putts for the day. He’s probably the one guy you watch and he hits shots that I don’t think anyone else has.

“You watch Scottie Scheffler play, and I’ve never played with Scottie, but you watch him on the range and you watch him on TV and you see his flights, Scottie, it’s control, but he hits the shot that you have to hit every time. It’s pin high, if he wants to hit a fade, it fades. If he wants to hit a draw, it draws. And he’s never off the planet.

“Rory’s the one who hits those unbelievable shots that you just look at and you’re like yeah okay, you’ve just got it. He hits it high, he can hit it far. He can move it a long way in both directions. He’s hit some absolutely incredible shots under pressure. But he’s also got the occasional wayward one.

“Those two, DJ and Rory are the two that were like, yeah okay, I’m not at that level.”

Dustin Johnson fighting to prove he has more to give at the highest level

It has been a remarkable decline for Dustin Johnson in recent years. He has not finished in the top five of a major since winning The Masters back in 2020.

That was also his most recent victory on the PGA Tour.

In fairness, the 2025 season was the first in which Johnson failed to win on LIV Golf since his move three years earlier.

He finished 14th in the individual standings this past season, with just one podium finish all year. He also missed three cuts in the majors.

It is a shame that the 41-year-old has seemingly regressed so much over the last few years.

But it would be naive to think that he could not recapture some of his old magic again at some stage in the future.