Rex Hoggard picks who is more likely to win the Masters this year out of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy

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The Houston Open is over and the next event on Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy’s agenda is the Masters Tournament.

The two best players in the world obviously wanted to win last week at Memorial Park, however, it was also about preparing for Augusta National.

Scheffler and McIlroy will both feel like they did that with top-10 finishes behind first-time PGA Tour winner Min Woo Lee.

Golf expert Rex Hoggard has now picked which of them should be the favorite to win the Masters after the Houston Open.

• READ MORE: Dan Rapaport thinks Rory McIlroy has made a ‘brilliant’ move ahead of The Masters after his comments at the Houston Open

Rex Hoggard assesses Scottie Scheffler’s and Rory McIlroy’s Masters chances

Scheffler is the defending champion at Augusta, having also won the Green Jacket in 2022, so it’s hard to look past him doing it again.

But McIlroy has clearly performed better this season, with wins at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Players Championship.

With that in mind, Hoggard revealed that he’s “trending towards” picking the Northern Irishman to win his first Masters and complete the career Grand Slam.

“If you are Rory, fourth in strokes gained tee to green, top 10 in driving distance. The things that he didn’t quite have in victory at TPC Sawgrass seemed to come together.

“He had to work really hard to miss fairways on this particular golf course but I think what he saw out of his game was probably very encouraging. And once he got on scoring runs, which we all know that is how you get things done at Augusta, you go on a scoring run and suddenly have four straight threes on the card and you know you are doing something special. We have seen it out of him before.”

“I am curious that Scottie Scheffler is still the favourite, but in my mind, I continue to trend towards Rory. Not necessarily because of what he did this week but where he is in his game.”

Hoggard added that Scheffler isn’t far off the elite level he showed last season, but enough to give him slight concerns about his chances at Augusta.

“I think for Scottie it was one of those incremental gains. I think the one thing I will say about Scottie’s game, and I think this coalesced on Saturday, when he needed to do something special, and he had done something special the day before with his 62, I think he shot 69. The scoring average on that day was 68.

“He didn’t even keep up with the average for the field, which is surprising out of Scottie. And I keep going back to that hand injury that set him back in his offseason. He is a creature of habit; we know exactly what he wants to do. He shows up at a golf course with a game plan and he sticks to it. I think he was probably held back further than anyone anticipated, maybe even himself.

“The difference is minute [vs last year]. It’s been second in putting vs being 12th in putting this year. We are talking about fractions at this point, a quarter of a stroke per round, but those things add up and that is why he is now six events into his season and still hasn’t won.”

Scottie Scheffler outplayed Rory McIlroy at the Houston Open

Scheffler finished four shots ahead of McIlroy at the Houston Open, largely due to their respective first-round performances.

Indeed, the only reason that the world number two was not really in contention on Sunday was his even-par 70 on Thursday afternoon.

Scheffler shot 67 on Thursday, meaning he was only one shot better than McIlroy in the remaining three rounds, despite a course record-equalling 62 on Friday.

Neither was able to catch Min Woo Lee, despite his hiccup at the 16th hole, but both can take great confidence into the Masters.