The one part of Scottie Scheffler’s game that Rory McIlroy ‘idolizes’

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Scottie Scheffler has been so dominant over the past two years that he is now drawing comparisons with the great Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods has been the most dominant player in the game since Jack Nicklaus was in his prime and now we’re seeing Scottie Scheffler produce similar levels.

Many PGA Tour stars have been comparing Scottie Scheffler to Tiger Woods for quite some time now.

It has even been suggested that Scheffler is better equipped than Woods was to win the calendar year Grand Slam, due to his incredible consistency and his robust physicality.

The 29-year-old from Dallas, Texas, is so good, in fact, that Rory McIlroy is said to idolize him because of one of his attributes.

McIlroy and Scheffler have both motivated each other over the past couple of years, driving one another on to be the best they can possibly be.

And while the Northern Irishman is capable of beating Scheffler when he’s on his absolute best form, he finds it hard to live with the American’s ‘death by a thousand cuts’ brilliance week after week.

McIlroy really admires Scheffler and vice versa. However, what is the one part of the world number one’s game that really impresses the 2025 Masters champion?

The part of Scottie Scheffler’s game that Rory McIlroy ‘idolizes’

Since February 2022, Scheffler has won 20 PGA Tour tournaments, four major championships, two Hero World Challenges and an Olympic gold medal.

That is a quite remarkable run of form and he has rightfully deserved huge praise as a result.

Sky Sports Podcast host Jamie Weir pointed out to Nick Dougherty that Scheffler has now recorded eight consecutive top-four finishes on the PGA Tour – a run that started in July at The Open Championship.

“Amazing,“ Dougherty exclaimed.

“That’s only happened twice before in the last 40 years, both times were Tiger.

“The comparisons with Tiger are warranted now. Is like, that whole sort of, ‘Oh, yeah, but’, like, no, sorry.

“The only yeah but is, can he do it for a long time?

“From what we’re watching, I’m looking for evidence that it’s gonna stop. I think one of the reasons why I believe he’s going to keep doing it is because his mindset is just like he’s taking the dog out for a walk.

“I mean, he’s popping to the shop. He’s picking up his vegetables for the week for cooking his dinners and he’s taking the dog.

“He’s just doing normal human things that we do every day, but he’s not really.

“He’s doing these remarkable, incredible, extraordinary things on the golf course, and the way he’s putting it together, sometimes it’s just sheer brilliance where he spread eagles the field, sometimes it’s like the last two weeks, where it’s like, I mean, he was hopeless in Phoenix.

“He said he was close and wasn’t that bad on the first day at Pebble. The numbers don’t show that. He was almost dead last in proximity, so he might have felt alright, but the ball wasn’t going where it was supposed to, and the conditions were easy.

“Scottie was level through 25 holes and for the next 47 holes, he was 20 under par. I mean, I joked with James Nitties, who was doing the commentary with me. I asked him, ‘Where do you think he’ll finish after his first round?’

“He said: ‘Tied 22nd’, and I thought, ‘Well, that’s interesting, because he was a long way behind that. He was like 50th or something.

“And actually, 21st going into the last round, he’s doing all right, although you think he’s probably going to move up again. He nearly won it!

“It’s just mind blowing how good this guy is. He deserves all the plaudits he gets. The way he puts it together, and what he’s showing us, week to week.

“And Rory, you know, early in the week as well, admiring him and paying homage to the consistency of what this guy is doing week in, week out.

“I think Rory effectively said, ‘That’s not who I am. I can beat him on my week like, when I’m all singing all dancing, I can beat him. But week in and week out, yeah, I can’t really keep up with that’.

“It’s one of the things he idolises about Scottie, and arguably to a level where, you know, you look at the 18 top tens in a row now, I mean, it’s a long way to go to get to 65 that Byron Nelson got to back in the 60s, but like, in the modern era, to be that consistently good, I mean, Tiger didn’t even get to that point.

“Amazing.“

Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s PGA Tour records compared

Woods set the benchmark during his prime years when it comes to PGA Tour victories.

He’s tied at the top with Sam Snead for the most of all time.

Meanwhile, he sits second behind only Jack Nicklaus in the all-time list of most major victories.

So how does Woods’ career PGA Tour record compare with those of Scheffler and McIlroy?

All three players quite obviously possess tremendous PGA Tour career records.

However, Scheffler is closer to Woods’ numbers from a percentage perspective. For example, Scheffler’s PGA Tour win rate currently stands at 13.1%, while McIlroy’s is 10.5%, with Woods having won an incredible 21% of the tournaments he played in.

Meanwhile, Scheffler has finished inside the top-5 just over 38% of the time in his 153 PGA Tour appearances. Woods recorded a 43% return in that category while McIlroy currently sits around the 30% mark.

It will be fascinating to follow Scottie Scheffler’s career over the next 10-15 years. Will he even be able to get close to the numbers put up by Tiger Woods?

It’s highly doubtful but certainly not impossible.