Rory McIlroy won three times on the PGA Tour in 2025 and has one DP World Tour victory to his name, yet Scottie Scheffler still managed to separate himself from the man from Northern Ireland at the top of the world rankings.
That sentence proves just how good Scheffler was on the PGA Tour in 2026, with six wins to his name including two major championships.
While McIlroy dominated during the first three months of the season, Scheffler went into another gear from May onwards.
It has been claimed that McIlroy can hit shots that Scheffler isn’t capable of, but the American is simply more consistent and relentless than the Northern Irishman.
Scheffler and McIlroy motivate each other by winning golf tournaments, and we could be set to see a fierce rivalry between the two players on the golf course for the next decade or so.
That said, the 2025 Masters champion will be well aware that he has a lot of work to do if he is going to regain the world number one spot from the four-time major winner.
McIlroy admitted that Scheffler has been on a different level to every other player for two years now, just after The Open Championship in July.
He said: “Yeah, I think a lot more positive than they were six years ago. I mean, look, I’m really pleased with my week. I wish I had have been closer to Scottie going into today and been able to make a real push. But he’s been on a different level all week and he’s been on a different level for the last two years to the rest of us.”
Rory McIlroy has just proven why he can overtake Scottie Scheffler in 2026
McIlroy is very well placed after two rounds of the DP World Tour Championship, following rounds of 66 and 69 in Dubai.
Who is the better player: Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler?
However, his round of three-under par on Friday was arguably more impressive than his opening round 66.
The man from Holywood, Northern Ireland, hit only nine greens in regulation at The Earth Course on Friday.
He was ranked 51st out of 52 players in that specific category.
However, he was ranked second in putting and that clearly helped McIlroy grind out a score.
The world number two would most likely have shot somewhere in the region of 72-74 last year, had he played like he did on Friday.
The fact that he posted a 69 instead proves that he is actually closing the gap on Scheffler. The world number one is the best in the business at shooting two or three under-par while playing poorly.
He did exactly that on day one at the Procore Championship in September. The 29-year-old played terribly during round one in Napa but managed to turn what could’ve easily been a 75 into a 70.
Scheffler then followed that with rounds of 68, 64 and 67 to win the tournament by one stroke from Ben Griffin.
Now McIlroy has proven that he’s ready to compete consistently with Scheffler next season, after doing exactly what the number one golfer excels at over in Dubai on Friday.
Paul McGinley compares Rory McIlroy with Scottie Scheffler
McGinley was speaking about McIlroy’s round on Friday during Sky Sports’ broadcast of the DP World Tour Championship.
And the Irishman made it very clear just how impressive the five-time major champion’s round of 69 on day two actually was.
He said: “Even if he shot 71, 72 or 73, he would have been further off the lead and had more work to do. The fact that he still broke 70 doing that (playing poorly) and managing his bad golf. You don’t come out and play as well as you did yesterday every single time, even if you’re Rory McIlroy.
“The big key, and Scottie Scheffler is a great example of this too, is managing your rounds. Jack Nicklaus talked about this a lot in his career. Managing bad golf. He reckons he won 80 per cent of his tournaments playing poorly.
“So there is a skillset in doing that. Rory hasn’t had that all of his career of course he hasn’t but he’s so experienced now, he’s able to play as poorly as he did today and still shoot 69. You know he’s going to pick up something over the weekend.
“So today was impressive in a different way. Yesterday was a Rolls Royce performance, today was a bit of a Fiesta, a smaller car that was backfiring, but he still managed to get where he needed to get to.”
The challenge now for McIlroy will be to limit the damage on the PGA Tour and, more importantly, in the majors next season when he plays poorly.
If he does just that, he should be able to catch Scheffler in the world rankings in 2026.
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