Rory McIlroy has been told that many golf fans want him to set his sights on catching Scottie Scheffler with the Northern Irishman at a crossroads in his career.
While the 2025 and 2026 seasons will be remembered overwhelmingly positively when McIlroy retires, it is safe to say that not everything has gone to plan for the 37-year-old over the last 18 months.
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McIlroy was a four-time major champion the last time he won a regular PGA Tour event. And in truth, it is hard to imagine that he cares a great deal about ending that run any time soon.
McIlroy only made 14 starts on the PGA Tour this year. And while he was able to win The Masters for a second time in April, he failed to build any momentum across the season as he made just one appearance between each of the four majors.
Rory McIlroy facing a conundrum following the end of the PGA Tour season
The gap between Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler certainly seemed to increase over the season.
While Scheffler was not at his best, he still managed to win three times.
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And speaking on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast, Rob Lee suggested that McIlroy now has a tricky decision to make about how often he plays on the PGA Tour in the coming years.
Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
“Rory’s body language this week wasn’t great. He looked, is grumpy the right word? It was just slightly off that affable, bouncy Rory that we normally see. So there’s stuff going on with him,” he said.
“I looked at the numbers. This was his 16th tournament. This was Scottie’s 20th tournament since January, so Scottie’s played an extra month. Four tournaments is a month in eight, eight months from January to August, and Scottie played one more than Rory did.
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“And Rory’s in this position, he’s played golf for 20 years at the highest level. He’s 37, he realises there’s other things in life, but the last thing he wants to do is not be able to be peak Rory. So his conundrum is how much can I pair back my schedule but still perform the way I know I can? That’s the place he’s in now.”
Rory McIlroy told to set his sights on catching Scottie Scheffler
When McIlroy won The Masters for the first time, some expected the floodgates to open. Not only had he won a fifth major after waiting more than a decade, but he had also completed the Career Grand Slam.
There were no longer any achievements for McIlroy to fear ending his career without. And that freedom could have allowed him to become a dominant force once again.
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Instead, the golfing world watched McIlroy endure a mid-career crisis for several months. He was tetchy with the media, and his form dipped dramatically.
McIlroy reached the top of the mountain but had no idea where to go next.
He has obviously taken the opportunity to introduce a lot more balance to his life. But he is potentially still searching for that next big goal on the golf course.
And speaking on the same podcast, journalist Sean Zak suggested that the prospect of catching Scheffler should drive McIlroy.
He said: “I think the changes to the PGA Tour schedule could pull a little more out of him, could help him balance being a dual member a little bit better. Of all the golfers at the top of the game, he better than most shows what things matter to him, and shows the goals that he’s set. And I think ever since that Grand Slam-finishing Masters win, he has just struggled to really place, okay, what’s the next goal? When you look at 2025 when he won that Masters, the next goal was really, okay, let’s win at Bethpage. And then they did that. And then after that, it is kind of like, gosh, what is the next goal?
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“I think for him to live up to what we’re asking him to do right now, what a lot of fans would like him to do is your next goal needs to be taking Scottie off the top mark, or matching Scottie in some way.
“I bet if Scottie won a major this year, Rory might feel a little bit more of a fire underneath him because you get to some point where they’ve all won a bunch, what is the tiebreaker? How many majors did you win? And Rory still has a nice little lead on Scottie, but how long will that last? We think inevitably he probably won’t hold that.
“It’s just funny because I think Rory McIlroy, the 21-year-old, was like, ‘I want to be number one in the world, I want to win every single tournament I play in’. Rory McIlroy, 37-year-old, he may have to do the same thing. It should be, ‘I want to be number one, I want the world to think I’m the best golfer because at my best I certainly am’.”
McIlroy needs to decide whether he wants to be golf’s ultimate prizefighter or the best player in the world again.
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Clearly, catching Scheffler is going to require McIlroy to make some significant changes to his schedule as the American is simply relentless.
And it may not be easy given that it is likely to only be his tally of majors which impacts his legacy at this stage.
You would imagine that McIlroy would be very content to peak four times a year even if it meant that he was nowhere to be seen on most PGA Tour leaderboards.
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