It isn’t exactly Ben Hogan versus Sam Snead, or Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. It’s not even in the same category Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
But when you are the two best players in the world, there is a natural rivalry that plays out on scoreboards and at trophy presentations.
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are the two best golfers on the planet at the moment. They’ve won five of the past nine major championships and have been first and second respectively in the Official World Golf Ranking since March 2025. That brings the comparisons and contrasts of their games and their personalities.
At last year’s Open Championship, which Scheffler won by a four-shot margin, McIlroy seemed in awe of the American’s talents over Royal Portrush. He doesn’t make mistakes, he said, adding that Scheffler was playing at a level comparable to only a small handful of the best players in the history of golf.
“I think it’s his relentlessness,’ said McIlroy, at this week’s PGA Championship. “It’s the comfort in which he does the same things over and over. It’s the little things – it’s not flashy, but he dots his Is and crosses his Ts and does all the right things.”
This week, Scheffler is attempting to join McIlroy as a winner of all four major championships. He has the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship, and would love to round out his big wins with a PGA Championship title. If he does lift the Wannamaker Trophy on Sunday evening, he’ll have finished off the slam in just five years. It took McIlroy 14.
Scheffler has just a single win so far this season, that coming in in January in his first tournament of the year, the American Express. However, he’s finished second in his past three starts, including to McIlroy at the Masters.
“I’d say a little bit bittersweet,” Scheffler said of his three runner-up finishes. “You know you’re playing good golf, and you’d love to get some wins. Finishing second hurts, but I think when you reflect and you’re looking at things to work on, there’s a lot less to clean up when you’re finishing second than there is when you’re finishing 30th.”
McIlroy also has just a single victory this season, but it was a big one. His win at the Masters gave him his second consecutive Green Jacket and a sixth major title. His year has been built around peaking at the four majors and so far, he’s made just six starts on the PGA Tour. He took three weeks off after the Masters and played last week at the Truist Championship. And as he did ahead of the Masters, McIlroy made a scouting mission to Aronimink Golf Club just outside Philadelphia, site of this year’s PGA Championship, in hopes of building a game plan that might give him a second consecutive major.
That pre-tournament preparation, be it for a major or any other event, is not lost on Scheffler, who is continually impressed with McIlroy’s talents.
“I think when you look at just his game, specifically, I think his ability to drive the ball is, I think it’s the best I’ve seen,” Scheffler stated. “He’s able to take out certain things on some golf courses that not many players can do. He does it in a way where he hits a lot of fairways as well. He’s a guy I always see in the gym, the practice facility. Rory is one of those guys that checks the box each week.”
While the two golfers have played together on numerous occasions, most have come while paired together in the opening groups. Head-to-head meetings late on Sunday have been rare. One came in the final round of the 2022 Tour Championship, when McIlroy stormed back from a six-shot deficit to pass Scheffler and win the event. Scheffler managed to get some revenge at last year’s hotly contested Ryder Cup, defeating McIlroy one-up in the Sunday singles.
The rivalry they have, then, is not one with a grudge but rather one of respect. They are friendly with each other without being close friends. Each knows just how good the other one is and can understand the drive and determination. Still, they’d love to come out on top in any two-way battle.
This week, there will be plenty of talented players aside from just these two aiming to get a major title. But the majority of focus in the early going will be targeted on Scheffler and McIlroy, the two best in the world.
