Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland disagree over Scheffler/Schauffele debate
OLYMPIA FIELDS, IL – AUGUST 20: PGA golfer Viktor Hovland gets a fist bump from Rory McIlroy on the first tee during the final round of the BMW Championship Fed Ex Cup Playoffs on August 20th, 2023, at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Illinois. (Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Which historic season would you rather have?
The world No.1 Scottie Scheffler’s – which includes a second Green Jacket, an Olympic gold medal, five big victories on the PGA Tour and record-shattering prize money?
Or the 2024 enjoyed by Xander Schauffele, who started the year as golf’s nearly man but ends it halfway to a career grand slam after incredible wins at the PGA Championship and The Open.
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That’s the question being posed to some of the other best players in the world as they arrive at the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis for the first leg of the PGA Tour’s lucrative season finale.
And its already splitting opinion.
Viktor Hovland – who is back defending his FedEx Cup crown after his own season was derailed by swing struggles – would much prefer to replicate Schauffele’s major success.
“I mean, two majors. That sounds pretty nice to me,” the Norwegian said on Tuesday.
Scheffler, however, remains the overwhelming favourite to claim the $25million prize as FedEx Cup champion in the Tour Championship climax at East Lake.
“Scottie’s,” McIlroy weighed in. “I think winning the Masters, an Olympic gold medal, winning, whatever it is, six times, it’s pretty hard to top that.”
It has, of course, now been over a decade since McIlroy won a major of his own, and the Masters is the only one that is eluding him from the career grand slam.
McIlroy has wins this season at the Dubai Desert Classic, the Wells Fargo Championship and the PGA Tour’s team event in New Orleans with Shane Lowry – but rates his season as average after more disappointment in the ‘Big Four’.
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“I certainly don’t want to sit up here and belittle my achievements at all this year and what I’ve done, but at the same time, I expect a certain standard from myself,” McIlroy stressed at TPC Southwind.
“I’ve won a couple of times. I’ve had an opportunity to win a few more times than that and haven’t been able to get over the line. So I would have liked to have added a couple more to that win column.
“There’s still three tournaments left in this PGA Tour season. I think I’ve actually got eight or nine tournaments left this year, but three on the PGA Tour, to turn an okay season into a very good one.”
Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.