AUGUSTA, Ga. — For a moment, the video looks like a “Saturday Night Live” skit.
Tiger Woods is playing the role of host. Behind him, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are wearing the same sage green Nike T-shirt, the same white Nike hat, ready to explain and show how they hit the same long iron shots in their own different ways as part of a video released by TaylorMade — the club manufacturer that sponsors them both.
McIlroy’s first swing is a perfect high fade with a 4-iron that lands like a feather and rolls 10 feet from the pin. Scheffler and Woods both marvel at the shot.
“I’m just going to try to do the exact same thing as that,” Scheffler quips before he hits his about 20 feet from the hole. “I had to hit mine a little flatter than yours because you hit it farther than me.”
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As the golf world descends on the year’s first major, where 28-year-old Scheffler has become Augusta’s beloved champion while McIlroy attempts to avoid playing the role of Sisyphus yet again, the top two players in the world arrive bound by a thread of competition. In the past calendar year, they have won a combined 10 events. Since 2022, both have eight top-10 finishes in major championships.
While Scheffler has two major wins over that span, McIlroy hasn’t claimed another. The fact that McIlroy, at 35, is here, at his 17th Masters, once again near the top of the world rankings is a testament to his consistency. It’s also a reminder of the anvil that he still carries: a major drought that’s now heading into its 11th year. A career Grand Slam that remains unfinished.
Ten years ago, McIlroy’s Masters appearance in 2015 had the kind of cadence he’s come to be known for at Augusta: a slow start and a torrid finish that wasn’t good enough. That Sunday, McIlroy wore a shade of fluorescent green that resembled a highlighter as he played alongside Woods and shot 66 — tied for the low round of the day — to finish 12-under, six shots behind the winner, 21-year-old Jordan Spieth. He played his last 45 holes in 15-under.
As McIlroy saluted the patrons and gave a disappointed sigh, CBS’ Jim Nantz could be heard on the broadcast.
“He’ll have to wait another year,” Nantz said. Then, after McIlroy’s TV interview ahead of Spieth’s final putt. “[McIlroy and Spieth] will be one and two in the world by the end of the day, setting up the future, the rivalry for the sport.”
Fast forward to 2025, and no one is playing better golf than McIlroy. While Spieth is not exactly his top competition anymore, Scheffler has slipped into that spot and become so dominant in his own right over the past three years that the entire field has been forced to acknowledge and praise his play. And McIlroy has been motivated — even forced — to improve to keep up.
“Seeing Scottie what he’s done … it inspired all of us to try to be better,” McIlroy said after winning the Players Championship, his second win of the season. “I know I have to be better to compete with him.”
“He’s got significantly more tournament wins than I do, he has more major wins,” Scheffler said at the Houston Open two weeks ago. “When you’re a competitive guy like Rory is, I think you’re always looking for some source of motivation … especially when you’re older.”
When asked about his motivation, Scheffler said his is mostly internal, that he doesn’t pay attention to what other players are doing, but sticks to being present and focusing on how his own competitive spirit drives him.
“Is it weird for me?” Scheffler said of McIlroy finding motivation in him. “No, I don’t really think about it.”
Golf is unique in that, as Bryson DeChambeau pointed out Tuesday, you’re facing the course more than you are any particular opponent. Other players would argue you’re facing yourself more than anyone. In contrast, the way that team sports are framed, there is often this insatiable need to pit one player against the other. Duels and rivalries are the lifeblood of compelling theater, historic moments and often the best performances.
This sport — especially at this venue — cuts against that. Any battles between players down the stretch are an uncontrollable feature of a tournament, not an engineered reality by way of seeding or scheduling. Even the way players are re-paired ahead of the final round follows the golf rule of “first in, last out” over any idea of prioritizing which two players would be more compelling to watch play together.
And so it is rare that a connection between two players in this sport feels this naturally intertwined at a precise moment. This week, however, it’s hard to deny. Over the past three months, both Scheffler and McIlroy have fielded questions about each other and answered them with a combination of polite admiration and tongue-in-cheek envy. There’s no rivalry between them, only a juxtaposition created by their own success.
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“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a golfer play as many bogey-free rounds as Scottie,” McIlroy said at Pebble Beach. “He just doesn’t make mistakes. It’s so impressive. He plays the right shot at the right time over and over and over again. You obviously need the technical ability to be able to do that, but he doesn’t make mistakes. And when you don’t make mistakes on the golf course, the game can become pretty easy.”
“I’m just trying to hit it 350 down the middle [like Rory],” Scheffler said in jest Tuesday when asked what of McIlroy’s game he would want to emulate.
“I feel like he does a really good job of playing free and playing loose at times,” Scheffler said in his actual answer. “It’s real easy for me to notice that. It’s a lot harder to go out there and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to play freely,’ then actually do it.”
Two of the past three years, Scheffler has made winning the green jacket look easy. Meanwhile, over the course of 17 appearances, McIlroy has painted different frames with the same color of disappointment, showing how hard it is to secure the sport’s most prestigious title.
“I understand the narrative and the noise, and there’s a lot of anticipation and buildup coming into this tournament each and every year,” McIlroy said. “I need to treat this tournament like all the other tournaments that I play throughout the year.”
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McIlroy ‘blocks out noise’ of previous Masters disappointments
Rory McIlory says he’s “keeping the head down” and ignoring the “narrative” about his previous shortcomings at the Masters.
While Scheffler balks at questions about the pressure of being defending champion and resorts to answers about how he gets no advantage for it once the tournament begins, McIlroy can’t stop the noise, only try to elude it. It’s there at every corner. It’s there not just when he enters the news conference room or arrives on Magnolia Lane, but also when Tiger Woods says it’s only a matter of time before McIlroy wins one. It’s there because it’s been 11 years since he has won a major, but it’s also there because in those 11 years, no one has played better, more consistent golf than him.
“It’s very impressive, not only his week-to-week, but his longevity year after year,” Scheffler said at the Players. “In this game it’s very difficult. You can battle a number of things … injuries, aging. Rory has stayed healthy for a long time. He’s played great golf for a long time, and it’s definitely not as easy as you would think it is.”
Whether he wins his fifth major this week or in five years, there will come a moment when Scheffler is playing professional golf and McIlroy is no longer in the picture. But for now, what makes their connection unique is Scheffler has been exactly what McIlroy needed to keep rising while McIlroy is set up to give Scheffler what he didn’t have last season: someone that can consistently keep him from winning.
The Masters is not match play competition, and no, McIlroy and Scheffler are not facing each other this week. But if their recent performances are any indication, there should be no surprise come Sunday if one of them wins and the other is part of the other’s story.
