The biggest difference between Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy was made painfully obvious at the Procore Championship this week.
And the main difference between them wasn’t even highlighted by Scheffler actually winning the Procore Championship title, it was something far more simple than that.
McIlroy played over in the UK this week, and ended his BMW PGA Championship tournament on a high after a final round 65 catapulted him up into a tie for 20th at Wentworth.
Scheffler and McIlroy are the two most consistent winners on the PGA Tour, and they have been for quite some time now.
However, the problem for the Northern Irishman is that the American has taken things to a whole new level entirely since his first win in 2022.
McIlroy has proven this season that he can still win the biggest trophies, but as strange as this is to say, he’s not in Scheffler’s league.
And the world number one proved exactly why that is on Thursday during the first round of the Procore Championship.
Scottie Scheffler proved why he’s better than Rory McIlroy at the Procore Championship
Scheffler won the 19th PGA Tour title of his career at the Silverado Resort in Napa this week, which was the perfect pre-Ryder Cup warm-up for him.
The fact that he has just won his sixth tournament of the season is obviously very impressive indeed.
Meanwhile, 21 worldwide wins including four major championships and an Olympic gold medal since February 2022 is quite extraordinary.
However, the main difference between Scheffler and McIlroy is not quantifiable by those victories.
Something the world number one did in his first round of the Procore Championship was hugely impressive, and it highlighted how far ahead of McIlroy he really is.
Those stats from his first round were so uncharacteristic. At one point midway through day one at the Silverado Resort, Scheffler had seemingly actually lost his swing entirely, after hitting a few horrendous tee shots to the left.
His putting was genuinely abysmal as well.
However, he battled through and carded a two-under par 70. Nothing special, of course, but a round that enabled him to then go on and win.
This is obviously pure conjecture, but it’s an educated assumption to make that McIlroy would have shot level-par at best, perhaps even well over par, had he hit the ball and putted like Scheffler did on Thursday.
And that is the main difference between the two golfers. When they are both at their best, there is no separating them. In fact, it could even be argued that McIlroy’s A+ game is better than Scheffler’s.
However, it is when they are both struggling when we see why Scheffler is so far ahead of McIlroy in the world rankings right now.
Scottie Scheffler vs Rory McIlroy: PGA Tour career records compared
Scheffler and McIlroy are the two best golfers in the world right now, by quite some margin as well.
But how do their records on the PGA Tour match up alongside one another?
| Achievements | Scheffler | McIlroy |
| Events played | 150 | 273 |
| Major wins | 4 | 5 |
| Wins | 19 | 29 |
| Top-5s | 56 | 84 |
| Top-10s | 76 | 133 |
| Missed cuts | 19 | 32 |
| Money earned | $99,453,136 | $107,981,766 |
Scheffler is seven years younger than McIlroy, so it will be no surprise if in 10 years’ time, the American is standing head and shoulders above the man from Northern Ireland in all of the categories listed above.
In fact, it’s fair to argue that Scheffler actually has the records set by Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in his sights.
And if he even gets close to matching those two players over the course of the next 10-15 years, it will be because of his uncanny ability to shoot under par when he is at his very worst.
