Rory McIlroy (left) and Scottie Scheffler each had a season to remember. Richard Heathcote, Getty Images
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In 1940, “The Wizard of Oz” did not win the Academy Award for the best picture of the previous year because another classic – “Gone with the Wind” – was released the same year.
One year later, Ted Williams hit .406 for the Boston Red Sox (he remains baseball’s last .400 hitter) while Joe DiMaggio had a 56-game hitting streak for the New York Yankees, earning him the American League most valuable player award in the process.
Which leads us to the 2025 Rory McIlroy-Scottie Scheffler question:
Who had the better season?
Scheffler seems a lock to win his fourth straight PGA Tour player of the year award though, like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind,” both seasons will stand the test of time.
In what felt like the preordained finish to a golf season written in the stars, McIlroy seemed poised to close out his extraordinary 2025 by winning the DP World Tour Championship and, at the same time, capture his seventh Race for Dubai title. Matt Fitzpatrick beat McIlroy in a playoff to win the European tour finale but McIlroy further strengthened his case as the greatest European golfer of all time by winning the season-long championship for the seventh time.
It would have been McIlroy’s fifth individual victory of the year to go along with the European victory at the Ryder Cup, gold-plating a season that may ultimately define his brilliance.
Scheffler won six of the 20 PGA Tour events he entered in 2025. Richard Heathcote, Getty Images
There was the Masters victory, completing the career Grand Slam, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, another Players Championship and the Amgen Irish Open, a collection of achievements that reads like a McIlroy wish list.
That’s a career packed into one storybook season.
And Scheffler was every bit as good, maybe a tad better.
Here’s what Scheffler accomplished once he quit cutting his own pasta with wine glasses:
He played 20 PGA Tour events, won six of them including two major championships, made every cut and never finished outside the top 25.
Scheffler won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, the PGA Championship, the Memorial Tournament, the Open Championship, the BMW Championship and the Procore Championship. The Americans lost the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black but Scheffler, who had a 1-4 record, beat McIlroy, 1 up, in the Sunday singles.
Starting at the Texas Children’s Houston Open in late March, Scheffler made 15 starts and never finished lower than T8.
Scheffler led the PGA Tour in strokes gained total and strokes gained approaching the green. He was second in strokes gained off the tee and 21st in strokes gained putting. It’s hard to be much better than that.
“I have a clear head and I’m out of all the political stuff in golf, basically, and I can just focus on playing and playing where I want to and making myself competitively happy by playing in the tournaments that I want to play.” – Rory McIlroy
McIlroy’s victory at Augusta in April, electrified by lightning-bolt twists, was his first major championship victory in 11 years and made him just the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam, literally sending him to his knees when his playoff victory over Justin Rose was complete.
It was cathartic and emotionally exhausting, leaving McIlroy happily adrift for a time as he enjoyed his accomplishment while wondering if he could find another hill to climb.
“I don’t think my desire’s gone. It’s certainly not gone. But I think it’s just one of those things where I’m not going to have to pick and choose where to sort of place my desire and what I want my goals to be,” McIlroy said this fall.
“I’m certainly not less driven but maybe just more driven in focused areas. I don’t feel like chasing as much anymore. I’m not out chasing the Grand Slam. I’m not chasing these things. I’m very content with what I’ve done in the game. I’m still driven to do more but you know, it’s sort of a pinpoint to drive in certain directions.
McIlroy had a grand season of his own. David Cannon, Getty Images
“I have a clear head and I’m out of all the political stuff in golf, basically, and I can just focus on playing and playing where I want to and making myself competitively happy by playing in the tournaments that I want to play.”
In his understated but resolute way, Scheffler appears to have mastered the ability to operate on his own terms. He has seemed more comfortable this year as a public figure, understanding what his voice means across the game, but Scheffler seems unswayed by whatever direction the wind may be blowing at the moment.
It was a little less than four years ago that Scheffler won his first PGA Tour event and now he’s won 15 times (including the 2024 Olympics and Hero World Challenge) in two seasons.
As good as McIlroy has been, he admitted earlier this year that he uses Scheffler as a North Star of sorts, chasing elements of the Texan’s game and demeanor to incorporate into his own, saying “he is the bar we are all trying to get to.”
Scheffler opened a window into his psyche at the Open Championship in July when he said the joy of winning can burn off within five minutes but his unrelenting consistency both defines and separates him.
“Looking at this year, multiple major championships, a couple big-time PGA Tour events. It was another really great year out here for me. I gave myself some chances to win and was able to capitalize on those. And any time you have a year where you can win multiple major championships, I think it’s a pretty special year,” Scheffler said in late summer.
“Got off to maybe a bit of a slower start than I would have hoped to, but I had a really good start at the Byron [Nelson} in May and that kind of propelled me to having a really great year.”
That’s as close as Scheffler comes to chest thumping.
On Sunday, having accomplished his primary goal of winning the Race to Dubai title again, McIlroy was asked if he ever takes time to savor what he’s accomplished.
“Yeah, sometimes,” McIlroy said. “I think as you’re still playing, it’s probably detrimental to do it too much. But yeah, there’s times when I catch myself, and I think about my place in the game and where I’m going to end up.
“Again, as a 36-year-old, hopefully with a lot of years left in the tank, I don’t think about it too much. But you can appreciate that, up until this point, it’s been a pretty good run.”
Scottie Scheffler knows exactly what McIlroy means.
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