Need more Scheffler vs. McIlroy outside of majors?
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will both be in the field for the Memorial Tournament. Do we need to see them competing against one another more often, outside of majors? Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner discuss in this edition of the "Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav."
Video Transcript
All right, speaking of signature events, Rex, we finally have Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy teeing it up together at the Memorial Tournament, coming up this week at Jack's Place.
A pretty amazing stat, because this is the first time that Rory and Scottie have been together in a regular PGA Tour event since the Arnold Palmer Invitational in mid-March.
So that's excluding The Players, that's excluding the major championships.
This is just three times on tour this season that those top two players have been on tour together, and six times overall when you include the major championships.
What do you think of that s- situation?
I feel like there's a lot of caveats in that stat of yours.
You seem to be very impressed by it- Six times.
Six times overall we've had the top two stars in the PGA Tour playing in the same golf tournament together.
Again, we're more than halfway through the PGA Tour season.
And I think this is a bypro- byproduct of what you and I just sussed through, with the idea that players aren't going to do this.
They're not gonna play Doral TPC and Bay Hill, or whatever combination it is the PGA Tour comes up with.
In this particular case, it's Rory McIlroy has been clear, doesn't particularly like to play Hilton Head the week after The Masters, for whatever reason.
Maybe the golf course just doesn't fit him.
Scottie Scheffler has been clear, going into the PGA Championship, Charlotte probably just wasn't a very good fit.
It's a little weird.
He had won the PGA Championship the year before on the exact same golf course.
He doesn't, he doesn't wanna play the week before the PGA Championship, I think is bigger- Exactly.
Exactly, which leads to the other sort of equation, or the other sort of truth that I came up with this week talking with players about what they'd like to see with the new schedule.
Don't wanna play three weeks in a row, and if they had to choose between either taking the week off before a major or the week o- after the major off, it's going to be after.
And suddenly you put Scottie Scheffler in a situation where, okay, you're gonna make him play Charlotte, or wherever the case may be.
I, I think this is just another example of how difficult this is going to be for Brian Rolapp.
This particular stat doesn't surprise me, 'cause Rory is going to make certain decisions and Scottie's going to make certain decisions that I would say numbers three, four, five, six, seven, everyone else behind him probably aren't.
Guys are going to skip maybe from time to time, but these two players have made it clear Scottie doesn't wanna play the week before a major, in this case the PGA Championship.
Rory doesn't wanna play Hilton Head.
That's why I do not envy the members of the Future Competitions committee.
Again, some of whom are active players on the PGA Tour, because you're trying to decide for the overall membership what is going to work best.
What's the best cadence for all these players?
The best players in the world I think have even a different s- schedule than some of the superstars of the PGA Tour, and I'm talking about Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.
Rory in particular I think is a particularly dangerous player to try to game plan around and to strategize around.
Counting on him in any future scenario in terms of playing opportunities and when's this gonna happen and the golf courses and the tournaments, it's just really, really tricky.
He's an international player who has made no bones that he absolutely loves playing on the DP World Tour and really cherishes those opportunities, particularly at the end of the year when he can give back to the tour that gave him his start.
And so he's not going to play certain tournaments.
I think he proved, Rex, heading into The Masters this year, when you and I were lambasting him at every chance, that he needed to add a start in between The Players Championship and The Masters.
Nah, I'm good, fam.
I'm good taking three weeks off heading into a major championship, and winning that one, skipping signature events, skipping tournaments, in sort of a, a, a chunk or a block.
And so I think it's really, really difficult how they're going to map it out.
But again, I think it is a sign of the times that even though these signature events were marketed and built on the idea we want to get the best players in the world together more often, this will g- be just the fourth time this year, 2026.
Again, it's June 1, fourth time all year that Scottie and Rory are gonna be together.
