PGA Tour gamers may have a tough choice to make this fall with regards to the Participant of the Yr vote.
Viktor Hovland mentioned Tuesday that he would take Xander Schauffele’s two-major season.
On Wednesday, Rory McIlroy countered that Scottie Scheffler’s marketing campaign has been extra spectacular: “Profitable the Masters, an Olympic gold medal, six instances (general on Tour), it’s fairly exhausting to prime that.”
And beneath the outdated FedExCup format, positive, Scheffler could be virtually a shoe-in to take house the season-long FedExCup title, too. Getting into this week’s playoff opener, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Scheffler has greater than a 1,900-point lead within the standings.
However with the staggered-start format in place since 2019, Scheffler can get caught this week since there are 2,000 factors up for grabs for the event winner. And even when he goes win-win to begin the playoffs, he would enter the Tour Championship with only a two-shot lead. Scheffler has by no means received at East Lake, and it’ll be a brand new check for everybody within the 30-man subject this 12 months after the course was lately renovated.
That is all excellent news for McIlroy, already the one participant with three FedExCup titles who enters the postseason because the No. 3 seed.
“I like this format as a result of if it wasn’t this format, then none of us would have an opportunity in opposition to Scottie as a result of he’s up to now forward,” McIlroy mentioned with amusing.
Later, he added, “I believe it makes the Tour Championship extra thrilling from a client standpoint. Is it the fairest reflection of who’s been the perfect participant of the 12 months? Most likely not. However I believe at this level we’re not in for completely truthful – we’re in for leisure and for making an attempt to placed on the perfect product we probably can.”
McIlroy’s Tour season is perhaps winding down, however he nonetheless has a busy stretch left – he’s taking part in upwards of eight or 9 extra tournaments earlier than the top of the 12 months. Despite the fact that he blew an opportunity to finish his decade-long major-less drought on the U.S. Open, and he missed on a medal on the Olympics, McIlroy mentioned he views the FedExCup playoffs as an opportunity to “flip the script or change the narrative” for what the season means to him.
“I believe that’s a motivating issue,” he mentioned, “and a part of the rationale that I’ve in all probability performed nicely within the playoffs for the final three years.”
