Rory McIlroy has always seemed to possess an older head on young shoulders.
Indeed, when the Northern Irishman burst onto the scene in 2009, his success belied his inexperience.
His first major title came at the 2011 U.S. Open, as he finished eight strokes clear of Jason Day at Congressional Country Club in Maryland. Three more followed in the space of three years; two at the US PGA Championship and one at The Open.
It has been eight years since McIlroy claimed a major honour, but heading to The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, the 33-year-old's form is as strong as it has been since he lifted his second US PGA title in 2014.
And in recent months, McIlroy has been seen as one of the voices of reason amid the emergence of the LIV Golf Invitational, which started in London last week.
Charl Schwartzel won the inaugural event of the Saudi Arabia-backed breakaway competition, which has drawn the likes of Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.
"If it keeps going the way it's going, it's going to fracture the game – sorry, it's going to fracture the game more than it already is," McIlroy, desperate to focus on his own game this week, told Sky Sports on Tuesday.
"The professional world in golf has already been fractured, there's so many different tours, so many different things to follow, and I've always been an advocate of trying to make it more cohesive and try to get people to work together more. This is ripping that apart.
"It's certainly a burden I don't need. But I have pretty strong views on the subject and I don't think it would be right for me to have these strong opinions and not share them."
Perhaps what golf needs more than ever right now is a unifying force that both players and fans can get behind. McIlroy might present just that.
Rory reinvigorated
It has been a brilliant year so far for McIlroy. According to official PGA Tour statistics, he ranks first for scoring average (68.842), top for strokes gained: tee-to-green (1.888) and strokes gained total (2.282), while he also comes in third for driving distance (319.1 metres) and strokes gained off-the-tee (.913) so far this season.
That form has resulted in six top-10 finishes, including his second place at the Masters in April, which came courtesy of a bogey free 64 in the final round, and his victory at the Canadian Open last week.
Defending his Canadian Open crown will have given McIlroy a timely boost heading to Massachusetts, following on from his eighth place at the US PGA Championship last month. He is in fine fettle, but needs to overcome his major hoodoo...
Getting over the line
Four major titles in the space of four years seemed to have paved the way for McIlroy to go on and join the true greats of golf, but it has not quite been that way.
Since winning the U.S. Open in 2011, McIlroy has failed to make the cut on four occasions at this major, though has recorded top-10 finishes in each of the last three editions of the tournament.
His best result at any of the majors since 2014 came at Augusta earlier this year, but as we have seen in other tournaments on the circuit, McIlroy has been known to squander strong positions, and he might even prefer to be in the chasing pack come Sunday.
In January 2021, McIlroy held the 54-hole lead at the Abu Dhabi Championship, but a final-round 72 saw him finish third. He finished five shots back from the winner and it was a similar story at the DP World Tour Championship in December, when he missed the chance to become the first player to win the event for a third time, giving up a last-day lead to finish five behind Collin Morikawa.
Composure will be key for McIlroy this time around, should he be in contention.
A date with fate?
It might just be a coincidence, but fate is a funny old thing, and Sunday will mark 11 years to the day since McIlroy won his first major, when he claimed the U.S. Open so convincingly.
Another iron in McIlroy's fire could be that his win at the Canadian Open moved him onto 21 PGA Tour titles, edging him ahead of LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman. Going on to seal his second U.S. Open triumph, 11 years since he claimed his first, would be a fitting way for McIlroy to prove he is on the right side of this particular divide.
Now, he just has to go out and perform.
A closer look at the hot streak of world number one Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth win in five events on Monday when the weather-delayed RBC Heritage concluded at Hilton Head.
That run includes a second Masters title and has seen the world number one extend his sizeable lead over Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the facts and figures around Scheffler’s streak and how they compare to previous runs.
What makes Scheffler’s streak so impressive?Winning any event on the PGA Tour is difficult, but Scheffler has claimed two of the biggest in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, a major championship at Augusta National and the RBC Heritage, which boasted a stronger than usual field after being elevated to a Signature Event this season. Victory at Sawgrass made Scheffler the first player ever to win back-to-back Players titles. His only “failure” was a tie for second in the Houston Open.
Has this been done before?Scheffler is the first player to win four times in five starts on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods, who did so at the end of 2007 and again to start 2008. He is also the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh (2004) – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour. With many players taking a break after winning a major, Scheffler is also the first to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming a green jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985.
How much has Scheffler earned?Scheffler has banked an average of £3.17million for each of his four victories and “only” £448,000 for his five-way tie for second behind Stephan Jaeger in the Houston Open. The total sum of £13.14m would place Scheffler 145th on the PGA Tour’s career earnings list and he is closing in on the single-season record of £17million he set last year. In comparison, Woods won nine times on the PGA Tour in 2000, including three major titles, and never finished worse than 23rd in 20 starts. His prize money totalled £7.4m.
Does the world ranking reflect Scheffler’s dominance?In a word, yes. Ahead of the Genesis Invitational in mid-February, Rory McIlroy could have become world number one by winning at Riviera with Scheffler finishing third or worse. Now, Scheffler has more than double the total and average points of McIlroy, while the average points gap between the top two (7.6493) is bigger than that between McIlroy and the players tied for 4,123st in the standings.
So is Scheffler the most dominant player in world golf?Not quite. Hours before Scheffler completed his victory in Hilton Head, fellow American Nelly Korda had wrapped up a fifth consecutive win on the LPGA Tour by claiming her second major title in the Chevron Championship. Korda’s winning streak matches that of Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05, although her bid for an unprecedented sixth straight win will have to wait after she cited exhaustion when pulling out of this week’s event in Los Angeles. While Scheffler has earned £13.14m from his last five events, Korda’s five wins have been worth £1.94m.
Scottie Scheffler matches Tiger Woods achievement with fourth win in five
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler hailed his mental strength after making it four wins in five starts with a rain-delayed victory at the RBC Heritage.
Scheffler returned to Hilton Head on Monday morning holding a five-stroke lead with three holes to play after a storm halted proceedings on Sunday.
The world number one dropped a shot at the last to finish 19 under par, three shots ahead of fellow American Sahith Theegala, with Patrick Cantlay and Wyndham Clark another stroke back.
Scheffler is the first player to win a PGA Tour event the week after claiming the Green Jacket since Bernhard Langer in 1985 and the first to win four times in five starts on the US-based circuit since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.
Each of Scheffler’s last seven wins have come with at least eight of the world’s top 10 in the field and he is the third player in the last 30 years – after Woods and Vijay Singh – to win or finish runner-up in five consecutive starts on the PGA Tour.
“I was able to go home for a couple days and celebrate,” Scheffler said.
“I didn’t really put much thought into it. I had committed to playing the tournament here, it was part of the plan, so we stuck to the plan.
“I talked about it at the beginning of the week – I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose, got off to a slow start but after that played some really nice golf.
“I do have fairly high expectations for myself and when I show up at tournaments, I try to do my best.
“I’ve talked a lot about kind of the preparation and what it takes for me to show up on a first tee ready to go, and I feel like I’ve been putting in the work and been playing some good golf, and it’s nice to be seeing some results for that with wins.
“On the course, I think the last month or so I’ve been as good mentally as I have in a long time and I think that’s why I am seeing some of the results.
“This week could be a good example of starting off and looking at the leaderboard on Thursday and everybody is just making birdie after birdie and I’m sitting there over par and I’ve had a shank on the day.
“I just did my best to stay patient and wait until I got hot.
“Had a nice finish to the round on Thursday and then had a really solid Friday where I felt like I played better than I scored, and then I had Saturday where I just played some really good golf.”
Rory McIlroy carded a final-round 74 to slip into a tie for 33rd.
Scottie Scheffler five strokes ahead with weather forcing a Monday finish
Scottie Scheffler has a five stroke lead with just three holes to play after rain halted play in the RBC Heritage on Sunday.
The US Open champion and world number one continued his great form at Hilton Head in South Carolina on the fourth day of the tournament, hitting an eagle and two birdies across 15 holes.
A storm stopped play for two and a half hours with darkness forcing a finish on Monday.
Fellow American Wyndham Clark had a strong day through his 18 holes, moving into second place with eight birdies and an eagle, but two bogeys and a double bogey stopped him from further encroaching on Scheffler’s lead.
Clark is tied with American’s Patrick Cantlay and J T Poston, who have one hole left to play and Sahith Theegala, who has three holes left to play.
Scheffler is looking for his fourth win in five starts.
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