ST. LOUIS – What was shaping up to be one of the most tightly-contested votes in years for PGA Tour Player of the Year heading into the FedEx Cup Playoffs may already be over – at least in the mind of Rory McIlroy.
The Masters champion was posed a question that the questioner on the front end deemed to be a loaded question: If a player won the Masters and the Tour Championship, would that make for a Player of the Year resume? The implication, of course, was could McIlroy still walk off with the Jack Nicklaus Award, voted on by his fellow members, should he win next week in Atlanta and claim the FedEx Cup for a record fourth time.
“No,” McIlroy said with a chuckle during his Wednesday press conference ahead of the BMW Championship. “I'm not the Player
of the Year. No chance. Scottie is.”
McIlroy already was set to concede the award to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who is seeking to win it for a fifth consecutive year.
“Well, sorry, there's two weeks to go, but I first-hand watched him for the first two days last week, and he if he keeps playing like that, we're — you know, if he gains nine strokes on the greens every week, we're all F'd,” McIlroy said, leading to more laughter.
Scheffler’s brilliance was on display for all to see last week as he rolled to an eight-stroke victory at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. His 17-under-par total made him the only player to reach double-digits under par. But Scheffler has just two wins this season – the other being The American Express in January. In between, he’s been a picture of consistency, recording 17 top-25 finishes in 18 starts, including five runner-ups, which ties for the most in a season in the last 40 years.
But Matt Fitzpatrick has won three times, including defeating Scheffler in a sudden-death playoff at the RBC Heritage, a signature event. Chris Gotterup also is a three-time winner but those wins came at the Sony Open in Hawaii, WM Phoenix Open and John Deere Classic, which were full-field events that didn’t attract as many of the stars. A strong case could be made for Cameron Young, winner of the Players Championship, where he edged out Matt Fitzpatrick, and Cadillac Championship, another signature event, being the award winner.
Let’s not forget Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson ahead of Scheffler. Usually, this award is settled by the time the final major has been contested such as last year when Scheffler claimed two majors. This year, the FedEx Cup may make a difference in the voting.
Last week, Adam Scott seemed very much on the fence as he discussed his voting options.
“I would say we all value consistency, and obviously Scottie's done an amazing job of that," he said before Scheffler's win at the St. Jude. "He only has one win, but he's crushing everyone in points. So there's something to be said about that. Out here, there's also something to be said about winning too and majors and all that good stuff. I honestly don't know. Like I really don't. It really depends on what the person that's clicking the button values more or who they may like more,” he said. “There's no bad answer is what I'm trying to say. I think if you said anyone, no one would be like that's BS, like someone got screwed. I think it's been a great year for the Tour, and all these guys have played really well, myself included. I think with a couple weeks left, there's still plenty of room for improvement, but I think so far it would be, it really depends on what you value.”
Viktor Hovland echoed Scott’s sentiment that there's no right or wrong answer.
“Do you vote for the person that's been the best statistically and produced the most consistent results over the whole season?” he said. “Or do you pick the guy that's maybe achieved more historical things, more highlights throughout the year?”
Ryan Gerard is firmly in the McIlroy camp that if Scheffler didn’t slam the door on any discussion of unseating him as Player of the Year, he certainly pulled in front as the Tour heads into the final two laps of the season at this week’s BMW Championship.
“I think winning is important, but you look at a guy like Scottie that's consistently there every single week playing really good golf and that's super impressive to me. The consistency all year is something that I feel like people don't rate highly enough,” Gerard said. “That said if one of those guys (with multiple wins) goes out and wins the next two tournaments by a lot and the FedEx Cup, hats off to them and maybe it's a different conversation but Scottie kind of slammed the door on Sunday for me.”
Adam Schupak is a Golfweek senior writer covering the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rory McIlroy concedes Scottie Scheffler already has won PGA Tour Player of the Year award
