Rory McIlroy Can Use Scottie Scheffler as Motivation

The mathematical formula for the Official World Golf Ranking isn’t an easy one to calculate, but numbers are numbers and it’s impossible to argue with math.

What that formula currently tells us is that after his third-place finish at last week’s WM Phoenix Open, No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler now has 17.0368 average points, while Rory McIlroy, just one spot behind him, has a mere 8.4060 average points.

All of which means that, for the first time, Scheffler’s lead over McIlroy is greater than McIlroy’s lead over me, you or any of the 8.3 billion or so people on Planet Earth.

This disparity serves as a reminder of the dominance Tiger Woods once held over the professional game, when he similarly doubled up the next-best player on a regular basis.

It should also, however, be a reminder that Rory himself is no slouch.

In case you hadn’t heard, McIlroy won last year’s Masters Tournament to claim the career grand slam – a goal he first stated publicly at the age of 9, when he told the BBC, “I want to win all the golf majors.”

In any professional pursuit, accomplishing a given ambition and climbing that figurative mountain might leave a person struggling to answer one not-so-simple question: Now what? It’s an existential conundrum David Duval often addressed a quarter-century ago, after winning a major championship and realizing that the celebration quickly devolved into a routine of just trying to go out there and do it again.

Scheffler himself addressed this just last summer, ironically right before winning The Open Championship.

“It feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for like a few minutes; it only lasts a few minutes, that kind of euphoric feeling,” he explained. “You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister’s there, it’s such an amazing moment. Then it’s like, ‘OK, what are we going to eat for dinner?’ Life goes on.”

McIlroy has admitted he felt a similar internal conflict after claiming the green jacket. He finished in a share of 47th place at the following month’s PGA Championship, despite so much previous success at host venue Quail Hollow Club. He went T-19 at the U.S. Open and T-7 at The Open Championship, his progressive results perhaps reflecting his abilities to put the Masters in the proverbial rearview mirror and continue climbing after reaching the peak.

Like a method actor searching for his character’s identity, it’s fair for McIlroy to enter this next chapter of his career asking himself, “What’s my motivation?”

Maybe it’s simply piling up more major championships. Maybe it’s winning at a “cathedral” course, as he referred to this week’s host venue Pebble Beach when he won here last year.

Here’s another theory: Maybe it’s the idea of trying to keep pace with Scheffler which will serve as Rory’s main source of motivation moving forward.

It was prior to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last year when he spoke of trying to channel his inner Scottie, wanting to “take a little bit of a leaf out of his book” by being more disciplined and not submitting to his impulses on the course.

On Tuesday, he was just as complimentary of Scheffler one year later.

“If I had a critique of myself last year it’s that I didn’t bring the consistency that I maybe would have wanted post the Masters,” McIlroy said. “I think some of that is, you know, sort of understandable, but Scottie just had his 17th top-10 in a row. Even [when] you look at him last week, he shoots 2-over in the first round and he just pieces it together again, finds a way, has a chance to win on Sunday. He’s relentless.”

If Woods incited intimidation from his fellow superstars, Scheffler at least elicits admiration – especially from a player like McIlroy, who understands that a consistently high-level floor might be more impressive than an arbitrary ceiling.

“I’ll never stop singing Scottie’s praises because he’s incredible at what he’s doing,” he continued. “I’ve had nice runs like that, but I’ve always been a little more up and down. I think anyone that wants to catch Scottie or get anywhere close is going to have to consistently bring that sort of game week in and week out like he does.”

We don’t have to read between the lines to comprehend that McIlroy’s categorization of “anyone that wants to catch Scottie” is a list on which his name is at the top.

It will be mathematically impossible for Rory to catch the game’s No. 1 player in his PGA Tour season debut this week – or anytime soon, for that matter.

The differential between them, though – mathematical or otherwise – should serve as motivation for a player who struggled with that concept since that Masters victory. And it could be exactly what he needs as he continues with this post-grand slam chapter in his career.