Rory McIlroy and Ryder Cup teammate at odds over PGA Tour debate

Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland disagree over whether Scottie Scheffler or Xander Schauffele should be crowned the PGA Tour's player of the year.

Ben Smith

15 Aug 2024

Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland disagree completely.

The topic? Who should be crowned the PGA Tour's player of the year.

The postseason begins this weekend at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and, naturally, the subject of who deserves the honour has been raised.

Scottie Scheffler has won six times on the PGA Tour, including his second Masters title, and an Olympic gold medal.

Xander Schauffele finally broke through in the majors, winning the PGA Championship in June and clipping the final men's major of the year, The Open, a month later.

Schauffele became the first golfer since Brooks Koepka in 2018 to claim two major championships in a single season.

Schauffele's victory at Royal Troon also meant that he was the seventh player in history to win the PGA Championship and The Open in the same year.

McIlroy was asked by a reporter at TPC Southwind: "If you could choose to have one of those this year, which one would you choose for yourself and why?"

The Northern Irishman, 35, was clear.

"Scottie's," he said.

"I think winning The Masters, an Olympic gold medal, winning, whatever it is, six times, it's pretty hard to top that," he added.

Who deserves to be crowned the PGA Tour's player of the year?
— GolfMagic (@GolfMagic) August 15, 2024

The aforementioned Hovland said: "I mean, two majors. That sounds pretty nice to me."

Scheffler wasn't asked about the topic in his pre-tournament news conference.

Instead, Scheffler complained about the format used in the playoffs.

"I think it's silly," Scheffler said.

"You can't call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament."

Read more about what he had to say about that here.

Scheffler is the reigning player of the year.

He received 38% of last year's vote after he recorded 13 top-five finishes and 17 top-10s in 23 starts.

Scheffler's achievements last season included winning the Players by five strokes, a successful defence of the WM Phoenix Open and setting the record for most money earned in a single season with $21,014,342.

The player of the year and rookie of the year awards are determined by a member vote by golfers who have played in at least 15 FedEx Cup events.

The award is named after Jack Nicklaus.

Tiger Woods has won the award 11 times.