Scottie Scheffler is the PGA TOUR’s Player of the Year, Is He Golf's?

For the fourth year in a row, Scottie Scheffler has been named the PGA TOUR’s Player of the Year. You could probably guess the only other guy who's racked up that many in consecutive campaigns. At just 29 years old, Scheffler already has risen to a level reserved for players worthy of their names etched in the annals of the game’s history.

Over the last 12 months, the Texan collected six more wins, including two major championships, and earned close to $28 million thanks to 17 top-10 finishes in 20 starts. On all accounts, it was another utterly ridiculous season that started even later than anticipated after a misfortune ravioli incident near the end of 2024.

But despite the newly-acquired Wanamaker and Claret Jug sitting on the shelves of his ever-expanding trophy case, when we look back on this past season in 15, 20, or 30 years, Scheffler’s torrid stretch won’t be the closing scene of a hypothetical documentary. That honor would go to a man who realized destiny and delivered on a promise made two years prior.

There’s no doubt Scheffler deserves the title of the TOUR’s player of the year, but golf’s was Rory McIlroy.

It started with his dominating victory at Pebble Beach, a golf course the Northern Irishman himself dubbed, “one of the cathedrals of golf.” The week started with a hole-in-one at Spyglass Hill’s par-3 15th, and ended with McIlroy’s arms stretched high above his head in triumph just mere feet away from crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean.

Next came his second PLAYERS title, dismantling J.J. Spaun in a rare Monday playoff. It was over the second his ball left the clubface on the 16th tee that chilly Florida morning.

And less than a month later, McIlroy did what many grew to believe was impossible, slipping on the Green Jacket and becoming just the sixth player in the game’s history to gain entrance into the Career Grand Slam club. That eruption of 10 years worth of emotion on Augusta National’s 18th green not only would serve as the poster for golf’s 2025, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for putting it into the conversation of the 10 best photographs in the history of this sport.

For the next few months, McIlroy struggled to find motivation and his record reflected that fact. So many, including myself, thought that triumph would, to use the most overused cliche in golf, open the floodgates for who now many considered the greatest European to ever touch a club. During that same stretch was when Scheffler finally decided to join the party, and the handle of the TOUR’s reins were once again in the Texan’s hands.

But the last laugh would go to McIlroy.

Despite an arrogant and disgusting fanbase lining the ropes of Bethpage Black, the 36-year-old led Team Europe to a Ryder Cup win on foreign soil, something that hadn’t been done since Medinah in 2012. His 3-1-1 record dwarfed Scheffler’s 1-4 mark—the Texan did win their Sunday Singles match, to be fair—and McIlroy delivered on the promise he made two years prior in Rome.

“I’ve said this for the last probably six or seven years to anyone that will listen: I think one of the biggest accomplishments in golf right now is winning an away Ryder Cup, and that’s what we’re going to do at Bethpage.”

And while Scheffler stayed at home during the fall, McIlroy traveled to ever corner of the world to entertain crowds that never get to experience a player of his calibar. The Irish Open (which he won, again), the India Championship, the Australia Open at Royal Melbourne. McIlroy practiced the very thing he’s preached for years, which is that national opens are an integral part of this sport.

There’s no doubt Scheffler’s ‘25 TOUR resume is more impressive than McIlroy’s on paper, but what the kid from Holywood, Northern Ireland, achieved over the last 12 months will be what’s remembered when people look back on the 25th year of the 21st century.

But the Jack Nicklaus Award is where it should be.