Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler hypocrisy is PGA Tour issue that must be fixed before anything to do with LIV Golf

Rory McIlroy vs Scottie Scheffler has the potential to be one of sport’s all-time great rivalries, but it’s not going to happen if they barely tee it up together.

While LIV Golf is seemingly on the brink amid the Saudis pulling funding for the breakaway project, that doesn’t diminish the hard reality that the PGA Tour still has its own issues staring it in the face.

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Case in point –  it’s now confirmed that the two best golfers on the planet won’t play in a single tournament together between the first and second major of the year.

That is despite the pair being the figureheads of the PGA Tour, and despite there being three signature events in this period.

For McIlroy, he chose to miss the RBC Heritage after retaining his Masters title. He’ll also miss this week’s Cadillac Championship before returning at one of his favourite tracks, Quail Hollow.

On the flip side, while Scheffler is teeing it up at Doral, he won’t be in the field for the Truist, instead opting for a week’s rest before the PGA.

Don’t get me wrong, you can certainly see the logic at play here. Both players will have no trouble qualifying for the FedEx Cup regardless. Both already have more PGA Tour wins than 99 per cent of active professional golfers and, above all, both are chiefly focused on adding to their major tallies.

But equally, it’s hard to quash the suggestion that there’s a hint of hypocrisy at play.

The two have both professed the PGA Tour to be the best ‘product’ available and, in McIlroy’s case, he even helped engineer the signature event model.

Yet, put simply, even if the problems with LIV give rise to a return for the likes of Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, the PGA Tour product just isn’t as good when Scheffler and McIlroy aren’t competing against each other.

Why are McIlroy and Scheffler skipping PGA Tour events?

Both players have cited ‘load management’ as the main reason for skipping some of these big events.

Scheffler has previously mentioned the ‘emotional and physical toll’ that playing weekly can have and, speaking ahead of the Cadillac, he told reporters: “There’s really not a tournament that I played that I haven’t liked. There’s not a tournament that I wouldn’t want to go back to. If I had it my way I would play every single week out here.

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“But just the nature of our sport and the demand on our time and everything, it’s not really possible. I have to set up my schedule in a certain type of cadence. And for me, playing three, four weeks in a row is a challenge. Like, if y’all were to walk with me each day of the tournament and to see what we have to do in order to play one week, having to do that four weeks in a row, I wouldn’t be able to perform my best.”

McIlroy has also stressed that he’s managing his workload, but the reality seems to be that he’s solely focused on more major silverware right now. His decision to skip events to practise at Augusta caused a stir among many, while the prize money for signature events he’s skipped since their introduction now totals $175million.

It’s true that the new schedule is demanding, and clustering three signature events between the Masters and the PGA is a bizarre scheduling decision, linked, most likely, to the desire to push more events into the NFL off-season.

But it is kind of what they asked for: more tournaments featuring the world’s best players, designed to attract sponsors and compete with the threat of LIV Golf.

Originally, skipping too many signature events came with a hefty fine, which McIlroy himself felt the effects of after missing the RBC Heritage in 2023. Yet such fines don’t exist now.

Ironically, it was McIlroy who argued that all signature events should be mandatory for the top players, and he was voted down.

Perhaps, with the threat of players leaving for LIV no longer as strong, and with as many as five of the world’s top 15 players absent from Doral this week, there may need to be a rethink on this.

Has McIlroy vs Scheffler delivered so far?

Sports are built on rivalries. Take tennis as a prime example right now. It was in danger of fading a couple of years ago, with three of the ‘Big Four’ players in the men’s game having retired. Fast forward to now and Jannik Sinner’s rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz has reignited interest.

The PGA Tour has the chance to benefit in the same way. For decades, Tiger Woods existed in a league of his own. Now, we have two all-time greats, both arguably in the prime of their careers, with a narrative so engaging it could be the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster.

McIlroy – the outspoken Northern Irishman, now cemented as the greatest European golfer ever. Revered by many, resented by others, but respected by all.

Scheffler, in contrast, the humble American with a swing that seems so odd in its aesthetic, but is so successful in effect. And, let’s not forget he’s the only man whose numbers can compete with Tiger’s in some categories.

There was a stat that emerged recently that emphasises the pair’s dominance across golf in recent years. If you beat both Scheffler and McIlroy at the last 20 major tournaments, you’d have 20 top-10s and six victories. Not bad going, is it?

However, the problem here is that it fails to show how little McIlroy and Scheffler have battled outright for the same title on a Sunday.

Sure, they played each other at the last Ryder Cup, and have finished first and second a few times, but it’s rarely (2022 Tour Championship aside) ever been compellingly close.

The 2022 Masters may show McIlroy finishing second to Scheffler, but he started 10 shots back on the final day. For emerging golf fans to be fully converted, we’re in desperate need of a proper shootout.

LIV had a plethora of problems and it’s hardly a shock that the Saudis have grown bored, but at least we had Rahm vs Bryson, the two best players on that tour, fighting on a consistent basis.

And that, ultimately, is what is going to take the sport forward and stop another rival tour succeeding for real in the future. Regardless of the quality of golf on display, no PGA Tour event is ever going to win Best Picture unless it features the two best golfers in the world.

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When will McIlroy and Scheffler next play together?

The PGA Championship will be the next chance to see McIlroy vs Scheffler up against each other.

There’s a chance the stars could align and the pair finally give golf fans what they’ve been after. There’s also the possibility we get both publicly praising the PGA Tour, condemning LIV and generally ticking all the right boxes from a PR perspective.

But if the two really are intent on strengthening the PGA Tour long-term, providing the best product and attracting new fans to the sport itself, can they not just play a bit more golf together?

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