Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy paired together at Masters, but worlds apart

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will arrive at Augusta National’s first tee within moments of each other on Thursday. They share a tee time for the first round of this year’s Masters, scheduled to commence the tournament at 10:42 a.m. ET.

It’s not unusual to see them playing together at a big event. Golf has had a consistent leading trio for the past two years, consisting of Scheffler, McIlroy and Jon Rahm, the defending Masters champion. Since July of 2021, these three are the only players to hold the No. 1 ranking in the world. They make it easy for tournaments trying to create the spectacle of a super-group.

That’s not how the Masters usually operates, though. Likely out of its desire to enhance the patrons’ on-site experience, the tournament tends to spread out the top players a bit more, lest a single group consume too much of the oxygen. Perhaps this pairing was too compelling to avoid, however. Xander Schauffele rounds out the group, giving it three of the world’s top five players.

Scheffler and McIlroy are undoubtedly the focus, however, and not just because they are Nos. 1 and 2 in the world ranking. Their proximity only highlights how far apart they are this week.

In Scheffler, you have the unquestioned favorite, a player who has two victories and a runner-up in his past three starts. He also has a green jacket, the one item that McIlroy most desires. The Masters is the final summit standing between him and golf’s most exclusive brotherhood. Only five men have won the career Grand Slam. A Masters win would make McIlroy the sixth.

Scheffler and McIlroy are two men whose contrasting experience at Augusta National keenly illustrates the weight of the green jacket. The pursuit has brought both men to tears. It is a quest of such importance that it illustrates an important distinction that lies at the core of each man. Trivial matters cannot illuminate such depths.

Scheffler’s tears preceded his Masters win two years ago, and he got choked up again Tuesday remembering the message his wife Meredith delivered that Sunday morning, when he was overwhelmed by what awaited him.

“If you win this golf tournament today, if you lose this golf tournament by 10 shots, if you never win another golf tournament again … I'm still going to love you, you're still going to be the same person, Jesus loves you and nothing changes,” she told him. Scheffler says often that his identity is not in a golf score. His accomplishments do not define him. It was a lesson imbued in him by his parents and strengthened by his faith.

“(Golf) is a tremendously huge part of my life,” Scheffler said Tuesday. “But it doesn't define me as a person. It's just something that I do.”

McIlroy cried after his collapse here in 2011, becoming undone on a phone call with his mother. With each year, that result looms larger because of what a Masters win would mean for him. He is a man keenly aware of history and his place in it. It is part of his appeal, his recognition of the greater context that surrounds his career. While many today can be criticized for what C.S. Lewis called chronological snobbery – the belief that the latest is always the greatest – McIlroy deserves credit for recognizing the importance of the past. But it’s fair to ask if that same trait can become crushing when a single week each year carries unrivaled importance.

“It's hard for me not to define myself as one of the best golfers in the world,” McIlroy said in a candid moment from the second season of “Full Swing.” It came after Brooks Koepka won last year’s PGA Championship, giving Koepka a fifth major that surpassed McIlroy’s four.

McIlroy was shaken by being supplanted, almost shockingly so because he often possesses an admirable perspective on life and an ability to put golf in its proper place. But this anecdote showed how deeply he cares about his place in golf’s pantheon. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but it’s not unreasonable to think it adds to the pressure he feels this week.

This is his 16th Masters and 10th since he won the 2014 Open Championship, the victory that permanently altered McIlroy’s relationship with this place. At the time, he had already won one of his two PGA Championship titles, in addition to his runaway victory at the 2011 U.S. Open.

Winning at Royal Liverpool meant that McIlroy had won the biggest title that a boy from the U.K. could dream of. But, by adding The Open to his resume, it also elevated the Masters to the place of utmost importance.

The Masters has long seemed a tournament that McIlroy seemed destined to win. At least that’s what they say about any talented long-hitter who has no trouble hitting high shots that turn from right to left.

“The talent that he has, the way he plays the game and the golf course fits his eye, it's just a matter of time,” Tiger Woods said Tuesday about McIlroy’s Masters prospects. The reality is that McIlroy is starting the second half of his Masters career. He’s played 15 times. Fifteen years from now, he will be 49. His opportunities decrease each year. It is a weighty burden, and one to which Scheffler cannot relate.

“I know I've got the potential to do it too,” McIlroy said about winning the Masters.

Because Scheffler has achieved that goal, he arrives at Augusta National each year with the freedom that comes with a lifetime invitation. It is just another reason winning at Augusta National is life-altering. It determines your schedule each April for the remainder of your existence, while most of the field each year has to earn its invitation on an annual basis.

The disparate paths Scheffler and McIlroy will take to Thursday’s first tee symbolize the difference in their Masters experience.

Scheffler last played two weeks ago at the Texas Children’s Houston Open before going home to Dallas, where his top priority was resting up for this week. After arriving in Augusta, he played a relaxed round Sunday with his sister Molly. It is one of many privileges that come with a Masters victory. Past champions are allowed to play Augusta National with a guest of their choosing on the eve of tournament week.

McIlroy, on the other hand, recently made the pilgrimage to Las Vegas to see golf’s swing sherpa, Butch Harmon, needing one of Harmon’s trademark pep talks as much as an analysis of his swing plane. When he said he was leaving for a golf lesson, McIlroy told the “I Can Fly” podcast that his daughter Poppy said, “Dada, you already know how to play golf.” McIlroy called that “probably the best piece of advice I’ve gotten in the last three years.”

He finished third at the Valero Texas Open and left Sunday encouraged with the direction of his game. Then, while the rest of the golf world flooded Washington Road, he flew home to south Florida. A day with his wife and daughter was more important than another practice round on a course he knows so well.

He arrived in Augusta National on Tuesday morning, the last man to register for the tournament. It was all an attempt to make this week feel as normal as possible. His press conference was brief, lasting little more than 10 minutes. When it abruptly ended, he was quick to get out of his chair. One of the game’s best talkers did not seem like he wanted to do much of it Tuesday. How many more questions about the Masters could he answer?

He admitted that, as he drove up Magnolia Lane for the first time this week, he tried to regain the gratitude he felt when he arrived 15 years ago. The Masters is unique among the majors because it is held at the same course each year. It feels familiar even to the millions who will never see it for themselves. Each hole is imbued with history, deepening our relationship with the course. That is a double-edged sword for players, who are confronted with the full array of their past results each time they arrive.

For McIlroy, that means a confrontation with 2011, when he shot 80 to lose a four-shot lead. And 2018, when he couldn’t catch Patrick Reed while playing alongside him in the final group. There were several years where good starts were undone by scores in the mid-70s. Even in his best finish, a runner-up two years ago, he was not a threat to Scheffler.

In light of that, one can understand why McIlroy would want to minimize his time on property during tournament week, avoiding as well the increased pressure that comes from each well-meaning well-wisher. McIlroy did the bulk of his preparation during a scouting trip last week.

“It's just about going out there and being relaxed and being in the right frame of mind,” he said Tuesday. “And the more I can do that, the more I'll be able to execute on the golf course.”

It can be debated if it’s feasible to remain relaxed during this week. Stress seems inherent to an event of such magnitude. Maybe for a couple days, but one good round Thursday will send all the questions, the demands and expectations flooding in. Is it better to embrace all that this week presents rather than minimize it?

Contrast that to Scheffler, who said, “There's definitely excitement, anxiousness. I mean, all those things go through you when you're out there competing. It's just about how do you use those feelings and emotions to kind of enhance your focus, and that's pretty much it.”

Scheffler’s ability to focus on the present is often cited as one of his gifts. He isn’t overly concerned with what was or is to come. When asked Tuesday how long his time atop the golf world could last, he admitted that it could be taken away at any time by the unpredictability of life. He isn’t given to rumination or speculation, which may at times leave the media and fans wanting, but also is a reason why his ability to recover from the rare stray shot is an underrated aspect of his success. His short game serves as a strong complement to his record-setting ball-striking.

“I try not to look too far in the future,” he said Tuesday. McIlroy admitted that this is the week where he needs such restraint, that he’s often tried too hard to win the tournament on the opening hole.

The difference in their perspectives may come solely from the fact that Scheffler possesses a green jacket and McIlroy does not. But it could be deeper than that. In many ways, McIlroy will be defined by what he does this week. Scheffler insists he will not.