Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler reprise rivalry at The Genesis Invitational
4 Min Read
Written by Cameron Morfit
World Nos. 1, 3 firmly in contention heading into weekend
SAN DIEGO – Scottie Scheffler was 13 when Rory McIlroy won the first of his 27 PGA TOUR titles, the 2010 Truist Championship at Quail Hollow Club. If you’d have asked Scheffler then who he wanted to emulate, McIlroy would’ve been up there.
And yet their roles were reversed at the recent AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when McIlroy, 35, spoke about trying to emulate Scheffler.
“When one of your peers has the year he had last year, and honestly the year like he had in ’23 as well, you start to take notice of what is he doing,” McIlroy said.
Specifically, he added, he would be trying to copy Scheffler’s enviable ability to limit bogeys.
Rory McIlroy’s interview after Round 2 of The Genesis Invitational
All of which comes up now because the two rivals, whose 2022 TOUR Championship clash saw McIlroy erase a six-shot Scheffler lead to win the FedExCup, are at it again. Both players shot 5-under 67 at a rain-softened Torrey Pines South Course as the sun finally poked through Friday, and both are very much in the mix halfway through The Genesis Invitational.
“I'm pretty satisfied with the way I scored today,” said Scheffler, who hit just five of 14 fairways and at 7-under trails leader Davis Thompson by one. “I did not drive the ball as well as I would have hoped to; I felt like I was out of position a lot today but did a good job of muscling some shots up there on the green and getting up and down when I needed to as well.”
Scottie Scheffler’s Round 2 highlights from The Genesis Invitational
McIlroy is at 5-under total and just three off the lead.
“I need to take advantage of the par 5s better,” McIlroy said, having birdied just two par 5s in eight chances so far. “… Especially when a golf course like this is playing so tough, you need to birdie the easy holes and (capitalize on) the chances that it presents.
“Luckily, I made up for that in other areas today,” he added.
Some of McIlroy’s birdies were of the kick-in variety, and he made two birdies on the par-3s. Although he hasn’t played his best, he’s only two behind the best, Scheffler, the seemingly immovable Texan who has become the barometer for everyone else.
Rory McIlroy's incredible wedge leads to tap-in birdie at Genesis
Torrey Pines has an uncanny knack for identifying the best player in the game; witness Tiger Woods’ eight professional victories here, including the 2008 U.S. Open. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that three of the top six players in the world occupy the top six rungs on The Genesis Invitational leaderboard, the other being sixth-ranked Ludvig Åberg (66, 4-under).
The most compelling drama, though, is the one between McIlroy and Scheffler. One of them, McIlroy, who used to be world No. 1, has fallen to No. 3, and has professed a desire to return to that lofty perch. The other, Scheffler, has built a massive lead over everyone else atop the Official World Golf Ranking, having racked up 13 PGA TOUR titles in the last three years.
What’s intriguing is that Scheffler got off to a slow start this season (two starts, no wins) after injuring his hand while making ravioli. Meanwhile, McIlroy, who has won four times on TOUR over the last three years – losing ground to Scheffler – is one-for-one in ’25, having conquered the field at Pebble Beach two weeks ago.
If you define momentum as what happened over the last three weeks, McIlroy has it.
If you define momentum as what happened over the last three years, Scheffler has it. Just in the last 12 months, he’s won the TOUR Championship and a FedExCup of his own; his second Masters in three years; THE PLAYERS Championship for the second straight year, becoming the first to successfully defend; four Signature Events and the Olympic gold medal in Paris.
McIlroy won’t be the only player trying to copy him.
“Yeah, it’s more maybe just picking some more conservative targets at times,” McIlroy said Friday when asked to expound on his earlier comments about copying the game’s ne plus ultra. “Scottie has proven over the past two or three years that he's definitely the best at that.”
There’s lots of trouble at Torrey; McIlroy should have chances this weekend to prove that he can follow Scheffler’s lead. But will it matter if he can? That remains to be seen.
