Rory McIlroy - 5 Time Major Winner and Grandslam legend

Agree, on pure golf ability, Rory is comfortably Tigers equal…I’ve seen so many shots down through the years that only those 2 could play!

But, unfortunately Rory’s mentality is not even within the same stratosphere as Tigers, and what’s between the ears is 90% of the task at that level. When Tiger got a sniff, even if he was 2 or 3 back late on a Sunday afternoon, he would have this laser sharp focus that you knew he would get it done. You just knew everything within 10 feet was going in when he was on it.

Rory can often look distracted and lack composure on a Sunday when it matters, I don’t think it’s a nerves thing either. He’s just seems to switch off on the most basic shots, how many times have we seen him fly the green with a wedge in his hand? after getting the hard bit done by cracking a drive 350 yards down the middle.

I suppose that’s also what makes him the most compelling watch as a spectator. He can pull off shots that seem super human and leave you in awe, but he’s also capable of the other extremes and it leaves you scratching your head and wondering how!

How is Scheffler on a different level to what Rory ever reached?? Rory has 2 majors more than him and close to 20 odd more major tournament wins. Yes Scheffler has been the man the last 2 years but to say he's better than Rory at any stage of his career is just BS…

Rory won a US Open by 8 shots and obliterated the field as a 21 year old.

Scottie couldn't make a putt within 6 feet up until 2 years ago and Rory beat him from 6 shots back at the Fed Ex final in 2022.

He just had the second best tee to green season in history, second only to Tiger in 2006. He has thirteen tournament wins in less than three years. 7 tournament wins in one season is the most since Vijay Singh had 9 in 2004 and Tiger in 2000. In this day and age winning seven tournaments on the PGA tour is phenomenal.

These wins are all on the PGA tour including two majors.

Rory has 26 PGA tour wins including majors, that's just 9 ahead of Scottie. He has seven years to win 10 tournaments which would be more than Rory at the same age.

Scottie isn't stopping, he'll win lots more including majors. You don't fall off when you have the level of consistency he's shown over the last couple of years. He has 16 top five finishes outside of his wins in the last two years. Nobody outside Tiger Woods has shown that level of form.

I'm saying that what Scottie has done in three years is on a different level to anything Rory has ever done. That's what I said in my first post.

I didn't say that he's better than him on the all time list, yet.

I am constantly astonished by the Irish media's disregard for Rory.

With all due respect for our stars in other sports, he is the only one Irish sportstar of global renown today but our media refuse to give him due respect.

(I'm talking about sport. I make no comment on Notorious or MMA)

His achievement in Dubai is, without a doubt, the greatest achievement of any Irish sports star this year. Then add in his roller-coaster year and Rory's triumph in adversity may be the biggest story in the world of golf this year but our local media… ah.. not too bothered!

Pity Rahm left, think it wud have been a great rivalry in 2024

Exactly this. A 5% win rate is phenomenal, never mind 10%.

Scheffler is good, he's very good and in time may well end up in the conversation for top 20 all time or something, but IMO at the moment his body of work (which would be a great career anyway) isn't over a long enough timeframe. That's not a slight or a knock on him at all. He's been head and shoulders above everyone for the last two years, although, as someone mentioned, DJ, Rahm, Koepka etc being with LIV arguably adds a small asterix to that assertion, but NOT to his wins, you can only beat whoever is in front of you and he's done that. Day, Thomas, Spieth all had their 2 year runs where they looked like they'd never stop winning, maybe Scheffler will continue his.

I think having Tiger as the big star immediately before Rory came on the scene made people expect too much from whoever the "next" star is/was. Nobody is ever going to have a career like Tiger again and to expect it from anyone is just madness. I'm old enough to have seen the likes of Seve, Langer, Faldo etc, and while I don't think Rory will ever be anywhere near Tiger's numbers, personally I think he's the best player I've ever seen, in terms of shots he can hit. I know many will disagree but its just an opinion. I think for whatever reason(s), he's underachieved in the majors for the last, say, 5/6 years, and really should be close to double figures by now. I hope he picks up a few more in the autumn of his career but he'll probably do well to finish with 6. I suspect we in Ireland will only realise just how good he was when he's finished.

He won his 4 majors by nearly an average of 5 stokes. Ridiculous golf.

I'm not even a massive fan of Rory, but for anyone to say what Scottie is doing now blows Rory's peak game away it talking absolute rubbish. Like I've actually never heard such nonsense.

You are all taking about careers here. Obviously Rory is way up there as regards his career. Scottie has a long way to go as regards that.

I'm talking about the standard of golf played over a period. Tiger has the best tee to green season of all time, Scottie has the second and third best, He smashed Tiger's consecutive par or better rounds record. He's the fastest to get to 12 PGA tour wins since his first.

Yes it's a short period but only Tiger has played at that level.

So to make it clear again he's achieved a level of golf that Rory has never played at. Tiger is the only comparison.

Fair enough, but in a way, level of golf isn't really a great metric. Most players at that level would rather 4 wins and 4 missed cuts than 8 second places (an extreme example obviously). Scottie's consistency is incredible, no argument, but ultimately its the wins that are remembered and that go on the records. He could well end up with more than Rory at the end of his career. Of course his consistency should in theory lead to more wins over time, but the hot & cold players can equally have exceptional records.

Completely. You can't compare different eras, in any sport really. Even Rory's and Tiger's careers never really overlapped enough, or they never went head to head enough, apart from maybe Kiawah and then the Tour Champs in Atlanta.

Wouldn't that make Scottie's achievements all the more impressive?

It could. But on the other hand, the forgiveness of modern equipment could arguably be said to have helped him win. He can be awful streaky off the tee, but gets away with it a lot of the time due to the wide fairways and less punishing rough of modern courses. He really struggled at Troon for example.

And then there's his putting. He kinda has Rory to thank for the improvement there, but you'd wonder how long that lasts. He can have some inexplicable misses and is often very ordinary on the greens.