Rory McIlroy agrees that, with golf’s many issues, Scottie Scheffler’s dominance isn’t getting its due

ORLANDO — The hottest golfer since prime Tiger Woods won again Sunday. It barely made a sound. There’s just too much noise in the game to appreciate the excellence of Scottie Scheffler, who’s been the best golfer alive for two years now.

Scheffler, the world’s No. 1-ranked player, won the Arnold Palmer Invitational by 5 strokes at 15 under. He started the day tied for the lead and shot 6 under, the best score by 2 shots. It also was more than 7 shots better than the average score of the elite field gathered for the $20 million purse of this signature event, which guaranteed every entrant $100,000 and sent the winner home with $4 million. There were seven other world top-10 players in the field Sunday, but they finished an aggregate 6 over, largely because the world No. 2‚ Rory McIlroy, botched his front nine and carded a 4 over for the day.

Which left McIlroy even more agog both at what Scheffler did Sunday, and has done since LIV Golf turned the golf world upside down two years ago.

“This is a super-tough golf course,” McIlroy said. “Just sort of lapping the field — it’s super-impressive.”

Super-impressive has become the norm for Scheffler. Since Woods’ last stint at No. 1 more than a decade ago, only McIlroy and Dustin Johnson have held on to the No. 1 ranking longer than Scheffler, who will hit 44 weeks in a row when he defends his Players Championship title beginning Thursday.

“To be as consistent as Scottie has been is really, really difficult in this game,” McIlroy said. “Anyone can pop up and win an event here or there or get on a good run, but the consistent performances that Scottie’s been putting in, week in and week out, every time he tees it up, is incredible.”

It’s unfortunate that he’s done it in a fog of controversy. Consider: As the unquestioned best golfer alive charged onto the top of the leaderboard at a gilt-edged tournament named for the game’s greatest ambassador, the week’s top stories involved: LIV abandoning its bid for world-ranking points; Tiger’s ongoing comeback battle from injuries keeping him out of the Players; and McIlroy officially ending his vague flirtation with LIV.

“There’s definitely been other stories out there,” McIlroy said. “You know, the play on the golf courses has taken a backseat to everything else. Which is a shame. I’d say, if we were in a different place in the world of golf, Scottie’s golf would probably be getting a lot more plaudits.”

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After a brief era in which beefcakes Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau had a running feud, Phil Mickelson made major-championship history with a PGA Championship win at 50, and Sergio Garcia repeatedly proved himself an irredeemable boor, it doesn’t help Scheffler’s Q-rating that he’s about as charismatic as rice pudding. It was big news when Scheffler threw a golf ball into the trees last month at the Genesis Invitational.

He’s won everywhere in every manner. He took the raucous 2022 Waste Management in a playoff over Patrick Cantlay, outlasted three runners-up a month later at the staid Arnold Palmer Invitational, dusted Kevin Kisner 4 and 3 in the finals of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, then held a 5-shot lead after 71 holes at the Masters, which he won by 3 shots.

He didn’t win again until he defended his WM title, but then he won the Players by five. Putting woes descended, but were rescinded here in Orlando.

Don’t be fooled by the gaps between victories. His average finish since early 2022 has been eighth, with 28 top-10 finishes in his 44 starts. He hasn’t missed a cut since August 2022.

“I try and be as consistent as possible out here,” Scheffler said. “That’s a difficult thing, given, week to week out here on tour the golf courses are really tough, the competition is really tough.”

Is it, though?

Scheffler has profited more than any other golfer from the arrival of LIV Golf. It not only siphoned off some top talent, but it also forced the PGA Tour to begin to share the wealth more than ever; total payouts for the year increased by more than 30%, with even more to be made at the signature events, reserved for the best of the best, as well as other streams of revenue.

Would Scheffler have seven wins, have a Masters jacket, and be defending his Players Championship if LIV didn’t exist? After all, 12 of the LIV-ers were ranked in the top 40 of the Official World Golf Rankings when they left. Cam Smith was No. 2. Jon Rahm was No. 3. Both were reigning major champions.

Then again, in the 2022-23 season, Scheffler posted an adjusted scoring average of 68.629, the second-best in tour history behind Tiger’s legendary 2000 season. Golf is played in a vacuum — nobody’s playing defense on the course — so there’s no reason to think Scheffler would have scored worse if, say, Smith, Rahm, and Koepka had been around.

Asked if he could recall the worst tournament he’d played in the last year, Scheffler replied, “Not off the top of my head. And I think that’s a good thing.”

That’s a good thing, indeed. It also seems less relevant for him than it might be for others. A devoted husband and a devout Christian, he seems to measure success with a perspective most 27-year-old golfers lack.

“My life’s not a golf score,” Scheffler said. As for the No. 1 spot, “It’s not something I put my identity in.”

Lots of game, little ego. He’s the perfect player to occupy the game’s throne during a time when historically good golf gets far less attention than it deserves.