Scottie Scheffler has been the dominant force in world golf over the past few years, and Rory McIlroy has struggled to keep up with the American.

Scheffler now has 22 PGA Tour wins to his name since February 2022, including four major championships, while McIlroy has won 30 times on the PGA Tour, including six major victories.

The 30-year-old is closing in on the Northern Irishman’s win tally, and it would be no surprise if he overtakes him within the next two or three years.

Scheffler has been the world number one golfer for 180 consecutive weeks now and the exceptional consistency he has produced has been like nothing we have seen since Tiger Woods‘ heyday.

However, McIlroy may just have an advantage over Scheffler heading into the 2026 PGA Tour season.

Scottie Scheffler’s off-season decision could give Rory McIlroy an advantage

Since the end of the PGA Tour season, McIlroy has already played in three events on the DP World Tour. Including the Australian Open in December, he has three more tournaments lined up to play before the end of the year.

During that period, Scheffler will be playing just one event, and an unofficial one at that, as he tees it up at the Hero World Challenge in December.

Now, the world number one will obviously work incredibly hard on his game behind the scenes during the off-season, but we all know there is nothing quite like playing competitive golf in order to get sharp.

And Scheffler may well be undercooked in that regard heading into the 2027 PGA Tour season. This could be a big problem for him with so many huge events coming inside the first three months of the season, including The Masters, The Players Championship, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational.

Of course, the Texan has suffered from slow starts in both the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The 22-time PGA Tour winner had to wait until March and May respectively for his first wins of the year in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

He did win in his first start in 2026, but he had to wait until August before he won for the second time. It’s fair to say that the 30-year-old could be equally rusty when he starts competing again in 2027.

Meanwhile, McIlroy’s game should be fairly sharp by the time he makes his first start of the season around February time. He would have played in six events since the end of September, and that sharpness might just give him an edge over his main rival.

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are undoubtedly the two best golfers in the world, and they have been for quite some time. It will be fascinating to watch them battle it out on the golf course throughout 2027.

And judging by both players’ off-season schedule, McIlroy may be better positioned to come out the blocks and win a few of the massive tournaments which are scheduled early on in the PGA Tour calendar.