With Scottie Scheffler making his return after a Christmas injury, Rory McIlroy had some fun at the World No. 1’s expense.
Upon learning that Scottie Scheffler punctured his hand while preparing Christmas dinner, McIlroy expressed his concern and hoped for Scheffler’s quick recovery.
Once it was confirmed that Scheffler would be back on the PGA Tour shortly, McIlroy couldn’t help but ask a cheeky question.
“I think he made enough money to hire a chef,” McIlroy quipped on Tuesday.
“It’s like, why are you cooking yourself?”
This playful jab highlights a valid point. Scheffler earned nearly $60 million in 2024, a remarkable year that included nine wins, a triumph at Augusta National, and an impressive comeback to secure the Gold Medal in Paris. His stellar performance has led many to draw comparisons to Tiger Woods and his dominance in the 2000s.
As the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am approaches, where Scheffler will make his 2025 season debut, McIlroy further commended Scheffler.
“I’ve never — this is anyone, this is Tiger, this is in the history of golf. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a golfer play as many bogey-free rounds as Scottie. He just doesn’t make mistakes. It’s so impressive,” McIlroy stated about Scheffler.
“He plays the right shot at the right time over and over again. You obviously need the technical ability to do that, but he doesn’t make mistakes. And when you don’t make mistakes on the golf course, the game can become pretty easy. So super impressive. If he continues to do that, he’s going to be the dominant force that he was last year and the year before that.”
Since claiming his first PGA Tour title at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, Scheffler has won the Masters twice and The Players in back-to-back years, making history as the first player to achieve this at TPC Sawgrass. Overall, Scheffler has amassed 13 PGA Tour victories, not including his triumph in Paris or his two Hero World Challenge wins.
In contrast, McIlroy has secured six PGA Tour wins and four more on the DP World Tour since that first title in February 2022. The Northern Irishman has also been performing exceptionally well.
This explains the excitement surrounding this week’s Signature Event. Both Scheffler and McIlroy are set to make their first PGA Tour appearances of 2025, a highly anticipated event for golf fans across America. The last time the golfing world saw Scheffler was in December when he and McIlroy bested Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in the Crypto.com Showdown in Las Vegas. Just eight days later, Scheffler suffered a hand injury while making ravioli.
“I was hoping it was going to be more of a fun story than that,” McIlroy remarked.
“We were together in Vegas on the 17th of December and played that match with Brooks and Bryson. Firstly, just concern and hope he was okay. It sounds like he is, and it’s good that he’s teeing it up this week.
“Yeah, get a chef.”
