Scottie Scheffler isn’t just dominating, he’s rewriting the rulebook on what dominance looks like. He won The American Express for his 20th PGA Tour victory and added another trophy to his cabinet. The result of that? It widened an already astronomical gap between him and the rest of the golfers, and particularly the World No.2 Rory McIlroy. A gap too good for even fans to believe.

Golf analyst Jason Sobel recently dropped a stat that sent shockwaves through the sport. Following Scheffler’s victory at the La Quinta Country Club, Sobel stated the world number one is averaging 16.9591 points per eligible event in the Official World Golf Ranking. On the other hand, McIlroy sits second at 8.5633 points per event.

That’s a difference of 8.3958 points!

But, here’s the kicker: that same gap exists between McIlroy and Kyung-nam Kang, ranked 677th in the world. Now, let that sink in.

The 29-year-old from New Jersey has amassed 20 PGA Tour wins with over $100M in career earnings. And that 20th PGA win alone netted him $1.66 million and 500 FedExCup points while securing a lifetime PGA Tour membership.

Meanwhile, McIlroy sits at 29 career wins and has nearly $108 million in career earnings. The Northern Irishman holds three victories from the 2025 season and ranks second globally. Both players are elite. However, Scheffler operates in a different zone altogether. His early 2026 scoring average (65.25), putting average (1.542), and birdie average (8.00) show that he is consistently delivering on all important performance metrics.

However, McIlroy hasn’t played in any event on the 2026 PGA Tour yet. But he finished 2025 with 8 top-10 and 14 top-25 finishes across 16 events.

Despite the statistical gap, both players maintain a profound respect for each other’s abilities.

McIlroy, watching Scheffler cruise to victory at The Open Championship at Royal Portrush in 2025, offered words that have become the defining assessment of modern golf’s hierarchy: “He is the bar that we’re all trying to get to at this point. He’s an unbelievable player, an incredible champion, and a great person too.”

He pointed to how the American executes flawlessly without being flashy. McIlroy admitted that all anyone can do is watch in admiration as Scheffler sets the bar higher. He’s been on a different level for two years, according to Rory.

Scottie Scheffler won seven PGA Tour events in 2024, including a second Masters and Olympic gold. To top that, in 2025, he won the PGA Tour Player of the Year award for the fourth consecutive time, which helped him remain at the top of the world rankings for a long time.

Moving on, Scheffler returned the respect when McIlroy completed his career Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters. Presenting Rory with the green jacket, he called it “really cool” to witness his good friend accomplish what few ever do. He even acknowledged the pressure of being asked about unfinished business year after year. Seeing Rory finally get it done brought visible relief, Scheffler noted.

Notably, the latest win has got everyone talking.

Analysts Charlie Hulme and Smylie Kaufman on January 27 echoed similar sentiments on The Smylie Show, where they pointed out that the gap between Scheffler and McIlroy is greater than the gap between McIlroy and world number 58 Matt McCarty.

These aren’t cherry-picked stats; it was a reality check that even fans found hard to believe.

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Social media reactions heat up with Scottie Scheffler leading the charts

The huge difference in numbers between the top two players left many fans speechless. And the predictions came up with one fan stating, “That’s insane, I just have a feeling 2026 could be Scottie’s best year yet.”

That gap didn’t give fans much to think about, as another comment read, “Wild 👀.” This reaction perfectly showed how shocked everyone was that one player could have such a huge lead over the top competitors.

The shocker became a theme in the comment section, with another fan writing, “Pretty crazy 👀.” The fact that McIlroy was the same distance from Kang (ranked 677th) as he was from Scheffler fundamentally changed how we think about competitive gaps.

Some went beyond words as they tried to process that information. One fan used just one emoji to show how amazed they were: “😮,” which perfectly captured how many people felt.

One confused fan could only say, “Yo what?!?” when they found out how big the world number one’s lead really was.

The disbelief showed how Scottie Scheffler has broken the mold of what people thought would happen when the sport’s best players competed against each other.