After all the near misses throughout the season, Scottie Scheffler finally won the St. Jude Championship last week. His 21st PGA Tour title earned him the winner’s payout of $3.6 million and 68.60692 OWGR points. But that’s not all. With $119,964,411 in official money now, he surpassed Rory McIlroy, who has earned $116,488,372 on the PGA Tour. On paper, that settles it. But two decades of longevity don’t disappear because of one purse-inflated season.

Besides that, the gap in their OWGR average points also widened after the Northern Irishman finished 66th last week. Now, that margin is wider than the one separating Rory McIlroy from any other professional golfer, which Golf Digest reports to be approximately 6,000 golfers.

That widening margin is not a one-off. Scheffler first reached world No. 1 in March 2022, just 42 days after his maiden PGA Tour win, and has since spent nearly 200 weeks at the top spot, including a current run of 165 straight weeks since May 2023, the third-longest streak in OWGR history behind only Tiger Woods and Greg Norman.

As soon as the numbers came out, everyone started saying Scottie Scheffler beat Rory McIlroy, and it is absolutely justified when we look at it technically. But a technicality doesn’t always give you the whole picture, and this comparison is a prime example of that.

The longevity that counts more

Even before turning pro, Rory McIlroy had an impressive amateur resume. This includes the European Amateur Championship in 2006, the Irish Amateur Close Championship in 2005 and 2006, and the Silver Medal as the leading amateur at The Open Championship in 2007.

The Northern Irishman turned pro in 2007, which was close to two decades ago. Over this time, he won 30 events on the PGA Tour and an additional 21 on the DP World Tour. If you consider the six majors as common across the two leagues, that’s still a whopping 45 titles collectively.

Similarly, McIlroy has rarely fallen outside the top 15 in the world rankings since 2009, when he won his first DP World Tour title at the Dubai Desert Classic. During this time, he has had many competitors who are now nowhere near him. He has won the season-long Race to Dubai competition a record seven times. At the moment, he is only one win shy of the record holder, Colin Montgomerie.

Rory McIlroy’s Ryder Cup performances have also been exceptional. But today, it’s more about the leadership he shows at the biennial event. Fellow golfers and captains widely hailed him as the emotional and structural heartbeat of the European team room after their away win at Bethpage Black.

On the other hand, Scottie Scheffler turned pro in 2018 and joined the PGA Tour in 2020, which is nowhere close to the longevity Rory McIlroy has shown.

The prize money difference

Another thing worth noting here is the significantly increased purses since the 2020s. McIlroy has won many of his titles before that. Scheffler, however, won all his titles after the 2021-2022 season, which includes four majors and a lot of $20 million purses worth Signature Events.

Scottie Scheffler himself acknowledged this difference.

“That has a lot to do with the purses and all that. I’m not really too close to him [Tiger Woods] in terms of career wins. What am I, like a fourth of the way there?” Scottie Scheffler said ahead of the BMW Championship 2026 when asked about surpassing Tiger Woods in official earnings. “Tiger did a lot for the game of golf, and he put us in a position where we’re able to earn some pretty good stuff financially, so that’s something we’re very grateful for, and hopefully we’ll see him back out here competing again soon.”

While Scottie Scheffler spoke about Tiger Woods, the same is true in terms of Rory McIlroy, too. The Northern Irishman has nine more wins on the PGA Tour alone. Then there are all the events he won on the DP World Tour.

As for doing more for golf, Rory McIlroy has played more events internationally. Besides the USA, he has played in Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia. Last year, he went to India for the first time. However, when Scottie Scheffler was asked about playing internationally, he straightaway denied it. Except for The Open and the Genesis Scottish Open, it is very unlikely that the World No. 1 plays anywhere outside the USA.

The schedule effect on the OWGR points

Rory McIlroy is already 37 years old, and he knows that. That’s one reason why he has reduced his schedule over the last couple of years. Citing Justin Rose as an example, he said that he wanted to play longer rather than more.

The Northern Irishman has already said he won’t continue playing golf after 50. Instead, he is prioritizing family, something that Scottie Scheffler does, too.

Because of this lighter workload, Rory McIlroy has played far less this year than he used to, which has affected his chances of earning OWGR points. The combination of age and gaps between tournaments would have certainly had an impact on his game.

Despite playing less, he continues to amaze fans with powerful performances now and then, be it his wire-to-wire Masters 2026 win or his opening at the BMW Championship 2026. After finishing 66th last week, he opened the second playoff event with a six-under 64.

There’s no denying that Scottie Scheffler is playing better and more consistently than the 30-time PGA Tour winner at the moment. But the real question is whether he can continue doing so for as long as Rory McIlroy.