He wasn’t backing too far off that on the weekend but admitted that Wyndham Clark’s stunning play in the BMW Championship gives he and his peers something to think about. Clark headed into the final round at Bellerive five shots up on the field, and a victory would give him three wins on the year, including the U.S. Open and a playoff title. Scheffler, meantime, has two wins, including his eight-shot rout in last week's FedEx St. Jude, and five runners-up.

“What Wyndham is doing this week, if he keeps playing the way he is, it's a conversation,” McIlroy told CBS after shooting 65 to get into a tie for second and into Sunday’s final group. The Ulsterman compared it to 2019, when he was named Player of the Year after winning the Players and FedEx Cup, while Brooks Koepka had three victories, including the PGA. "It's what your peers value," McIlroy said.

The difference for McIlroy remains Scheffler’s “unbelievable” consistency. “You look at Scottie's statistical profile, it's just like he's number one in strokes gained, he's number one in scoring average, he's number one in, like, so many statistical categories." To that point, Scheffler is top six in the tour’s three main stats categories (off-the-tee, approach and putting); Clark is top-20 in none.