Scottie Scheffler edges Rory for 2025 Golfweek Male Player of the Year

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About the closest competition Scottie Scheffler faced all year was in deciding who was Golfweek’s Male Player of the Year for 2025.

It was a two-horse race between Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, who won our Moment of the Year in a landslide, but when it was all said and done Scheffler’s resume is just too strong. Sorry, Rors.

Scottie Scheffler of Team United States and Rory McIlroy of Team Europe shake hands after their match during the Sunday singles matches of the 2025 Ryder Cup at Black Course at Bethpage State Park Golf Course on September 28, 2025 in Farmingdale, New York.

The Northern Irishman won the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam and join rarefied company. In most years, that alone would be a pretty convincing case for Player of the Year honors. But McIlroy also won at Pebble Beach and his second Players title. After a post-Masters hangover, he won the Irish Open and another DP World Tour season-long title and pulled off an impressive 3-1-1 performance in winning a road Ryder Cup – not too shabby. My colleague Cameron Jourdan argues that Rory’s year was “more impactful in the grand scheme” of things. In 10-20 years, will we be talking more about McIlroy’s Masters heroics? Probably.

But Scheffler was too much of a force to be reckoned with, winning two majors among his six titles. That's back to back years with a player swiping two of the four majors — Xander Schauffele won the PGA and British in 2024 — but its pretty special in its own right — Scheffler is just the 22nd player to do so. He laid down the hammer on Saturday afternoon at Quail Hollow to assume control of the PGA Championship and when it got interesting with a few miscues on the front nine on Sunday, Scheffler did what the greats do – he buckled down, kept his cool and ended up winning by five strokes.

He led by eight on Sunday at the British Open, which happened to be his winning margin at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, before settling for a four-stroke triumph. His fourth career major championship never felt in doubt. Scheffler topped the field in both Strokes Gained: Approach and SG: Putting – not a fair fight.

He ranked first in 28 different statistical categories on Tour, including winner of the Byron Nelson Award for low scoring average (68.13); Par 4 scoring average (3.89) and bounce back percentage (36.36 percent). He ranked first in scoring average in Round 1 (67.45), Round 2 (68.00), Round 3 (68.40) and Round 4 (68.10), becoming the first player since Tiger Woods (2000) to lead the Tour in all four categories in a single season. Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee went so far as to compare Scheffler’s tee-to-green game to Tiger in his heyday.

“I never thought I’d say that, I never thought I’d see that,” Chamblee said.

“There's nothing you can't not like about Scottie,” Woods said recently at the Hero World Challenge. “What he's doing on the golf course is just incredible, the consistency day in and day out, the strategy that he – how he attacks the golf course. It starts from you can see him analyze it from the green back where the flag is, where he wants to miss a tee shot, what club to hit, where the wind is, what side of the tee box he's to start off on. It's truly amazing at how thoughtful he is and strategic he is throughout the entire round.”

It was always going to be difficult for Scheffler to follow up a nine-victory season in 2024 and then he had to overcome the ravioli incident, which resulted in hand surgery and cost him a few starts. Scheffler didn’t win until May but in recording a Tour-best 17 top-10s while not missing a cut, he carved out another memorable season with the world No. 1 bullseye on his back and shows no signs of slowing down.

McIlroy bagged his big scalps but the utter brilliance of Scheffler was too much for anyone to contend with in 2025 and that’s why we ultimately settled on Scheffler as the Golfweek Male Player of the Year for 2025.