Rory McIlroy said recently that one of his aims for 2025 was to catch Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, as the two best players in the world had separated themselves from the pack during stellar years.
But if the top two have cut McIlroy adrift, just how far out in front are they? We've crunched the numbers again to find out.
There's been a debate about whether Schauffele or Scheffler had the better season with the World No.1 winning eight times including The Masters and Olympics, while the World No.2 grabbed two Major titles.
World No.3 McIlroy could well have been in the conversation had just a few things gone his way in a season of near misses.
A couple of missed short putts cost the Northern Irishman the US Open before he came up just short at the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in what could have easily been five-win season with a fifth Major added.
The margins between success and failure in golf are razor thin, but if McIlroy is going wrong compared to the top two, just where are the gaps in his game he needs to improve?
We've already compared some of the top stats between Scheffler and Schauffele in 2024, but when you add in McIlroy you can see he comes up sometimes a distant third in a number of areas.
McIlroy stats compared to Scheffler & Schauffele
Although they are the top three in terms of overall Strokes Gained on the PGA Tour this year, McIlroy is a clear third and just over a shot worse off than Scheffler - although the American was operating at historic levels in 2024.
One standout immediately is that in 25 statistical categories McIlroy comes third in 20 of them, and top in just one - predictably that being with average driving distance.
Scheffler only comes last of three in two categories, with again no surprise with it being putting - who knows how may wins he'd have had if he'd just had some average putting rounds at times.
Schauffele is the best putter, scrambler and the most consistent in avoiding bogeys. You can be sceptical of stats but those definitely ring true with the eye test as well.
One stat we noticed comparing 2024 McIlroy with 2014 McIlroy is his dip in second round scoring, which really shows up here as he's two shots worse off than Schauffele and three behind Scheffler. That's a problem McIlroy really has to fix.
McIlroy also loses a shot to Schauffele and two to Scheffler in final round scoring - that's just too much if he really wants to get in among the top two next year.
The other major gap is in approach play, again something McIlroy is aware off as with a wedge in hand in particular he just can't get the ball close enough as often as the American pair.
Scheffler is a cut above here, but the gap between him and Schauffle is about the same as Schauffele to McIlroy, so Rory has to start hitting the ball closer on a more consistent basis.
That's perhaps a factor behind his recent swing changes, as it's clear from the stats that he has some ground to make up on the current big two on the PGA Tour.
