![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0_GettyImages-2291043366.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRory McIlroy has conceded that he jumped the gun in naming Scottie Scheffler as the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year after Wyndham Clark strengthened his case at the BMW Championship<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy admitted he may have been wrong about the PGA Tour Player of the Year race(Image: Rick Ulreich\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy admits he may have been premature in crowning Scottie Scheffler as the PGA Tour Player of the Year, as Wyndham Clark bolsters his claim for the award at the BMW Championship.<\/p>\n
The two-time major champion is storming to victory at Bellerive Country Club near St. Louis. He holds a five-shot lead over McIlroy<\/a> and Patrick Cantlay with 18 holes to play.<\/p>\n Clark<\/a> would have a compelling case for the award, should he seal the deal; it would be his third PGA Tour victory of the season, including the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. But McIlroy, the reigning Masters champion, believed Scheffler had cemented the Player of the Year title with his blowout win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship last week.<\/a><\/p>\n Scheffler has two wins this season, and while he does not have a major to his name in 2026, he has been remarkably consistent and holds an unassailable lead in the FedEx Cup standings.<\/p>\n Ahead of the BMW, McIlroy laughed when asked if he had a claim for the award, which is voted for by tour members. “I’m not the Player of the Year. No chance. Scottie is,” he said.<\/p>\n Three-time Player of the Year McIlroy is among a select few players who have an outside chance of reeling Clark in on Sunday, and he changed his tune about the race for the award after Saturday’s third round.<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n “I think I said what I said earlier in the week a little bit in jest, but at the same time, Scottie was coming off the win last week. But what Wyndham is doing this week, if he keeps playing the way he is, it’s a conversation,” he told CBS.<\/p>\n “In 2019, Brooks [Koepka] had won a major, but I had won the Players and the FedEx Cup. So it’s really about what your peers value more. And that year, they seemed to value what I did over what he did.<\/p>\n “But if you look at Scottie’s statistical profile, it’s just like he’s No. 1 in strokes gained, he’s No. 1 in scoring average, in so many statistical categories, he’s No. 1 . So I think you have to put that into it as well.<\/p>\n “He’s had an unbelievably consistent year, hasn’t had the wins that he’s had in previous years.<\/p>\n “But yeah, if Wyndham goes on and wins this week, I think we’re going to all have to think about it a little bit harder.”<\/p>\n World No. 1 Scheffler, meanwhile, has had a disappointing week by his high standards. He was expected to top the leaderboard again after romping to an eight-shot victory a week ago.<\/p>\n But he started sluggishly with a two-over-par opening round, and although he has climbed inside the top 15 with improved showings on Friday and Saturday, he is 12 shots off the lead and will not be a factor down the stretch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has conceded that he jumped the gun in naming Scottie Scheffler as the PGA Tour’s Player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[2488,144,399,208,1565,424],"class_list":["post-56279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scottie-scheffler","tag-masters-golf-tournament","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-us-open-golf","tag-wyndham-clark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}