Scottie Scheffler Has His Say On Rory McIlroy's Season Of Near Misses

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler had some philosophical words of comfort for Rory McIlroy after another near miss at the BMW PGA Championship.

Billy Horschel made an eagle on the second playoff hole at Wentworth to pip McIlroy to the title, and that close call just added to the catalogue of missed opportunities for the Northern Irishman.

McIlroy came close at the Paris 2024 Olympics, then was pipped at the post at the Irish Open, and most famously of course slipped up at the US Open at Pinehurst.

Although McIlroy insisted he was happy with how he was playing, he did admit that "the game is testing me" after so many near misses in big tournaments.

It's obviously led to questions being raised about his ability to close out tournaments, but Scheffler offered a typically reasoned response with some words of wisdom for McIlroy to follow.

"I've had years in the past on Tour where I've played pretty nice and I haven't been able to win a bunch," Scheffler said at the Presidents Cup.

"Sometimes in this game the breaks go your way and sometimes they don't. You know like Rory's had some close calls. 

"He has a playoff last week, and a guy eagles the final hole to beat him, and that's kind of a tough deal. He didn't lose, he got beat. So that can happen."

Scheffler had a few more examples of when tournaments went both for and against him by the smallest of margins - with even some of his huge amount of wins coming from just the odd putt here and there.

"Sometimes the breaks fall your way, like Tom Kim and I in the playoff at Travelers," Scheffler added. "He did birdie 18 to get in the playoff, but then he made a bogey on the playoff hole. Just little things like that sometimes can help.

"I remember a couple years ago Sam Burns made a 40-footer off the fringe to beat me at Colonial on a day when all the afternoon guys struggled because the winds started picking up like crazy.

"Sometimes it's an important putt or a little break here or there, and a lot of times this year I felt like I made the putts when I really needed to. I made that 5-footer on 18 in Paris, made a bunch of putts on that back nine.

"I made a putt to win the Memorial on the last hole. And back nine at the Masters, final round at The Players, I made a lot of putts that were not necessarily on 18 green, but a lot of putts that were important to keep momentum in the round going.

"In years past, maybe sometimes those putts went in sometimes, but this year I felt like for the most part I made a lot of those putts when I needed to."

McIlroy will hope that, like Scheffler, if he keeps putting himself in position the tables will turn and, once one big one lands, the floodgates could well open.