Throughout 2024, ClutchPoints contributors will banter on hot topics in golf. This is the second hole of The DisCourse.

Michael: David, thanks for joining. I'm still thinking about your All-Star weekend proposal.

We're a week out from The Masters, so I thought we'd focus on Scottie Scheffler (apologies to the Valero Texas Open). Or rather, the competition around Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler is tearing up the PGA Tour. He has nine wins (34 top-3s!) in his last 52 starts, including two Arnold Palmer Invitationals, two WM Phoenix Opens, one Masters, and two Players Championships.

Despite playing creaky golf at last week's Texas Children's Houston Open, Scheffler came centimeters from forcing a playoff. He's a blown tap-in from shooting under par in all 31 rounds in 2024. His ball-striking metrics are on par with Prime Tiger Woods.

As PGA Tour and LIV Golf stars prep to face off at Augusta, and golf remains fractured — the question is, does Scheffler have a true rival? And does it matter?

But I wanted to ask you this first, David: Who's the second-best player in the world?

David: Hey, Michael! I'll argue Rory McIlroy still has a claim, although he hasn’t achieved his usual tournament results this year.

McIlroy’s calling card has always been his lethal combination of power and accuracy out of the tee box. His success in that phase has continued into this season; Rory is averaging north of 300 yards per drive. As long as McIlroy can maintain his driving dominance, he’ll always be a formidable opponent.

McIlroy's putting has hurt him this year. He's averaging 1.7 putts per hole, which won't cut it against elite competition. There's been plenty of bad luck — he’s had several putts come within inches of the hole — and his hole-out shots from off the green are entertaining. But they don’t make up for struggles on it.

What are your thoughts on Rory, and who else do you think could challenge Scottie? Jon Rahm? Wyndham Clark? Xander Schauffele?

Michael: I'd pinpoint one other defining — and troubling — trait of Rory's game in 2024: the big mistakes. He's been a double- (and triple-) bogey machine. He's repeatedly wasted quality rounds with untimely mishaps.

I want Rory to be the guy. And, to be fair, he is still ranked No. 2 in the world. I just get the sense that McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Thomas are moving into slightly different phases of their brilliant careers.

On the PGA Tour, the two names that come to mind are Clark and Hideki Matsuyama. (Schauffele has the stats and the talent, just not the wins.) Clark had two runner-ups to Scheffler in March and won the AT&T Pebble Beach. He ranks third in total SG, 14th in SG: off the tee, and 12th in SG: putting.

Clark passes the eye test, too. Back injury notwithstanding, he's been laser-focused and increasingly confident with his shot-crafting.

Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champ, ranks 1st in SG: around the green and 4th in SG: tee to green. His win at Riviera was the most impressive of the West Coast swing.

But Rahm still gets my vote. LIV performance is hard to gauge for a host of reasons (strength of competition, unique stats and format, course history, etc.), but, FWIW, Rahm is second in the individual standings. We wouldn't be having his conversation if he remained on the PGA Tour.

We'll get a true feel for his game at Augusta, where he'll defend his title (and host a spectacular Spanish feast), but he's played as solid as expected in his first LIV season.

My LIV curveball pick is Joaquin Niemann. He leads Rahm (by a mile) in the standings, having won two of four events in 2024. The 25-year-old, once one of the PGA Tour's rising stars, received a special invite to The Masters for balling out in non-LIV tournaments around the globe.

David, I'll throw it back to you. It stinks that we don't have a true sense of the state of Rahm or Niemann's game compared to the world's best, and it could be a minute until unification. So let's focus on the PGA Tour. Which of these sounds more compelling to you?

  1. Scheffler has one rival on his level — as Rahm was (or McIlroy would ideally be).
  2. Scheffler goes full Tiger/Patrick Mahomes/Thanos and lays waste to the competition all year.
  3. Status quo — Scheffler is comfortably on top, while a smattering of formidable foes try, and mostly fail, to keep up.

David: Let me start by acknowledging McIlroy's struggles, but where I differ with you is how serious I think they are. I'm not too concerned by his big mistakes. If anything, they actually make me more confident in his long-term performance. It's not like McIlroy has been playing badly. He's played really well with a few meltdowns.

In an ideal world, Scheffler would have one or two rivals on his level: McIlroy, and Schauffele — plus several other players on a similar stratosphere who occasionally give the trio a run for their money.

For now, I think Option B is most likely. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for the PGA Tour, as long as it was just for a short time. Seeing Scheffler embark on a truly historic run, beginning at Augusta National, would be thrilling.

Hopefully by the Open in July, McIlroy, Schauffele, or somebody else has upped their game, setting up a showdown in Scotland.

Michael: I think we'd happily take that. Enjoy The Masters. We'll reconvene soon.