PGA Tour star breaks down ‘Scottie Scheffler or Xander Schauffele’ conversation, finds solution to this year's Player of the Year conundrum

By Shobhit Kukreti

Modified Jul 26, 2024 16:07 GMT

Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele are top contender for the PGA Tour Player of the Year (Images via USA Today) — Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele are top contender for the PGA Tour Player of the Year. (Images via USA Today)

Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele are frontrunners for PGA Tour Player of the Year 2024. While each has strengths in different areas, both have strong cases for the coveted award. However, PGA Tour professional Sam Ryder has a suggestion for resolving this conundrum.

Scheffler is the winningest player on the PGA Tour 2024 season by a fair margin. He has won six events so far, including the Masters Tournament and the Players Championship. Schauffele, on the other hand, has also made his case stronger by winning the Open Championship last week. He has become the first player since Brooks Koepka to win two Majors in a single season. He has been quite consistent throughout the season as well.

Recently, while speaking to the Xirius XM radio, Ryder shared his perspective on two of the strongest contenders for the PGA Tour Player of the Year.

"I think when Xander won the Open, one of the things I thought about was, like, wow, this is actually interesting because now, I mean, winning one Major, winning one PGA Tour event for that matter, but winning a couple of Majors in a single season in the fashion that he's done it, with a lot of really obviously great players coming at him, you know, on Sunday and Saturday. It's really, really impressive," he said.

He added that it was hard to take away things from Scheffler, who has won a lot of times this season.

"It's so hard to take things away from the year Scottie's had, though. You know, he's won the Players, he's won... How many times has he won this year? I don't even know. But his body of work has been so, so impressive, and he's won the Masters and he's won the Players, which is almost like the fifth Major," he said.

Ryder concluded that it would all depend on their performance in the FedEx Cup playoffs. He added that whoever won the season-ending tournament between the two would eventually be the Player of the Year.

"I think if Xander is able to do that (win the FedEx Cup), then it starts to become more of a real conversation. But nothing to take away from Xander. He's such a great guy, great family, love all of them, and so happy to see him. I mean, he's played so well for seems like a long time. He clearly knows that he can get it done with the best of them on Sunday afternoon," he concluded.

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