Rory McIlroy Needs To Stop Talking, Lucas Glover Torches The Tour, And Scottie Scheffler Breaks The Dry Spell

It's hard to fathom that this is an accurate statement, but for the first time in a year we're going to talk about Scottie Scheffler winning a golf tournament in this week's edition of Par Talk. The No. 1 player in the world had a great putting week, and when that happens, there isn't a human walking the planet that can beat him. His five-shot victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational was a not-so-gentle reminder of that.

In other news, Rory McIlroy opened his mouth again, this time calling for the PGA Tour to shrink. While his comments caused quite a stir, they shouldn't have given his push for a global tour in recent months that would undoubtedly feature small-field events.

Lucas Glover made some comments of his own about the state of the PGA Tour, and the powers that be in Ponta Vedra can't be happy about the former major champion's opinion. That doesn't make what he said untrue, however.

Another week, another Par Talk. Let's get caught up on all things golf.

It's Rory's World, We're Just Living In It

Rory McIlroy is the most popular professional golfer on the planet not named Tiger Woods. He isn't the needle, but he certainly moves it, and he's well aware of that reality. His focus at this point in his career is major championships and signature events, also known as golf tournaments that only featured the elite of the elite.

Those same tournaments attract the most eyeballs, the most sponsors, and in turn the highest purses. 

Over the past few months, McIlory has laid out his dream scenario of having a global tour featuring only the best, big-name players in the game. If that sounds like LIV Golf, that's because it's an eerily similar concept, and on Friday at the API, McIlroy got as candid as he ever has about what he wants professional golf to become.

(USA TODAY/IMAGN)

"I’m all for making it more cutthroat, more competitive," he said after his second round at Bay Hill. "Probably won’t be very popular for saying this, but I’m all for less players and less Tour cards, and the best of the best."

It's pretty simple, fewer players and fewer Tour cards means less competition for McIlroy to worry about. That is at least one way, maybe the more negative way, to look at Rory's proposition.

READ: Viktor Hovland Thinks Current State Of Golf Is 'Sad' And 'Soulless,' Which Is More Than Fair

On the other hand, you can't fault him for thinking this way. From a business standpoint, it would benefit the Tour to have its stars teeing it up against one another each week in a smaller field that, in theory, create headline-worthy leaderboards.

The thing is, the Tour is already doing that with signature events on the calendar, and the stars are barely showing up.

The timing of McIlroy's comments is the real head-scratcher in all of this. He has been a complete non-factor in each of his four starts on Tour this season with zero Top 20 finishes. He has the name recognition to get away with essentially calling for the Tour to shrink its membership.  But with his lack of form, decade-long drought in major championships, and softening stance towards LIV Golf, his comments have understandably rub people the wrong way.

Lucas Glover Makes All The Sense In The World

Lucas Glover won back-to-back weeks last season, making him exempt for every signature event in 2024 - which will result in hefty paydays - but that doesn't mean he has to like them.

Glover sees the signature events for (mostly) what they are: huge cash grabs to keep the Rorys of the world as happy as can be.

"Nothing that has happened in the last two years in golf, in my opinion, that will help the game," Glover told Golfweek. "I’ve yet to figure out what’s so bad out here that we had to do all the things we’ve done."

"I’m 44 and I’m getting towards the get-off-my-lawn dad," he continued. "I just don’t see what was so bad out here that we had to do all this. Let’s raise some purses to make sure we keep some guys around but now we’ve eliminated a lot of playing opportunities for some really good players."

He didn't stop there in his criticisms. He took direct aim at the Tour's signature event, this week's Players, and it's tough to argue with his point.

"Why are the signature events (max) 80 players and only 50 make the cut but our biggest signature event next week is 144 players with a full cut. THE signature event," Glover said. "It’s very mind-blowing that our biggest signature event has the most players and the biggest cut."

Fair, more than fair.

Last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational featured 69 players and a cut, but the quirky cut rule only sent 11 of those players trunk-slamming on Friday. A small cut like that is better than the other signature events that don't feature a cut at all, but Glover's opinion about The Players being a full-field event but inevitably sending some big-name players home who miss the cut makes very little sense.

It's almost as if professional golf is in the most unique spot it has ever been in, and everyone is just trying to figure things out along the way….

Look Out, World, Scottie Learned How To Putt

As for the actual golf being played this week in Orlando, nobody played better than Mr. Scheffler.

It was a matter of when, not if, Scheffler was going to flex his muscle and run away with a big-time event, and that lightning struck on Sunday with him cruising to a five-shot victory. Interestingly enough, Scheffler was nearing a full 365 days from his last win on Tour, the 2023 Players, which he also happened to win by five shots.

When his putter is even close to warm he is unbeatable, and now that he's very clearly found confidence with his old mallet-style putter back in the bag, the world needs to be put on notice.

A bogey-free 66 around a brutally firm and fast Bay Hill on Sunday after fighting the putter demons for close to a year is some next-level stuff.

Scheffler led the field in strokes gained: putting on Sunday, picking up close to four shots on the greens. Even if he only picks up a shot on the field with the putter, he still coasts to a victory, and not only this past week, but weeks moving forward as well.

When it comes to ball striking and tee-to-green game, it's Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods, and then everyone else, ever.

Scheffler closed out 2023 with the second-best tee-to-green numbers (+2.98 shots per round) with only Tiger Woods' 2006 season besting him. Woods won eight times that season, including two majors.

Scheffler's tee-to-green numbers aren't quite what they were in 2023 so far this season, but he's not far off as he's gaining 2.57 shots in 2024. Which, you guessed it, ranks first on the PGA Tour.