Justin Thomas agonized before picking Xander Schauffele ahead of Scottie Scheffler as the 2024 PGA Tour Player of the Year .
Both Schauffele and Scheffler have enjoyed banner years in their respective careers. The world No. 1 won six times on the PGA Tour and collected his second green jacket before securing Olympic gold at Le Golf National.
Meanwhile, Schauffele - the defending Olympic champion from Tokyo who ultimately missed out on a medal - finally ended a drought of his own. He clinched his maiden major titles, winning the PGA Championship and The Open .
As a result, an intriguing debate is dividing the sport. Thomas insisted both players were deserving, but he gave the edge to Schauffele.
“I've had this conversation with a couple different group texts,” Thomas told reporters ahead of the BMW Championship, which began on Thursday. “It's tough. I think it's very situational of where you are in your career.
“For me personally, two majors sounds a lot cooler than one. But then again, winning six times, all of which being elevated events and Players and a gold medal sounds nice, too. [It] might be better to answer that question if something were to happen the next couple weeks.”
The two-time major champion finally gave an explicit answer, adding: “For me personally, I would- I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I would take Xander's just because of two majors.”
Even though Schauffele won more majors than his compatriot in 2024, Rory McIlroy gave his thoughts and claimed he would rather take Scheffler’s season . The 35-year-old said: “Winning The Masters, an Olympic gold medal, whatever it is, six (seven*) times, it's pretty hard to top that.”
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Scheffler's exceptional winning streak began back in March at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he stormed to a dominant victory by five shots. A week later, Scheffler beat out Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, and Brian Harman to win The Players Championship. Victory at Augusta National followed in April, donning the green jacket for the second time as he expertly navigated windy conditions. Scheffler’s run continued as he won the RBC Heritage title eight days later.
Another double followed in June, winning both the Memorial Tournament and the Travelers as he established himself as the best player on the planet. While Schauffele clinched two majors in the meantime, Scheffler won at the Olympics to add a golden tinge to his season.
Meanwhile, Thomas heads into the second leg of the FedExCup playoffs in a different mindset than 12 months ago after missing the postseason last year. The 31-year-old hasn't won this season, but he's missed fewer cuts and believes he has turned a corner.
“I'd say it's been a good year,” Thomas declared when asked to rate his season. “I feel like I've done a lot of really good things. I just haven't scored as well as I feel like I've kind of played, especially these last couple tournaments.”
He added: “The biggest thing is I just haven't won, and I think that's really the only thing or the difference of keeping it from being a really, really good year, and I have two weeks left to try to capitalize on that and see if we can't make it a great year.”
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