Palm Beach Gardens, FL …
Adam Scott handed Rory McIlroy a superb compliment in declaring the Northern Irishman to be ‘more accomplished’ than any player currently atop of the World Rankings.
Scott is this week’s defending Honda Classic champion and he had been asked about the issue of World No. 1 after fellow Australian Jason Day was relegated last week to World No. 2 by reigning US Open champion, Dustin Johnson.
Day reigned atop of the Rankings for a total of 51 weeks before losing out to Johnson at last week’s Genesis Open in suburban Los Angeles.
Scott himself was No. 1 in the world for a period of 11 unbroken weeks from 11th May, 2014 to August 2nd before McIlroy enjoyed an unbroken reign of 54 weeks up to 15th August, 2015.
Adam Scott pays Rory McIlroy a huge compliment.
And while McIlroy is currently ranked No. 3 in the world, Scott believes that of those currently atop of the rankings, and that includes Johnson, Day, World No. 4 Jordan Spieth and World No. 5 Hideki Matsuyama, the four-time Major winning McIlroy is the ‘more accomplished’
“I have to say, Rory, and that’s with no disrespect to the others, but he’s the more accomplished player”, said Scot.
“The others all have incredible attributes, and Dustin is a phenomena to watch. I’ve played with him two days last week, and just the flow and fluidity in his golf swing is so nice. It’s like a teenager swinging the club. He’s just so supple. He has great touch and looks good with the putter, and all these things.
“Of course he’s the No. 1 player in the world right now. And to me, that has, on their best days, Rory and Dustin, very hard to separate, other than I think Rory’s more accomplished at the moment.
“So I guess Rory”.
Adam Scott declares Rory McIlroy to be ‘more accomplished’ than any of those atop of the World Rankings. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
And while it’s been nearly three years since Scott, and now aged 36, was World No. 1 the proud Australian has not ruled out returning to the top of the rankings, but also admitting he believes he didn’t give attention to remaining No. 1 in the world that he believes he should have.
“The World Rankings of late have been fairly competitive”, said Scott.
“Jason’s been solid at No. 1, but I’ve spent most of my career, or at least the first half of my career, the rankings were just a non-event. It was just Tiger by double the points everyone else was on. I can honestly say for that time, I just ruled being world No. 1 out of the equation.
“Fortunately I was patient to hang around long enough and have a run at it and got there.
“But yeah, I think it’s good for the guys at the top. They are highly motivated. There are probably four guys right now who aren’t too far away; I haven’t looked, but I’ll guess. And guys like me who sit a bit further back, and one of my big missions this year was to get back up and have a shot at going for No. 1 again before it’s all too far gone for me.
“So, I’d like to have a run at that. But like I said, it’s a few months away of putting together some really, really solid golf before I could even probably think about getting there”.
