The Five: Will Scottie Scheffler challenge Rory McIlroy? Post-Masters storylines to follow

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Everyone catch their breath yet? It was an all-time Masters, on the level of some of the tournament’s best years like 1986, 1997 or 2019.

The ramifications of the week at Augusta National Golf Club will linger for the next month, beginning at this week’s RBC Heritage.

So what are the biggest post-Masters storylines to follow this week, and as players prep for another busy stretch of Signature Events and major championships? We distilled it down to five stories to follow.

Will the floodgates open for Rory McIlroy?

The emotional release was evident. It poured out of Rory McIlroy as he holed his birdie putt, dropped to his knees and celebrated what alluded him for 14 years – a Masters victory.

McIlroy admitted he carried the baggage of his 2011 Masters collapse and decade-long chase of the career Grand Slam. It was an anvil he finally shed at Augusta National last week.

That leads to a potentially dangerous proposition for the rest of 2025 and beyond: a freed-up McIlroy with nothing left to prove.

“He’s going to be a problem,” Austin Kaiser, caddie for Xander Schauffele, told PGATOUR.com on Tuesday.

McIlroy’s season is already one of the best of his career – three wins, including THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters – but it has the potential to be much more.

The PGA Championship is at Quail Hollow, a course at which McIlroy has won four times. McIlroy has proven to be one of the best U.S. Open players in recent seasons with five straight top 10s and back-to-back runner-up finishes. Then, The Open Championship returns to McIlroy’s native Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

From career Grand Slam to calendar Grand Slam? It’s bold, but if there was ever a year to do it, it would be when a player is dominating like McIlroy has and at courses that set up like this year’s major rota sets up for McIlroy.

Will Scottie Scheffler challenge McIlroy?

It’s not reflected in the Official World Golf Ranking, but the results in 2025 speak for themselves. McIlroy is currently the best golfer in the world, even if he’s No. 2 behind Scottie Scheffler in the OWGR.

Scheffler’s spot at No. 1 is deserved, built up by his insane nine-win season in 2024. And it will still take considerable work from McIlroy to surpass Scheffler. Yet, Scheffler has to feel like the one chasing McIlroy right now after how 2025 has begun.

So can Scheffler return to his winning ways and challenge McIlroy for Player of the Year?

Scheffler’s fully capable, beginning this week when he defends his RBC Heritage title. The course requires precision and creativity, forcing players to shape shots both ways. Players need to recover well because missing greens and ending up in precarious positions are inevitable at Harbour Town.

All of that fits Scheffler’s game, which he believes is rounding into form.

“I haven't had my best stuff this year, but I feel like I'm learning a lot,” Scheffler said. “I feel like each day I come to the range, I'm getting a little bit better. Things are starting to feel more the way they should.”

The major question is whether Scheffler can transfer that into the other three majors? Scheffler has won the Masters twice, but has yet to win any other major. It’s about time Scheffler rectified that.

Was Max Homa’s Masters performance a sign of better things to come?

Max Homa can breathe a sigh of relief for more than one reason, thanks to his strong week at Augusta National.

Homa made the cut and put together an impressive weekend at the Masters, vaulting to a season-best T12 finish. It was Homa’s best finish since last May and his first time making the weekend in an event with a cut since The Open last July.

With that result, Homa earned an exemption into next year’s Masters and made some tangible progress in playing in other majors. After a steady decline over several months, Homa jumped from 81st to 67th in the OWGR. He needs to be inside the top 50 for a spot at The Open and the top 60 for a spot at the U.S. Open.

Beyond how it elevated Homa in the world rankings and FedExCup, the result is notable because Homa finally has something to back up the changes to his game. Homa switched equipment and coaches in the offseason after he stumbled late in 2024, but none of the changes had yet to yield positive results. Homa has said on numerous occasions that he’s seeing progress in practice, but it vanishes in tournament play.

His game didn’t vanish at Augusta National, and if Homa can channel it at one of the toughest tests of the year, it should be able to translate anywhere.

It’s time for Xander Schauffele to kick into gear

It’s time to watch out for Xander Schauffele.

The world No. 3 was understandably rusty after sitting out six weeks with a rib injury, but Schauffele has begun to round into form. After a T12 at the Valspar Championship, Schauffele finished T8 at the Masters, his best result of the season. It was also his 12th straight top 20 in a major.

This was the time last year that Schauffele fully kicked into gear. He was the runner-up at the Truist Championship and won the next week at the PGA Championship, claiming his first major and validating his spot among the top players in the sport.

Now with his sea legs under him, almost two months since he returned from injury, it’s fair to expect Schauffele to assert himself back in the conversation for the best player in the game. Rust is no longer an excuse. Neither is a lack of preparation.

The upcoming stretch is suitable for Schauffele, who is a course fit at Harbour Town and will defend his PGA Championship title at Quail Hollow, which hosted last year’s Truist Championship.

Who will make the next leap?

Last year, Schauffele made a mid-season jump, winning two majors and challenging Scheffler as the sport’s best player.

Can someone else make a similar jump this year? Or, at the very least, elevate themselves from the tier we previously saw them in?

For some – like Ludvig Åberg, Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas – it would take a major championship victory for that leap to seem notable. For others – like Akshay Bhatia, Min Woo Lee and Sahith Theegala – winning another event (or two) would elevate how we talk about them.

So much has already happened this season, but there’s still plenty of events left on the PGA TOUR schedule that can change our outlook on the game’s top players. It’s almost a certainty that someone will break out? Who will it be?