PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – The tone was set Saturday night.

Rory McIlroy had just turned golf’s most staid championship into a rollicking summer festival, the eventgoers delirious at the prospect of their celebrated native son, one of the most famous athletes to ever come from this tiny island of less than two million people, heading into the final round of the 153^rd Open with a shot to hoist the claret jug at home, in front of them, and for them too.

The only person who seemed unstirred by the possibility was McIlroy himself. He’d shot 66 but only moved within six of the lead. He had three players in front of him and four others pulled up alongside him, with a calm Sunday forecast that would make it even more difficult to separate, but his outlook was dimmed by the man at the top of the board.

“Yeah, look, Scottie Scheffler is …,” McIlroy said, collecting his thoughts. “It’s inevitable.”

It was an admission that, amid this lovefest in Rory’s town, it’s ultimately still part of Scottie Scheffler’s world. McIlroy – too far back to seriously contend this week, and too far behind in the world rankings this year – has come to accept this reality. And so, rather than this Open homecoming becoming a monument to his dominance in the sport, he instead viewed the week through a different prism: a celebration of his greatness. How far he has come in his nearly two decades as a pro. And all he has accomplished, even now, with a new ruler in the sport.

“A lot of gratitude, a lot of pride,” he said. “A lot of pride that I am from these shores.”

McIlroy’s stats and status might be under siege in this new world order, but it’s hard to envision a crowd or a tournament ever tilting in Scheffler’s direction as it did for McIlroy over these four days at Portrush. Kids high-fived him along the rope line and began to weep. Fans bellowed and chanted his name from high atop the dunes. Patrons gave him standing ovations in the grandstands.

“I’ve heard enough ‘Rorys’ to last me a lifetime,” Matt Fitzpatrick said.  

It was McIlroy, after all, who helped lobby R&A officials to bring the game’s oldest major back to Royal Portrush, an hour from his childhood home in Holywood, for the first time in 63 years. But that 2019 Open represented a missed opportunity while at a professional crossroads. He’d lost some of his joy between the ropes. His major record had soured. He’d been displaced for a time by other talented players. When he strode to the first tee, he was blown away by the outpouring of support. Unprepared and overwhelmed by the reception, he melted down during an opening 79 and, only after his inspired rally fell short, did he realize the magnitude and the depth of his people’s love. Check his record since then; it has spurred on his play over the past half-decade.

Recalling those painful memories, McIlroy vowed to make this week, and this year, different in what, at age 36, was likely his last Portrush Open in his prime. He wanted to reciprocate. Embrace the experience, not shield himself from it. Maybe there would have been more angst had he not prevailed at the Masters. If he was still major-less for more than a decade. But he returned home a legend, and now everyone, 45,000 a day, could revel in it.

McIlroy turned pro in 2007, at the age of 18, and took his talents globally, sharing himself with the rest of the world outside the borders of Northern Ireland. The U.S. Australia. Japan. South Africa. That was his way of not just growing his wallet, but also his brand and his platform and, along the way, his popularity.

That wider reach has never appealed to Scheffler. He was born in New Jersey and moved with his family at a young age to Dallas, where he still resides. The Schefflers are all a tight-knit group, a short drive away while at home and, now, a consistent, supportive and loving presence on the road. As a kid, all Scheffler wanted to do was become a professional golfer, wearing long pants in the blazing summer heat like local heroes Justin Leonard and Harrison Frazar, and he still can’t quite believe that he’s blessed and talented enough to be living out his wildest dreams. Now with a young family of his own, he has made no apologies that he’s U.S.-centric with his schedule and that he doesn’t aspire to be a globetrotting ambassador for the sport. As the top player, he said it was “not my priority nor my responsibility” to travel the world and ply his trade, to grow the game.

It was at the end of that early-week press conference when Scheffler went viral. His 5-minute monologue on his inner war between fulfillment and satisfaction offered a rare glimpse into what drives the most dominant golfer since Tiger Woods. Frustrated that some of the social clips had taken his comments out of context, with the implication that pro golf left him feeling empty, Scheffler spent much of his winner’s press conference Sunday defending himself. That he cares about competing. Doing the work. Trying his best. Seeing how far his talent and work ethic and dedication can take him. Everything that accompanies his success – status and stardom – holds little interest to him.

“There’s more to life than playing golf,” he said. “But I’m pretty excited to go home and celebrate this one.”

Stoic and steady, simplistic and stable, Scheffler doesn’t inspire much emotion. He might never become a beloved figure that spawns his own legion of fandom; the 2027 PGA in Frisco, less than an hour from home, isn’t likely to become the lively lovefest that McIlroy’s homecoming was. But sports fans love greatness, and they’re undoubtedly now witness to Scheffler’s brilliance.

“I think all you can do is admire what he does and how he does it,” McIlroy said. “He just goes about his business. Doesn’t do anything overly flamboyant. But he’s the best at executing in the game right now. All you can do is tip your cap and watch in admiration.”

What little hope the field had Sunday disappeared as soon as Scheffler stuffed his approach to a foot on the opening hole. Midway through the front nine, he led by eight. Over the final 36 holes, with the crowd at a fever pitch, desperate to will his chief rival to victory, Scheffler’s only blemish came with a double bogey on the eighth hole – two strokes that he got back with birdies on two of the next four holes.

There was nothing McIlroy or anyone else could do to stop the onslaught, so over the final two hours, he tried to soak in an Open unlike any other. A few extra nods to the crowd. More high-fives. When he tapped in for a final-round 69, leaving him in joint seventh, seven shots behind, he removed his cap and, before entering the tunnel, spun around to wave to the cheering crowd one last time.

In the group behind him, Scheffler was polishing off another rout. Methodical, clinical, dominant – the first player in the modern era to win each of his first four major championships by at least three strokes.

“Walking up 18, I didn’t really know if I was going to get that much support from the crowd,” Scheffler said. “The crowd, I think, wanted somebody else to win this week, and I got to play spoiler a little bit.”

Not just this week, but this entire year too.

The best spring of McIlroy’s career – a signature title at Pebble, a rousing playoff at The Players, and a Masters moment that transcended the sport – has since been supplanted by Scheffler’s two-major summer, making him a virtual lock for Player of the Year honors for the fourth season in a row.

“I also had the three wins when Scottie wasn’t quite on his game,” McIlroy said, chuckling. “He is the bar that we’re all trying to get to.”

But now he’s back on his game, just as he’s largely been since February 2022, when this winning spree began. Scheffler was 15^th in the world before that breakthrough week in Phoenix, when he was an unproven closer, when his putting was inconsistent, when his approach play was stellar but not peerless. This will soon be week No. 115 in a row at the top. He’s converted 10 consecutive 54-hole leads. He’s transformed into a world-class putter. (Matt Fitzpatrick: “He’s just not missed a putt.”) And he is, statistically, the best ball-striker since prime Woods.

Must it be inspiring or dispiriting, a reporter asked McIlroy, to go up against Scheffler when he’s in form like this?

“Neither,” McIlroy said. “All I can do is focus on myself and try to play the best golf that I can. I know that, when I do that, I’ll have my weeks where I’ll contend and hopefully win.”

Even if those weeks are becoming less frequent.

Afterward, McIlroy signed a hat and a flag, posed for two selfies, and then bounded up the hill and into the early evening. The hyped home game was over; a few weeks of vacation awaited. About a hundred yards away, with the trophy presentation underway and Scheffler in the middle of the arena, thousands of fans began to stream out of the grandstands and toward the exit.

Their local hero didn’t walk away victorious.

They settled for a glimpse at history instead.