Rivals heap praise on unstoppable Scottie Scheffler after Portrush masterclass

The 29-year-old's dominant showing at Royal Portrush not only secured his second major title of the year and fourth overall - it has firmly established him as the standard-bearer in modern golf.

While the World No 1 calmly marched to the title, his closest rivals could only look on in admiration and acknowledge his superiority.

"None of us could hang with Scottie this week," said Rory McIlroy, who finished tied-seventh in front of his home crowd. "He's an incredible player. He's been dominant this week. Honestly, he's been dominant for the last couple years.

"He is the bar that we're all trying to get to. In a historical context, you could argue that there's only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run like the one Scottie's been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive."

Xander Schauffele, who ended the week seven shots behind Scheffler, echoed McIlroy's sentiments - and even drew comparisons to the sport's most iconic figure, Tiger Woods.

"I don't think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon and here's Scottie sort of taking that throne of dominance," Schauffele said.

"You can't even say he's on a run. He's just been killing it for over two years now. He's a tough man to beat, and when you see his name up on the leaderboard, it sucks for us."

Shane Lowry, who had a front-row seat to Scheffler's brilliance as a playing partner over the first two rounds, was equally impressed.

"I played with him the first two days, and honestly I thought he was going to birdie every hole," said the 2019 Open champion. "It was incredible to watch."

Runner-up Harris English said Scheffler's incredible consistency makes it very hard to catch him when he's leading a tournament.

"It's pretty incredible just how good of a frontrunner he is," he said. "He's improved his putting. There's no stat that he's bad in. It's like, how do you beat this guy?

"But he works so hard - I see him in the gym all the time, see him practising. He's one of the hardest working I've ever seen. To have the No 1 in the world working that hard, it just makes it that much harder to catch him. What he's doing right now is incredible."

Bryson DeChambeau knew Scheffler during their college days but said his transformation into the player he is today has been striking.

"Scottie's in a league of his own right now," he said. "I played with him a lot in college and he was not that good, so he's figured out a lot of stuff since then. It's really impressive to see and something we can all learn from for sure."

Spaniard Jon Rahm, who Scheffler replaced at the top of the world rankings, said his achievements were a source of inspiration and motivation.

"Very few players have been able to do what he's done," he said. "Won nine times last season and he keeps going on. He's doing what everybody wants to do.

"What I keep reminding myself is he was able to turn things around drastically. From not being able to close out early on some of the chances he had to getting it done often. If he's been able to do it, all of us are able to do it."