Sky Sports Golf podcast: Rory McIlroy’s return, Bernhard Langer’s legacy and Scottish Open predictions

Former Ryder Cup-winning captain Sam Torrance shares Team Europe stories and has his say on comparisons between Scottie Scheffler and Tiger Woods; John E Morgan also joins Josh Antmann to look ahead to the Scottish Open and The Open, both live on Sky Sports

Rory McIlroy’s return to action, tributes to Bernard Langer’s career and predictions for the Genesis Scottish Open feature in a bumper edition of the Sky Sports Golf podcast.

Former Ryder Cup-winning captain Sam Torrance and John E Morgan join regular host Josh Antmann to look back at the latest talking points from the golfing world and preview a massive double-header in Scotland.

The trio discuss McIlroy’s return to action with his title defence at the Renaissance Club, his first competitive start since narrowly missing out on US Open victory in June, plus reflect on why this week’s event is great prep ahead of The Open at Royal Troon.

They look at the state of Scottish golf and some of the contenders for a home victory this week, having seen Robert MacIntyre finish runner-up in last year’s event and Ewen Ferguson coming in off the back of winning the BMW International Open on Sunday.

The two guests pay tribute to Langer, who signed off his 50-year DP World Tour career on home soil in Germany last week, with Torrance sharing some rare tales about their experiences competing together in Ryder Cups.

Torrance also recalls past experiences of representing Team Europe in the biennial contest, playing in The Open and his lengthy professional career, plus has say on the comparisons linking Scottie Scheffler’s dominance in recent seasons with Tiger Woods in his prime.

He’s an incredible human being and it’s an incredible few years he’s having, but you can’t compare him to Tiger [Woods],” Torrance told the Sky Sports Golf podcast. “Not even close to not yet.

You’ll never get stats like he [Tiger] did. The World Golf Championships were virtually a major and the fields they got were the best they had out there all of the time, and he won so many of that. Stuff like that is beyond belief what Tiger did.

How many times has he won a tournament seven times? Scheffler’s fantastic, don’t get me wrong, and there is the opportunity for him to carry on. I’m not taking anything away from Scheffler whatsoever, but I think people are just getting a wee bit carried away.”

Scheffler is one of the only players in the world’s top 50 not in action at the Scottish Open, but do our podcast panel expect him to rock at the final men’s major of the year and claim a remarkable seventh win in 11 starts?