Scottie Scheffler wins Tour Championship to cap historic PGA Tour season
It was 24 hours before the latest chapter in Scottie Scheffler’s legend. Following a third-round 66 and holding a five-shot lead heading into the final day of the Tour Championship, Scheffler was asked the type of question on Saturday that can expose all kinds of scar tissue.
Unquestionably the best player in the world since 2022, Scheffler was asked about leaving East Lake the last two years without the PGA Tour’s final tournament title. Those moments — they were so easy to remember because they were so out of character. Scheffler began last year’s Tour Championship as the top seed with a two-stroke lead, then posted only one round under par and stumbled to T6. He held a six-shot lead the year prior and finished with a final-round 73, losing by one stroke to Rory McIlroy.
Asked about those endings, though, Scheffler thought back and said, yeah, he recalled having a “good chance” to win two years ago and couldn’t recall if he played well or not last year. “I didn’t, did I?” he asked reporters in Atlanta.
At this point, it’s the kind of answer you come to expect from Scheffler.
A player who can win the Masters when awaiting his wife to go into labor. A player who can win eight tournaments in a season loaded with both expectations and distractions, whether it’s injury or arrest or burgeoning fame. A player who can win Olympic gold when sitting six shots back on the back nine.
So, no, Scheffler didn’t blink Sunday at East Lake. Not when he bogeyed three holes in a four-hole stretch before making the turn. Not even when he shanked a ball from a greenside bunker.
In a year when only two-time major winner Xander Schauffele could claim space in his orbit, Scheffler ended the season as he should’ve — standing alone as both Tour Championship winner and FedEx champion.
A final-round 67 completed a dominant 30-under total, a breezy four shots clear of the field.
The win again cemented Scheffler’s place as not only the best player in the game, but as the ultimate benefactor in golf’s arms race. Having managed to maneuver through most of the hostilities between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf without ever saying much to startle the horses or stir controversy, Scheffler has pocketed once-unthinkable sums of money while maintaining an unblemished image.
His 2024 on-course earnings reached a record $29.2 million. On top of that dropped a $25 million FedEx bonus, plus an $8-million Comcast Business Top 10 bonus. The final tally for the season: $62.2 million. Or roughly Jordan Spieth’s entire on-course career earnings.
Scheffler left no doubt at East Lake. After starting the week at 10-under, thanks to the Tour Championship’s starting strokes format, the 28-year-old fired rounds of 65-66-66 before Sunday’s 4-under final round.
Meanwhile, the rest of the results only further exposed the issues associated with the tour’s season-ending format.
Collin Morikawa, winless in 2024, but fueled by a brilliant second-round 63 in Atlanta, finished four shots back, vaulting to second in the season-long FedEx standings, where a $12.5 million bonus awaited. Morikawa had the best week, shooting 22-under-par at East Lake.
Sahith Theegala, who began the playoffs three weeks ago as a question mark to make the U.S. Presidents Cup team and winless in 2024, picked a good week to have a great week. His 67-66-66-64 showing in Atlanta moved him to third in the season-long standings and a cool $7.5 million.
Russell Henley and Adam Scott, neither of whom won in 2024, finished tied for fourth, pulling in $4.8 million each.
So too, did Schauffele. Scheffler’s only real competition for PGA Tour Player of the Year honors finished in the pack at T4, undone by an opening-round 70 and third-round 71.
Following the win, Scheffler walked off the 18th green and into the arms of his wife, Meredith, then hoisted his baby, four-month old Bennett, into the air. All had to agree it was a very strange year. But a pretty memorable one.
Told afterward that his seven PGA Tour wins (in addition to Olympic gold) are the most since Tiger Woods in 2007, Scheffler looked at the ground and tried to sum it all up.
“I’m proud of the work we put in,” Scheffler said. “It’s hard to put into words what this year has been like for me. Pretty emotional. There’s a lot of stuff that’s gone on outside of golf. It’s been a wild year.”
SOURCE: [nytimes.com]
