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He made it briefly interesting on Sunday afternoon, but Scottie Scheffler finished the 2024 season in dominant fashion at East Lake.
Scheffler earned a four-shot victory at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon with a final round of 67. This officially earned Scheffler the FedEx Cup for the first time in his career, and the whopping prize of $25 million. who accompanies him. This victory, which will certainly bring him a third consecutive Player of the Year title, ends a season that the PGA Tour has not seen since Tiger Woods was at his peak.
“We put in a lot of work to get here, and it’s been a long week,” Scheffler said. “Right now I’m just pretty tired, so I don’t really know how to put it into words. But it’s a pretty special feeling to finally hold the trophy.”
With his huge lead in the FedEx Cup standings, Scheffler began the week with a two-shot lead at 10 under. He quickly pushed his lead to seven shots after his 6-under 65 in the first round, making him the first player in history to hold a lead of seven shots or more after 18 holes of a Tour event. .
Scheffler then shot back-to-back 66s, giving him a five-shot lead over Collin Morikawa heading into the final round. Morikawa was also the only golfer with a real shot to go for it on Sunday, as he was the only man within nine strokes.
At least for a moment, it looked like Morikawa was going to succeed. Scheffler stumbled a bit on his first nine, including a four-hole stretch where he made three bogeys. Morikawa moved to 2 under on that same stretch, including a clutch birdie putt at the par-4 eighth that suddenly cut Scheffler’s lead to just two.
But Scheffler responded immediately. He made three consecutive birdies to regain control of the tournament. He also easily made a downhill eagle putt at the par-5 14th, which moved him to 30 under for the week.
Just like that, his lead was back to five and the tournament was all but over.
Scheffler finished Sunday with a 4-under 67 to earn his victory. Morikawa finished second at 26 under for the week with his final round of 66. Sahith Theegala – who was handed a two-shot penalty on Saturday – finished alone third at 24 under.
Scottie Scheffler has won 7 times in 2024
Scheffler’s victory on Sunday capped what has been an incredible season for the world’s top-ranked player, one without precedent since Woods nearly two decades ago.
Scheffler has won seven times in 2024. His first victory came at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, which marked the start of a truly historic streak for him. Scheffler followed that up with wins at the Players Championship, the Masters and the RBC Heritage in his next four starts. He also finished T8 at the PGA Championship, after being stopped before the second round following a wild incident outside the course gates.
In total, Scheffler finished outside the top 10 just once in his first 13 starts. He also won at the Memorial Tournament and the Travelers Championship playoffs, and he won a gold medal for the United States at the Olympics last month in Paris. His six Tour victories before July made him the first golfer to achieve such a feat on Tour since Arnold Palmer in 1962.
“I think the gold medal is pretty cool,” Scheffler said. “I think when you hear people chanting ‘USA,’ even though it’s been over a month now since it happened, you still hear people talking about it, chanting. It’s pretty cool. Like I He said, I’m very proud to be an American, it’s so fun to bring home this gold medal.
“As far as the year goes, I really don’t know how to put it into words.”
Scheffler is the first golfer to win seven times in a single season, including a major championship victory, since Woods accomplished this in 2007. Scheffler is also one of four golfers to achieve this feat since 1980. Only Woods and Vijay Singh have won more in a single season in the modern era of golf. They share the record with nine victories.
Scheffler has now won 13 times in his career, with more than half coming in 2024. He is the fastest golfer to achieve 13 career victories on Tour since 1960. It took him just 931 days to do so , almost 100 days faster than Jack. Nicklaus’ previous record.
He also broke the single-season earnings record in 2024. He entered this week just shy of having earned $29 million, which broke his own record he set during the 2022-23 campaign . His FedEx Cup victory propelled him north of $50 million for the season. Scheffler has earned nearly $830,000 for each Tour round he has played this season.
Scheffler will remain at No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for a 68th consecutive week on Monday, a streak that is sure to continue over the coming weeks and months as the golf world slows down.