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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
ATLANTA — For a brief moment in the final round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club on Sunday, world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler looked like one of us.
With the FedEx Cup and a whopping $25 million bonus on the line, Scheffler had just carded a bogey on the par-4 seventh hole. He badly hooked his tee shot to the left, and his ball nearly went out of bounds before settling in pine straw.
Scheffler had to stand in a tree to hit his second shot, then his 4½-foot par putt lipped out — his only miss inside 8 feet in 72 holes. Collin Morikawa made par, cutting Scheffler’s lead to four shots.
It would get even smaller on the next hole.
On the driveable par-4 eighth, Scheffler’s tee shot came up short, landing in a front greenside bunker, about 80 feet from the hole.
Somehow, the best golfer in the world shanked his bunker shot — his ball went dead right and stopped about 36 yards below the hole. Scheffler chipped to 24 feet and needed two putts from there for another bogey — his third in four holes.
Morikawa made an 8-foot birdie, trimming Scheffler’s lead to only two. It had been seven after two holes.
“Yeah, honestly, very surprising,” Morikawa said of Scheffler’s shank. “Look, I made the putt and was two back, but he’s not going to just start making bogeys after that. He’s going to do the opposite and he’s going to start hitting golf shots. It almost brought his focus back in for a half second, and that’s something you can’t teach. You just either have it or you don’t.”
After one of the worst shots of his career, Scheffler did what he has done so often the past three years — he closed the door on Morikawa and everyone else.
He made birdies on each of the next three holes. On the par-3 ninth, he smacked a 4-iron shot to 5 feet, 2 inches. His approach on the par-4 10th stopped at 3 feet, then he drained a 15-footer for birdie on the par-3 11th.
Just like that, Scheffler’s lead was five shots again. He added an eagle on the par-5 14th.
Scheffler captured his first FedEx Cup with a total score of 30 under (he started at 10 under as the season-long points leader in the staggered-scoring format), beating Morikawa by four strokes and Sahith Theegala by six.
It was the third straight year in which Scheffler started with a 2-stroke lead over everyone else in the Tour Championship. Two years ago, he squandered a six-stroke lead in the final round and lost to Rory McIlroy by one. Last year, he was 1 under over 72 holes (not including starting strokes) and tied for sixth.
“I try not to think too much about the past or think too much about the future, but I think two years ago was pretty tough, having a good lead going into the last round and not playing my best and then losing, and then last year I just had a pretty off week so was fairly disappointing,” Scheffler said. “So to come in with a lead for the third time and be able to finish it off is definitely pretty sweet.”
Scheffler joined Tiger Woods (1999 and 2007) and Dustin Johnson (2020) as the only golfers to win the Tour Championship while they were ranked No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
With his first FedEx Cup playoffs victory, Scheffler became only the fourth PGA Tour golfer since 1980 to win at least seven times with a major in a single season. Tom Watson (1980), Woods (1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007) and Vijay Singh (2004) were the others.
Following Scheffler’s debacle on the eighth hole, his caddie, Ted Scott, pulled him aside for a pep talk before his tee shot on the ninth.
“Yeah, nine was a huge turnaround,” Scheffler said. “Teddy gave me a nice pep talk there on the back of eight green because I kind of looked at him like, ‘Man, I don’t know about this. This isn’t looking so hot right now.’ He kind of gave me a little pep talk, and then I was able to hit a really nice iron shot in there and got things rolling.”
Scheffler declined to reveal what Scott told him.
“I’m not going to give away all our secrets,” Scheffler said. “Teddy has always been my biggest supporter. I think the results speak for themselves after he was able to pick up my bag and start helping me. He really is a huge part of the team. I don’t know if I’d be able to do any of this without him on my bag. We’ve got a great relationship.
“He has a habit of saying the right thing at the right time to kind of keep me in the right frame of mind.”
Scheffler’s 2024 season will be remembered as one of the best in golf history. Each of his victories came against elite fields in four signature events (Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship), Players Championship, Masters and the Tour Championship.
Last month, the 28-year-old from Texas added a gold medal at the Olympics in Paris. Scheffler isn’t sure why the Olympics isn’t being counted in his victory total by the PGA Tour.
“I don’t think people understand how hard that is to do, when you’re expected to win, when you’re the favorite to win, when every single thing you’re doing is being looked at — good and bad — on the golf course, and how hard it is to get in your own little zone and own little world and truly just quiet the noise,” said Justin Thomas, who tied for 14th at 14 under.
“It’s something that is just as much of a skill as being able to hit a driver in the fairway or an iron on line. He’s clearly figured that out very well.”
Along the way, Scheffler collected about $62.2 million in on-course earnings and season-long bonuses.
Even better, Scheffler and his wife, Meredith, welcomed their first child, Bennett, on May 8.
“I feel like I’ve lived almost a full lifetime in this one year,” Scheffler said. “It’s been nuts.”
Scheffler’s seven victories came in only 19 starts. He was a runner-up twice and had top-10 finishes in all but three of his starts and no missed cuts.
Woods’ 2000 season is considered one of the greatest in history — he captured three of his 15 major championships by 24 shots combined and won nine times overall in 20 starts. He was runner-up four times. Tiger won about $9.2 million that year.
About the only thing that slowed Scheffler down over the past eight-plus months was the Louisville police officer who arrested him following a traffic incident outside the gates of Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky before the second round of the PGA Championship.
Remarkably, Scheffler posted a 5-under 66 a couple of hours after he was released from jail. He seemed to run out of gas on the weekend and tied for eighth. Louisville prosecutors dropped Scheffler’s charges on May 29.
“I think his consistency, his attitude,” said McIlroy, who tied for ninth at 16 under. “I feel like he just sort of brings the same demeanor to the course every single day, no matter what position on the leaderboard he’s in. He’s just amazing to just watch the way he manages himself around the golf course. Yeah, we’ll look back on 2024 and it’s obviously one of the best individual years that a player has had for a long time.”
Scheffler’s victory at East Lake should end any debate about who’s the PGA Tour player of the year. Xander Schauffele had an argument after winning his first two majors at the PGA Championship and The Open.
Even Schauffele admits everyone else is still chasing Scheffler.
“I think by the definition of dominance, I think that’s literally where he’s sitting,” Schauffele said. “I don’t know how many weeks he’s been No. 1 player in the world. Since I’ve been out, I think Dustin had a run, Brooks [Koepka] had a run, Jon [Rahm] had a run, Rory had a run. They were kind of punching back and forth between 1, 2 and 3. Scottie has just been at the tip-top of the mountain for, what, two full years now it seems.”
Scheffler doesn’t seem ready to come down anytime soon, either.