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He made it interesting briefly on Sunday afternoon, but Scottie Scheffler ended the 2024 season in dominant fashion at East Lake.
Scheffler cruised to a four-shot win at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon with a final-round 67. That officially earned Scheffler the FedEx Cup for the first time in his career, and the massive $25 million prize that comes with it. The win, which is sure to bring him a third consecutive Player of the Year award, ended what has been a season the PGA Tour hasn’t seen since Tiger Woods was in his prime.
“We’ve put in a lot of work to get to this point, and it’s been a long week,” Scheffler said. “Right now I’m just pretty tired, so don’t really know how to put this into words. But it’s a pretty special feeling to be finally holding the trophy.”
Thanks to his massive lead in the FedEx Cup standings, Scheffler started the week out with a two-shot lead at 10-under. He quickly pushed his lead to seven shots after his 6-under 65 in the opening round, which made him the first player on record to hold a seven-shot lead or greater after 18 holes of a Tour event.
Scheffler then carded back-to-back 66s, which gave him a five-shot lead over Collin Morikawa entering the final round. Morikawa was the only golfer with a real shot to catch him on Sunday, too, as he was the only man closer than nine shots.
At least for a moment, it looked like Morikawa was going to pull that off. Scheffler stumbled a bit on his front nine, including a four-hole stretch where he made three bogeys. Morikawa went 2-under on that same stretch, including a clutch birdie putt at the par-4 eighth, which suddenly cut Scheffler’s lead down to just two.
But Scheffler responded immediately. He rattled off three straight birdies to take control of the tournament once again. He easily drained a downhill eagle putt at the par-5 14th, too, which moved him to 30-under on the week.
Just like that, his lead was back to five and the tournament was essentially over.
Scheffler finished with a 4-under 67 on Sunday to grab his win. Morikawa finished in second at 26-under on the week with his final-round 66. Sahith Theegala — who called himself on a two-shot penalty on Saturday — finished alone in third at 24-under.
Scottie Scheffler won 7 times in 2024
Scheffler’s win on Sunday capped what has been an incredible season for the top-ranked player in the world, one that hasn’t been seen since Woods nearly two decades ago.
Scheffler won seven times in 2024. His first win came at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, which teed off a truly historic stretch for him. Scheffler followed that victory up with a win at The Players Championship, the Masters, and the RBC Heritage in his next four starts. He finished T8 at the PGA Championship, too, which came after he was arrested ahead of the second round over a wild incident outside of the course gates.
In total, Scheffler finished outside of the top 10 just one time in his first 13 starts. He also won at the Memorial Tournament and in a playoff at the Travelers Championship, and he claimed a gold medal for the United States at the Olympics last month in Paris. His six Tour wins before July made him the first golfer to do so on Tour since Arnold Palmer in 1962.
“I think the gold medal is pretty cool,” Scheffler said. “I think when you hear people chanting “U-S-A,” 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 said, I take a lot of pride in being an American, so pretty fun to bring home that 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 one major championship victory since Woods pulled that off in 2007. Scheffler is one of just four golfers to do that since 1980, too. Only Woods and Vijay Singh have won more in a single season in the modern era of golf. They share the record with nine wins.
Scheffler has now won 13 times in his career, more than half of which came in 2024. He’s the fastest golfer to reach 13 career Tour wins since 1960. It took him just 931 days to do so, which was nearly 100 days faster than Jack Nicklaus’ previous record.
He also shattered the single season earnings record in 2024. He entered this week just shy of having earned $29 million, which broke his own record that he set during the 2022-23 campaign. His FedEx Cup win pushed him north of $50 million for the season. Scheffler earned nearly $830,000 for each Tour round he played this season.
Scheffler will remain at No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings for a 68th consecutive week on Monday, which is a streak that is sure to continue for the next weeks and months to come as the golf world slows down.