How the final 2024 Tour Championship leaderboard looks without starting strokes
Collin Morikawa actually played better than Scottie Scheffler this week.
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Scottie Scheffler walks away from East Lake this week with the FedEx Cup title and a cool $25 million bonus, but it will be Collin Morikawa, who officially lost to Scheffler by four shots, who gets the most Official World Golf Ranking points from this week.
That’s because Morikawa actually beat Scottie Scheffler by two strokes this week. In fact, he wasn’t the only one as Sahith Theegala also beat the FedEx Cup winner this week.
This was the sixth edition of the Tour Championship played under a unique staggered strokes format which saw Scheffler, the FedEx Cup leader for the the better part of the last six months, start the week at 10 under par with a two-shot lead.
Morikawa and Theegala, meanwhile started this week at four and three under, respectively, after strong seasons, but ones where both failed to win. The format was developed to help eliminate the confusion with following the points during the final event and remove the possibility of one player winning the Tour Championship and another winning the FedEx Cup title.
Scottie Scheffler hit a shank. Then he won the Tour Championship, FedEx Cup
One could have made the argument Scheffler, after a historic regular season where he won the Masters, Players Championship and four other titles, could have deserved a greater head start. Ironically, Scheffler himself made an argument against the format just a few weeks ago at the first playoff event in Memphis.
“I talked about it the last few years, I think it’s silly,” he said ahead of the FedEx St. Jude Championship. “You can’t call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament.
“Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the way it did at the Players. I finish 30th in the FedEx Cup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No, it is what it is.”
He ended up winning by four over Morikawa anyway.
But take away the starting strokes and the final leaderboard looks much different.
The top three players in the final standings, Scheffler, Morikawa and Theegala, still separated themselves from the rest of the field with Scheffler still three better than anyone else, but the order changes. Morikawa takes the “gross” title if you will and Theegala comes in second.
Of course, had Scheffler been looking at a leaderboard without strokes, he may have played several shots, including his conservative par on the par-5 18th, differently. But it’s interesting to isolate who actually played well this week.
For example, Justin Thomas had the 7th best week of anyone at East Lake, going 14 under, but he started the week at even par and thus finished at 14 under, which was tied for 14th.
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