For a moment, Scottie Scheffler was spiraling in a way we had never seen him spiral before.
But that moment was brief. The Scottie Scheffler who set records all throughout 2024 came back just as fast as he disappeared.
The World No. 1 missed a short par putt at the 7th hole and then shanked his second shot at the 8th hole to see his once seven-stroke lead at the Tour Championship dwindle to just two with 11 holes to play in the final round.
Scheffler responded by knocking a 4-iron on the 236-yard par-3 9th to five feet, making the putt and then birdieing the next two holes to restore his lead to five over Collin Morikawa.
“Nine was a huge turnaround,” Scheffler said afterward. “[My caddie] Teddy [Scott] gave me a nice pep talk there on the back of 8 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.”
The Olympic gold medalist kept his foot on the gas with an eagle on 14 coming in and he won the Tour Championship, and the season-long FedEx Cup title, by four strokes.
“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.”
Scheffler’s 30 under final score was the best in the six editions of the Tour Championship played under the staggered strokes format and his win marks just the third time the player starting the week at 10 under and with a two-shot lead has won the tournament. It’s also Scheffler’s first Tour Championship win despite entering the week with a two-shot lead as the FedEx Cup leader each of the previous two seasons.
The win is also Scheffler’s seventh in a historic season in which he captured the Masters and Players Championship titles, along with four other PGA Tour Signature Event wins and the Olympic gold medal. He’s the first player to win seven times in a single PGA Tour season since Tiger Woods in 2007 and the first to win a major, Players and FedEx Cup in the same season.
It was also a year of dramatic twists and turns for Scheffler both on and off the course. He and his wife Meredith welcomed their first child in May, but that same month, Scheffler was also arrested while attempting to get to Valhalla Golf Club for the second round of the PGA Championship.
It’s also Scheffler’s 13th PGA Tour win, with his first coming just 931 days ago at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open. According to stat whiz Justin Ray, Scheffler had the quickest time from his first to 13th win since 1960, 102 days faster than Jack Nicklaus and 182 days quicker than Tiger Woods.
But early Sunday, the day looked like it could have been much more of a disaster than a coronation. Scheffler extended his overnight five-shot lead to seven, the same as it was after his opening round 65, quickly with a birdie at No. 2.
But then Morikawa started chipping away at the lead with birdies at 4 and 6. Then Scheffler snap hooked his tee shot at the 7th, a fence only saving it from going out of bounds and had to play his second back to the fairway while standing in a tree. He seemed like he was going to save par when he knocked his third to five feet, but he missed the putt, his only miss from inside eight feet all week.
He still led by four shots when he put his tee ball in the greenside bunker at the par-4 8th. That’s when Scheffler shocked everyone by shanking his second shot nearly 45 degrees right of his target, and watched it bound over the green. He failed to save par as Morikawa got up and down for birdie to cut the lead to two.
The moment was drawing shades of 2022 when Scheffler blew a six-shot lead at East Lake to Rory McIlroy on the final day. By the ninth tee that year, Scheffler was up just one. But this is a much different Scottie Scheffler.
He also has a veteran caddie in Scott, who stepped in right before Scheffler hit the crucial tee shot at 9.
“I’m not going to give away all our secrets, but Teddy has always been my biggest supporter,” Scheffler said. “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.”
After Morikawa left his approach short at the par-3, Scheffler pulled 4-iron and flushed a high cut that just barely carried the front of the green, landed softly but released all the way to the back pin, stopping just five feet away. The man of the hour was back in control.
He wasn’t done there. On 10, like he’s done so many times in 2024, he stuffed his approach to three feet. On 11, he poured in a 15-footer for another birdie. Then on 14, he slammed the door shut for good with a 374-yard drive, iron to 16 feet, and another make for eagle.
After his final-round 67, Scheffler will collect $25 million for winning the FedEx Cup, combined with an $8 million bonus for leading the FedEx Cup for the regular season and his record haul of $29,228,357 in official winnings, Scheffler won more than $62 million on the course this season, by far the most of all time.
