Scheffler and $25 million in his pocket

The Tour Championship format, the final tournament in the FedExCup playoffs, comes with a danger: If you give the best player the advantage of the highest starting score, you run the risk of making it an event with little story.

And that’s what happened in this year’s edition, where Scottie Scheffler dominated from start to finish over the four days at East Lake Golf Club, virtually tying his victory after the first 18 holes. And mind you, the credit for boring the course goes to Scottie, who simply played golf like an angel.

The world number one, who started the tournament at -10 (his closest pursuer Xander Schauffele did so at -8), dominated with an iron fist and took the final victory at -30, with a four-stroke lead over the rest of the mortals, led by Collin Morikawa.

In addition, Scheffler won the first FedExCup of his career and with it the winner’s check of 25 million dollars (approximately 22.6 million euros). With that, he consolidated the highest-earning season for a golfer in history.

Scheffler, results

In Atlanta, Scottie put the finishing touches to a dream season: eight victories (seven on the PGA Tour, a number not seen since Tiger Woods in 2007), all in prestigious tournaments such as the Memorial Tournament of The Players. But the most notable were the Masters in Augusta, the second major of his career (he is the only one in history to have won The Players, Masters and Tour Championship in the same year), and the Olympic gold in Paris, in addition to this play-off final that proclaimed him the winner of the PGA Tour season.

His good performances on the course have had a noticeable impact on his bank account, which has increased by $62,228,357 (approximately €56.3 million) thanks to his successes on the PGA Tour, the most profitable season in history, without counting income from advertising and commercial agreements (or contracts for playing such as the one with LIV Golf).

54 million of that comes from his tournament results, which further emphasizes the 25 million from this Tour Championship. Another eight million comes from the Comcast Bonus that has named him the most consistent player on the course.

In the age of Saudi petrodollars in golf, Scheffler teaches Jon Rahm, among others, that you can become extravagantly rich on the PGA Tour. And achieve glory, establish a legend, extend a legacy that is not possible on other circuits.

This Tour Championship marked the end of the 2023/24 PGA Tour season, and nothing could be more fitting than for Scheffler to win it. The American leads the overall balance in a multitude of categories: wins, top 3, top 5, top 10, greens in regulation, average putts, average birdies, strokes gained, average results, almost all statistics with irons…

A dominance like few others, now without a trace of those major problems with the putt that were so hard on the Texas resident less than a year ago. This victory could also be decisive in the battle for the Best Golfer of the Year, a prize for which he mainly competes against Xander Schauffele, the only one who has been able to overshadow Scheffler with his two majors won.

Scottie is the clear star of the PGA Tour in these years of changes and wars in the golf world. His great performances on the course this year have been accompanied by stories such as his possible withdrawal at Augusta when he was leading in case his wife Meredith would give birth (in the end it was after the Masters), or his arrest, for which all charges were later dropped, at the PGA Championship when he arrived at Valhalla for ignoring the instructions of a police officer. All have contributed to building the great reference of golf in the United States.