ATLANTA — A year Scottie Scheffler won’t forget ended the best way possible for him on Sunday, when the 28-year-old Texan won the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup to cap golf’s best season in nearly two decades.
“If you can describe it in words, more power to you,” Scheffler said after his four-shot victory in the Tour Championship for his eighth win of the year. “Because I don’t think I can.”
As always, his clubs spoke volumes.
Scheffler, who led by as many as seven shots at East Lake Golf Club early in the final round, nearly hit a tee shot out of bounds on No. 7, winding up with a bogey on the hole. He followed that with a shank from the bunker on the reachable par-4 eighth that led to another bogey. His advantage was down to two shots over Collin Morikawa.
Facing the par-3 ninth, a hole that had yielded only nine birdies to that point in the tournament, Scheffler hit a 4-iron to five feet for the first of three straight birdies that sent him toward a 4-under-par 67 and and the FedEx Cup trophy with its $25 million prize, the richest in golf.
“All I’m trying to do is hit a good shot,” he said. “This year, I’ve been able to do that a lot.”
The victory pushed his season earnings, including bonuses, to just less than $62.3 million.
It was the greatest golf year since Tiger Woods won eight times in 2006, including six in a row and two majors, all while dealing with the death of his father. Scheffler’s eight wins included the Masters, The Players Championship, an Olympic gold medal in Paris and the Tour Championship that enabled him to finally take the FedEx Cup.
His seven PGA Tour victories, which do not include the Olympic triumph, are the most in a single season since Woods had that many in 2007.
“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,” said four-time major champion Rory McIlroy, who tied for ninth Sunday.
Adam Scott, who tied for fourth, turned pro 24 years ago when Woods was at his peak, and the 44-year-old Australian did not shy away from the comparisons Scheffler’s consistent contending has created with the 15-time major champion with a record-tying 82 PGA Tour wins.
“I think it is on par with those great years of Tiger’s,” Scott said. “I think it’s very hard today for anyone to separate themselves as much as Scottie has. I don’t think we’ve seen that in a long time. I think it’s harder to do it today.”
Scheffler took the drama out of the final hour at East Lake — four of his wins this year were by three shots or more — and finally let out a “WOOO!” as he stepped inside to sign his scorecard. He hoisted two big trophies: the silver FedEx Cup and his 4-month-old son, Bennett.
This was the third straight year Scheffler came to East Lake as the top seed, meaning he started the tournament at 10 under par with a two-shot lead. Two years ago, he lost a six-shot lead in the final round to McIlroy.
He was the PGA Tour’s player of the year the past two seasons, but he left East Lake without the FedEx Cup trophy both times.
“It definitely leaves a bad taste in your mouth at the end of the year,” he said.
Scheffler was determined for that not to be the case, though it got dicey as storm clouds began to threaten. Most harrowing was the two-shot swing on No. 8, when Morikawa pumped his fist with a birdie as Scheffler’s shank led to a bogey.
And then it was over. After his birdie on the ninth, Scheffler hit a wedge shot to three feet on No. 10 for a birdie, then swirled in a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 11th.
“He’s not going to just starting making bogeys after that,” Morikawa said. “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.”
Just like that, Scheffler’s lead was back to five shots. And when he holed a 15-foot eagle putt on the 14th hole, it was a matter of getting to the finish line to celebrate.
Morikawa, the No. 7 seed who started the tournament six shots behind, closed with a 66 and had the lowest score of the Tour Championship at 22-under 262 for 72 holes without factoring in FedEx Cup seeding advantages. He won $12.5 million for finishing second in the FedEx Cup chase.
“Six shots behind was hard against the best player in the world,” Morikawa said. “I tried.”
Sahith Theegala, who called a two-shot penalty on himself Saturday for possibly brushing a small amount of sand on a bunker shot, closed with a 64 and finished third. He finished two shots behind Morikawa and earned a $7.5 million bonus for third place.
Scott, who closed with a 67, shared fourth place with Russell Henley, who had the tournament’s low round with his closing 62, and second-seeded Xander Schauffele (68), who won both the PGA Championship and the British Open this year but was still overshadowed by Scheffler.
In addition to his wins, Scheffler was the runner-up at two PGA Tour events this year and finished out of the top 10 just three times in his 19 starts.
“He’s the guy to beat every single week,” said Justin Thomas, who tied for 14th. “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.”
The $25 million FedEx Cup prize is unofficial, as is the $8 million Scheffler received from the “Comcast Business Top 10” for finishing the regular season atop the points standings.
The FedEx Cup trophy felt valuable in its own right, a perfect end to an astonishing season.
“It’s been a very eventful year,” Scheffler said, “but it’s been really fun.”
AP photo by Mike Stewart / Collin Morikawa, left, and Scottie Scheffler check their putting lines on the seventh green at East Lake Golf Club during the final round of the Tour Championship on Sunday in Atlanta.Bumpy ride to win
SUTTON COLDFIELD, England — Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard held his nerve after botching three chip shots for a double bogey, finishing birdie-par for a par round of 72 and a two-shot victory at 16-under 272 in the DP World Tour’s British Masters.
It was the first victory on the Europe-based circuit for the 32-year-old Norgaard, who had to sweat it out more than expected.
He started the final round at The Belfry with a four-shot lead. Thriston Lawrence closed to within one shot until a two-shot swing at the par-3 12th, when Norgaard made a birdie and the South African player took a bogey.
And then it nearly came undone for Norgaard on the par-5 15th. After his tee shot and approach put him close to the green, he shockingly took four chips to reach the putting surface — including two swings that moved the ball only a few feet — and made a double bogey as his lead dropped to two shots.
“I was not that nervous there. I’m just really bad at chipping,” he said. “The important one was the putt on 17.”
At the par-5 17th, Norgaard was in the greenside bunker in two shots, while Lawrence had a lengthy attempt at eagle. The Dane blasted out to 12 feet and holed the birdie putt, Lawrence could only two-putt for birdie, and the lead stayed at two going to the tournament’s 72nd and final hole.
Norgaard found the fairway and two-putted for par without any more drama as Lawrence closed out a 70 for second.
Rasmus Hojgaard, also from Denmark, shot a 65 and finished third.
Ryu takes playoff
NORTON, Mass. — Haeran Ryu rebounded from a third-round meltdown to win the LPGA Tour’s inaugural FM Championship tournament on a rainy day at TPC Boston.
Four strokes behind Jin Young Ko entering the final round of the 72-hole event after blowing a six-stroke lead Saturday, Ryu closed with an 8-under 64 to match Ko at 15-under 273, then beat the fellow South Korean player with a par on the first hole of a playoff.
Ko, the former No. 1 in the Women’s World Golf Rankings, who hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour since May 2023, missed an eight-foot birdie try for the victory on the final hole in regulation before closing out a 68.
On the extra hole in fading light — the round was interrupted by a weather delay of more than two hours — Ryu hit her 120-yard third shot to 12 feet on the par-5 18th, then watched Ko fire her 111-yard approach over the back of the green. Ko chipped to about 30 feet and made a bogey, with Ryu then lagging her birdie putt to a foot and tapping in for her second LPGA Tour victory.
The 23-year-old won the NW Arkansas Championship last year as a rookie, and she also has five victories on the Korean women’s circuit. She shot a career-best 62 on Friday to take a six-stroke lead into the weekend, then had a 78 on Saturday.
China’s Ruixin Liu missed the playoff by a shot after closing with a 64. She birdied the first seven holes Sunday, three days after making a quadruple-bogey 9 on her opening hole of the tourney.
American player Allisen Corpuz and Thailand’s AJeeno Thitikul each shot a 67 to tie for fourth at 13 under.
U.S. loses Curtis Cup
SUNNINGDALE, England — Mimi Rhodes rallied from a 3-down deficit and holed an 18-foot par putt that secured the half-point Great Britain and Ireland needed to win the Curtis Cup against the United States for the first time in eight years.
GB&I wound up with a 10 1/2-9 1/2 victory at Sunningdale and made Catriona Matthew the first winning captain of the Curtis Cup for amateur women and the Solheim Cup for pro women.
The Americans, trailing 7-5 going into the eight singles matches, led early in five of the opening six matches and picked up their first point when 15-year-old Asterisk Talley took down Lottie Woad, the world’s top-ranked amateur in women’s golf.
“They really dug in every day,” Matthew said. “It didn’t look like it was going our way today, but they really toughed it out. It looked at one point it was all red (scores). We played well on the back nine all week, and that really came out.”
GB&I had last won the Curtis Cup when it was held in Ireland in 2016.
The Americans are 33-9-3 overall in the series that dates to 1932.