Golf

2024 Tour Championship: Scottie Scheffler Adds Another Feather to His Cap as FedEx Cup Winner

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Sep 06, 2024 / 8207 Views

Evan Walker

As the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup winner, Scottie Scheffler can revel in the latest of his seven 2024 PGA Tour wins at the East Lake Golf Club on Sunday, September 1. It’s been an unprecedented season for the 28-year-old World No 1, and the best for any player on Tour since Tiger Woods’ eight wins in 2006, and seven the following season.

In a reflection of a champion’s mindset, Scheffler wondered why he didn’t figure as one with eight wins too. The Paris Olympics’ top spot is his, and while he has entered the pantheon of Olympic greats, the gold medal does not count in the final analysis of his season.

“I still don’t understand, that’s a bit weird to me,” he said after closing the week at the re-laid East Lake course with a four-shot gap over Collin Morikawa with a four-day total of 30-under 264 (65, 66, 66, 67).

The USD 25 million winner’s purse, which pushed his season’s earnings to a little more than USD 62 million, are bonuses for a man in the form of his life, but amid the glare of the spotlight, Scheffler’s hunger for more came through.

He has always maintained that Golf does not define his existence — family, friends and what he does outside the Golf course matter more. That stands, but to win Golf tournaments is a great feeling nonetheless.

“It’s something I try not to focus too much on, but at the end of the day [a victory] is what we work towards, and to be able to have as many wins as I have this year is really special,” said Scheffler.

Scottie Scheffler does it again, emerging as 2024 Tour Championship and FedEx Cup Winner

Lethal weapons

In a seemingly impregnable arsenal, putting was seen as a traditional weak point, which Scheffler addressed towards the end of last season, and was rewarded almost instantly at the Hero World Challenge last December.

Hosted by Tiger Woods in the Bahamas, the unofficial PGA Tour event doesn’t count, and Scheffler’s win in the 18-man field isn’t listed, but that week gave a glimpse into what Scheffler was working towards.

Despite the brief lull at the beginning of the year, Scheffler knew by making a lot of putts when it mattered, he was close to something big. Sure enough, the back-to-back weeks of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship unleashed a run seldom witnessed in world Golf, and made him the player to beat every round of a tournament week.

Scheffler put it in perspective. “Last year I was playing good Golf but I wasn’t able to make the key putts at the right time,” and that reflected in just the two wins.

This year he was spot on, and that made a world of difference. The thoughts came flooding back. “The putt to win the Memorial, some of the putts over the week at the Players, and the putts on the back nine Sunday at the Olympics…I made some putts this year when I really needed to, and that’s why I’m sitting here with a lot of wins instead of a few,” he said.

There was one more aspect that made Scheffler stand apart. The mind. Scheffler came into FedEx Cup Playoffs’ finale as the top seed for the third straight year, and started the tournament at 10-under par by virtue of being the FedExCup points leader.

Two years ago, he surrendered a six-shot lead on the final day to finish runner-up, and last year’s T6 was no less disappointing. Sunday comes with its share of unique pressures, and was a factor in 2022 when Scheffler lost the plot on the front-nine and couldn’t recover despite playing well after that.

There was turbulence once more on the final day, which ate into his lead over Morikawa towards the close of Sunday’s front-nine, but the deviation this time lay in how Scheffler handled himself mentally — the ability to regain focus, and the pep talk from his caddie Ted Scott.

It worked like a magic potion, and Scheffler got back on track with some solid ball striking and putting, the birdies on Holes 10, 11, and eagle on 14th proof of the bounce back.

Key support

Learning and relearning have been the key to Scheffler’s determination to close out a tournament. It finds reflection in a unique stat he scripted, among others, on Sunday by becoming the first to win the Players Championship, at least one Major and the FedEx Cup in a season, and just the second to be termed Olympic champion and FedEx Cup champion at the same time.
Surrounding themselves with the right people is a critical part of elite athletes’ journey, and Scheffler realised the worth of having the right support system going into the Tour Championship.

His mind, which had been obedient for a major part of the year, did not play along at the BMW Championship. More than the T33 finish, Scheffler was concerned about how he approached the week just ahead of the Playoffs’ finale.

“My attitude was not great, and my greatest strength this year has been my attitude. My whole team reminded me of that, so this week my goal was just to have the right attitude and use what I feel like is my best strength, and that’s my mind. That’s what [my caddie] Teddy reminded me of at the beginning of the week, and I focused on just staying in it mentally, and it paid off,” he said.

For two years, Scheffler was Player of the Year without winning the FedEx Cup title, and that left a “bad taste in the mouth”, considering he started the Tour Championship with a handy lead. Putting to use the learnings from the BMW Championship, and ticking the box this time with the head in the right place brings a sense of achievement.

Scheffler has appeared to have lived a lifetime in the past 12 months, and he termed it to keeping faith, one that keeps him grounded.

Record aplenty

The league of players with seven or more PGA Tour wins in a season is very exclusive, and dominated by Tiger Woods with his prolific runs in 1999 (8 wins), 2000 (9), 2006 (8) and 2007 (7).

Scheffler broke into the group with his seventh on Sunday to make it alongside Vijay Singh, who won nine times in 2004. On the financial front, Scheffler rocked the Official Money List with record income on Tour for the third straight year. In 2022, the earnings’ column read USD 14,046,910, USD 21,014,342 in 2023, and USD 29,228,357 for 2024.

Add to it the incentives, USD 25 million as FedEx Cup Bonus Money, USD 8 million under the Comcast Business Tour Top-10 Bonus Money, and his Official Money and Bonus Money for 2024 is a whopping USD 62,228,357.

Battling against the odds

Collin Morikawa came into the week aware that the odds stacked against him. The gap between Scheffler and him on the FedEx Cup was yawning, and the starting strokes, Scheffler’s 10-under to his 4-under even before tee-off made the task seem like a Himalayan exercise.

Morikawa did what he missed for a major part of the season — play solid Golf for his second runner-up position of 2024, and ticked a couple of boxes going forward.

But for the starting strokes, Morikawa’s final day five-under 66 would have won him the Tour Championship, but Morikawa was aware that playing catch-up does not often come off, and his consolation lay in shooting the lowest 72-hole gross score for the week.

“I needed a lot lower, but I fought hard, and all week, honestly, that’s the kind of Golf I missed playing. Hopefully, we can use this as a stepping stone,” said Morikawa.

The final day leaderboard serving as a template, Morikawa will look to make Sunday’s round a regular fixture on his scorecards in the coming weeks.

“I’ve got to start playing better, better final rounds. That’s what it comes down to…and when you can do that, you hope to think of the wins,” he said.

One for the record books

Russell Henley needed to eagle the 18th at the restored East Lake to set a new course record. The chip-in made it a 9-under 62, and the finish ensured Henley did his chances to the US Presidents Cup — taking place from September 24 to 29 — as a captain’s pick no harm.

The climb of nine rungs to T4 at 19-under 267 also gave Henley his best boost on the FedEx Cup, and his seventh top-10 of the season is also a career high.

Henley will know his Presidents Cup fate soon, and is in the hope that Sunday’s round will have US captain Jim Furyk take note.

“Obviously a dream of mine, why I work so hard is to make one of these teams. Hopefully it works out. But my main goal every time I play is just to play well. I played great today (Sunday), as good a round as I could ask for,” Henley said with an air of satisfaction.

(Main and featured image: Tracy Wilcox/ PGA Tour via Getty Images)