World golf number one Scottie Scheffler. Photo: photosport
The inevitable became official at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta with world golf number one Scottie Scheffler winning the Tour Championship and clinching the FedEx Cup, the first season-long championship of his PGA Tour career.
Scheffler finished a whopping 30 under par and defeated Collin Morikawa by four strokes after an eventful round of 4-under 67.
Scheffler added a FedEx Cup to his growing resume and took home the corresponding US$25 million bonus.
Scheffler made up for back-to-back bogeys by ripping off a three-birdie run at holes nine, ten, eleven and a four and a half metre putt at the par-5 14th was the final highlight of Scheffler's commanding 2024 campaign that reasserted his status as the best golfer in the world.
Morikawa applied pressure early and went on to shoot 66 - not enough to get in Scheffler's way.
The stoic Scheffler cracked a smile at caddie Ted Scott after tapping in for par at No 18.
"It's a pretty special feeling to be finally holding the trophy," Scheffler said.
For the third consecutive year, Scheffler entered the Tour Championship at 10 under with a two-shot head start thanks to the FedEx Cup starting strokes format. He finished the job after failing to convert in 2022 and 2023.
"I've been the Player of the Year for the tour the last two years and I haven't left with this trophy," Scheffler said. "It definitely I think leaves a bad taste in my mouth at the end of the year, especially when I start with the lead."
Scheffler became the first player since Tiger Woods (2007) to win seven times on tour in one season. His other wins came at the Masters, the Players Championship and four signature events.
"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," Northern Ireland star Rory McIlroy said as Scheffler finished his round.
Scheffler's ascendancy comes at a particularly lucrative moment in PGA Tour history. With purses increasing in recent years, Scheffler managed to break the tour record for most official money in a season for the third year running. He won $US29,228,357 in official money this season, not counting the $US25m FedEx Cup bonus.
That's to say nothing of the other major milestones of his year. His first child, Bennett, was born in May. Days later, Louisville police arrested Scheffler over a traffic miscommunication outside the PGA Championship host venue; charges were dismissed before the end of the month. In August, he added an Olympic gold to his golf resume.
Photo: AFP
"I feel like I've lived almost a full lifetime in this one year," Scheffler said. "It's been nuts."
Scheffler led by five to begin the day and grew the margin to seven after two holes. Morikawa birdied No. 4 before Scheffler landed in a greenside bunker at No 5, leading to his first bogey.
The playing partners both birdied No 6, but Scheffler gave a stroke back when his 5-foot par putt slid by the hole at No 7, his only miss from inside 8 feet all week. He then drove into a bunker on the short par-4 eighth and blasted his second shot over the green.
"That actual specific bunker shot, for some reason, I need to figure out why, but I shank it a lot more often than I should when I'm on a side slope like that," Scheffler said.
The door creaked open for Morikawa, who easily birdied the eighth while Scheffler carded his third bogey in four holes. The two-shot swing pushed Morikawa to 23 under, two off the lead.
In one shot, Scheffler turned the round back in his favour. At the long par-3 ninth, he flew a 4-iron to just 5 feet of the pin.
"(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,'" Scheffler said.
"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."
That was the start of his birdie surge, as he made a 3-footer at No 10 and a 15-footer at No. 11. Morikawa got stuck in neutral at the wrong time, missing birdie tries at Nos 9 and 10.
Colin Morikawa Photo: Photosport
"Right after 8, it felt like anyone's game," Morikawa said. "I knew he wasn't just going to come backwards and I still had to make a lot of birdies. ... It's those little momentum shifts, that if I make one birdie in those last three holes I'm three back, four back. It's like you're still there, but five shots is a lot, and you need a lot of special things to happen."
But Morikawa converted three birdies in his final six holes and clinched his best Tour Championship finish in five trips. He also finished with the lowest 72-hole score of the week, 22-under-par 262, and would have won if not for the staggered start.
"I knew that was kind of the goal for the week, right, to come out on top on this kind of fake leaderboard and see how things played out," Morikawa said. "Ultimately Scottie was second or third on that leaderboard, so it didn't really help my case."
Sahith Theegala capped off his best career showing at a FedEx Cup playoff event, holding onto third place at 24 under thanks to a final-round 64.
- Reuters