[PHOTO: Tracy Wilcox]
The most impressive aspect of Scottie Scheffler’s convincing – and long overdue – victory at the Tour Championship occurred in the immediate aftermath of the worst shot of the tournament. Not just his worst shot. The overall worst shot of the week. But it was a moment that best exemplified what makes Scheffler one of the game’s truly outstanding talents.
Scheffler had just shanked his ball out of a greenside bunker on the short par-4 eighth hole and had to swallow what eventually became a shocking bogey, his third in four holes. Coupled with a birdie by Collin Morikawa, Scheffler’s early seven-stroke lead had dwindled to two. His response to that dyspeptic sequence was both determined and defining. He stuck his 4-iron tee shot on the 216-metre, par-3 ninth to five feet. Then he converted the putt. Then he birdied the 10th. And then the 11th, too.
That was the championship in a nutshell. That was Scheffler in full as he has been for almost the full year. That’s why it is no mystery he is the FedEx Cup champion.
A season that seemed destined to end with a coronation was consummated with an extraordinary show of fortitude and preeminence. It’s about time. The previous two years Scheffler arrived as the top seed and exited as just another guy with deep pockets – and his hands were stuffed frustratingly to the bottom of them in dejection. This time, his hands cradled the huge FedEx Cup trophy.
“If I’m going to be honest with myself, yeah, it definitely did,” Scheffler said when asked if it bothered him not to win previously. “I’ve been the Player of the Year the past two years, and I haven’t left with this trophy. It definitely, I think, leaves a bad taste in your mouth at the end of the year, especially when I start with the lead. You should win the tournament if I’m starting ahead of people. That’s how I feel.”
“Maybe the past couple of years I’ve put too much pressure on myself to perform, or whatever it is, but this year I did a good job of just staying in it mentally and keeping my head down and just had a really good week and was able to finish it off the right way.”
Scheffler, 28, is a rich man because he owns a rich vein of ability, including a strong mind, which he feels is his ultimate weapon. By rallying to shoot a final-round, four-under 67 at East Lake Golf Club for his seventh victory this year, he won the $US25 million bonus that goes to the FedEx Cup champion. Combined with the 10-under starting score, Scheffler finished at 30-under-par to beat Morikawa by four shots. Add his $US8 million bonus for leading the FedEx Cup standings at the end of the regular season and his record $US29,228,357 in official prizemoney, and the world’s top-ranked golfer earned $US62,228,357 this year. That’s $91,883,885 in Australian dollars.
It wouldn’t have happened had he not been able to gather himself when the pressure was at its highest.
“I was definitely frustrated,” he said of his three bogeys, equalling the number he’d committed in the first three rounds combined. “Like I said, I’ve been playing really solid golf the rest of the week. I just happened to have two bad holes in a row, basically. Teddy [caddie Ted Scott] did a good job of reminding me that we’re still in control of the tournament, I’m still playing great, just get out and get back to work, basically… and that’s what we did.”
Despite his protestations earlier in the playoffs, Scheffler really did win the season-long title on the PGA Tour. He held the lead in the FedEx Cup standings for the final 25 weeks starting after his victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March. That’s the longest streak to end the season since the inception of the FedEx Cup in 2007. The next longest streak is four weeks by Vijay Singh in 2008.
Seems fairly dominating. His seventh win gave him the most on tour since Tiger Woods won as many times in 2007. For good measure, Scheffler added the Olympic gold medal – which he was only too quick to point out when the subject of victories arose. Other players who have won at least seven times in a season are men like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.
Scheffler is without peer at the moment. And his peers would not argue the point.
All in a year's work. pic.twitter.com/CF7J0uiGNS
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 1, 2024
Former world No.1 Rory McIlroy said he most admires Scheffler’s consistency and attitude, qualities both tangible and intangible.
“I feel like he just sort of brings the same demeanour to the course every single day, no matter what position on the leaderboard he’s in,” said McIlroy, who holds the record with three FedEx Cup titles. “He’s just amazing to just watch the way he manages himself around the golf course. Yeah, 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.”
Morikawa, who closed with a 66, collected $US12.5 million, and with his 22-under 262 total, he finished with the low raw score and earned first-place world ranking points. The two-time major winner was as surprised as anyone to see Scheffler stumble at the eighth. Morikawa was not surprised by Scheffler’s response to that adversity.
“I made the putt and was two back, but he’s not going to just start making bogeys after that,” the Californian 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. You just either have it or you don’t. Just nothing fazes him.”
“I don’t even know where to start,” Justin Thomas said when asked what sets Scheffler apart. “Obviously, his putting has been so impressive in terms of literal what part of his game. But I just think how well he plays when he’s the guy to beat every single week. I don’t think people understand how hard that is to do, when you’re expected to win, when you’re the favourite 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. It’s something that is just as much of a skill as being able to hit a driver in the fairway or an iron on line.”
Sahith Theegala ended up third overall, six behind Scheffler at 24-under, but he edged the champion by one shot at 263 after a final-round 64. Without the two-stroke penalty he called on himself on a bunker shot in the third round, Theegala would have tied Morikawa for second place. It cost him a potential $US2.5 million; he went home with $US7.5 million.
In the past three years, Scheffler has won 13 times on the PGA Tour, including two Masters titles and back-to-back wins in the Players Championship, the first man to achieve that feat. He leads the tour in 40 statistical categories. Actually, it’s more like 41 if you count low score after wearing handcuffs.
2024: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
2023: 🏆🏆
2022: 🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/PnWwHmOMK6— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 1, 2024
Indeed, who knows what other achievements escaped his grasp, those “open palms of desire that want everything”, as Paul Simon sang about, had not the unfathomable and unfortunate events at Valhalla unfolded in May during the PGA Championship.
Scheffler, who solidified his hold on the world No.1 ranking, struggled to come to terms with a season truly like no other.
“If you can describe it in words, more power to you, because I don’t think I can,” he said. “It’s been a long year. It’s been a very fun year. I think emotionally right now I’m pretty drained. It’s been a very eventful year… You had the one weird spot there at Valhalla, which, I just don’t really know what to say about it, but everything else has been pretty special.
“I’m proud of the results,” he added. “It’s something I try not to focus too much on, but at the end of the day, being able to win tournaments is a great feeling, and it’s what we work towards.”
In the end, Scottie Scheffler stood alone, a place with which he has become increasingly familiar.
