Scottie Scheffler became the first golfer to win more than £50million in a single season with his victory in the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday.
The world No 1 suffered a shank that would have made a weekend hacker blush. But after recovering his peerless poise and lengthening out to a facile win that earned him the record first prize of £19m, the rewards would surely have an investment banker red-faced.
No discredit to Scheffler, because the 28-year-old enjoyed an incredible season that saw him topping eight leaderboards, including the Masters and the Olympics.
Indeed, the Texan was again first in the scores at the FedEx Cup climax, but that was only because the PGA Tour insists on having staggered scoring in its campaign finale. Scheffler himself called the format “silly” before the dollar-fest was underway.
He began the first round of the East Lake tournament on 10-under and finished on 30-under. It was good enough for a notional four-shot win over fellow American Collin Morikawa. Except the supposed runner-up began on four-under, so took the fewest strokes of the week. But one also has to consider that, in third, Sahith Theegala actually swung his clubs even fewer times but called a two-shot penalty on himself on Saturday that nobody would have noticed. That ended up costing him almost £2m.
Whoever said golf was simple? And at the moment, amid the negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund that bankrolls LIV, the elite end of the professional male game is farcical and completely detached from the real world.
‘I’ve lived almost a full lifetime in this one year’
Not to say Scheffler does not deserve all the plaudits that come his way. If the field had all teed off on level par and not had to be subject to the Tour’s almost laughable attempts to confect a thrilling finish, then Scheffler would have likely found the wherewithal to prevail anyway.
He displayed his ability to sidestep nerves when he had back-to-back bogeys on the front nine in this final round, including the shank from the bunker on the eighth. No matter, he simply birdied the next three in succession and the competition was all over again as he cruised to a 67.
“I feel like I’ve lived almost a full lifetime in this one year,” Scheffler said, no doubt reflecting not only on his golf, but the fact he became a father in May and a few weeks after was hit with a charge, later dropped, for assaulting a police officer on the way to the second round of the US PGA.
“It’s been nuts. I’m just proud of the work that we put in. It’s hard to put into words what this year has been like for me. It’s been pretty emotional. It’s been a bit of a wild year.”
Rory McIlroy has hardly had a calm 2024, himself, but the world No3 had to be satisfied with a tie for ninth on 16-under — after beginning on four-under — that paid £1.5m. He will play in next week’s Irish Open and then the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth before appearing at the Dunhill Links in Fife at the start of next month.
