Weekly PGA Recap: Scheffler Delivers the Capper

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

What would happen if they gave sprinter Noah Lyles a 10-yard head start? Or swimmer Katie Ledecky half a pool? Or heck, even Joey Chestnut a five-hot dog lead? 

Game over, that's what happens.

The TOUR Championship was reduced to, in effect, a four-day coronation of Scottie Scheffler closing out one of the great seasons in golf history.

Scheffler began the tournament with a two-stroke edge courtesy of the PGA Tour's so-called Starting Strokes Format, it ballooned as high as seven and he wound up with a four-shot win at East Lake Golf Club on Sunday to capture his first FedEx Cup.

Oh, there was a momentary blip in the final round when Scheffler had three bogeys in a four-hole stretch to let eventual runner-up Collin Morikawa climb within two. But even with a two-stroke lead on a Sunday, Scheffler is a near-certainty.  Just to be sure, he birdied the next three holes to leave Morikawa in his wake. 

(It's pointless to debate the Tour's controversial scoring system, which had Scheffler begin at 10-under, two shots ahead of the next guy, Xander Schauffele, and so on down to even par. That's because they are quite pleased with it and it's going nowhere. But for the record, Scheffler actually finished third in this tournament without the 10 bonus strokes at 20-under, behind both Morikawa at 22-under and Sahith Theegala at 21-under.) 

Scheffler won for the eighth time in 20 starts in 2024 (including Olympics) and to list all of his jaw-dropping accomplishments would be not only time consuming but overkill. So, just a few:

• The seven Tour wins included the Masters, THE PLAYERS, TOUR Championship and three Signature Events. The Olympics is not considered a Tour event, but he won that, too.
• He's the first player since Tiger Woods in 2007 to win at least seven times in one season and only the third player to do so (since 1983). Woods did it four times. Vijay Singh won nine times in 2004.
• He finished in the top-10 in all but four of those 19 Tour starts.
• He ranked first  on Tour in more than three dozen stats, including Strokes Gained: Approach, SG: Tee-to-Green and, of course, SG: Total; greens in regulation; scoring average and birdie average; and par-4 and par-5 scoring.

There are more firsts, but we'll point out just one more: putting average. That's right, a putting stat. Putting average is defined as putts per greens in regulation. Scheffler finished 69th in Strokes Gained: Putting. Which is actually dang good, especially considering he ranked 162nd last year. Combined with the rest of game, the other guys don't stand much of a chance.

And yet, Scheffler was not satisfied. Which probably is what makes him so great.

"Still don't understand why the Olympics doesn't count. That's a bit weird to me," he said. "I think that's part of the greed that goes on in your brain is you say seven, I'm like, I won eight. I won the Olympics in the middle of the year, and for some reason it doesn't count as an official PGA Tour win.

"… But overall, it's been a great year. I'm proud of the results. 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, and to be able to have as many wins as I have this year is really special. has been pretty special."

To be sure, getting two strokes at the start doesn't ensure victory. Scheffler got two strokes the two previous years and was overtaken. But this year he has elevated his game – notably, his putter – beyond anything we've seen since Woods.

As mentioned, Woods had four 7+ win seasons. Fair or not, that's the standard to which Scheffler will be held. After all, there's nothing else in between.

The one area where Scheffler could improve is in the majors. He won only one this year, has only two in his career.  History shows that guys who have history-making careers outside of a commensurate number of majors are not remembered as fondly as those with more majors (think: Greg Norman). We're not saying that's right or fair, just that it's so.

"I think it is on par with those great years of Tiger's," Adam 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." 

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa had maybe the greatest non-win seasons in Tour history. He had seven top-5s and there were at least a couple of instances -- Masters, TOUR Championship -- where if not for Scheffler, he very well could have won. Remember, this was all done with Morikawa's vaunted approach game stunningly sub-par. He ranked 41st in SG: Approach when he's normally top-three. Instead, he upped his short game and putting skills, and you can only wonder what would happen in 2025 if his approach game returns to normal.

"I've got to start playing better, better final rounds," said Morikawa, despite the fact that he actually beat Scheffler without the bonus strokes. "That's what it comes down to. It's not like I had to do anything special in a handful of those rounds. It's not like -- I didn't have to shoot 63s to win. I was in these final groups, I don't know how many final groups I was in this year, but enough to where I can think of a few easily off the top of my head, and when you can do that, you hope to think of the wins."

Sahith Theegala
This was Theegala's best season, even though he didn't win, as he did last season and despite the fact that his success was front-loaded over the first four months. He had two runners-up among seven top-10s. And he closed with a solo third at the TOUR Championship. That should land him on the Presidents Cup team as a captain's pick when Jim Furyk announces his six choices on Tuesday. 

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele will end 2024 with the greatest season never to result in the Player of the Year Award. Never before has a PGA Tour member won two majors and not win the honor. But as noted above, Scheffler's season was historically great. Schauffele will end with victories at the PGA and Open Championships, plus three runners-up, including to Scheffler at THE PLAYERS. He tied for fourth this week.

Adam Scott
The 44-year-old Scott was meandering through a so-so season until nearly winning the Scottish Open. And then he was close last week at the BMW Championship. Those two runners-up let Scott close with, in the end, a great season. Getting to East Lake, where he tied for fourth, means Scott will continue his streak of playing in 93 straight majors, an unbelievable run of consistency.

Russell Henley
Henley had one of the quietest great seasons you'll ever see. His tie for fourth this week -- closing with a course-record 62 -- was his fifth top-5 and seventh top-10 of the season. The thing is, he never contended for a title and never finished in the top-3, so you could see how it fell through the cracks. But at age 35 and ranked 15th in the world, it was Henley's best overall year on Tour, one that should end with him being named to the Presidents Cup team as a captain's pick.

Wyndham Clark
Clark started fast in 2024 with a win and two runners-up to Scheffler before having a disastrous major season. Yet he rebounded in his last seven tournaments (including Olympics) with three top-10s and six total top-15s, including a solo eighth at East Lake.

Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama showed that he can still be a world elite when not slowed by the back/neck injuries of the past few years. He won two marquee events – the Genesis Invitational and FedEx St. Jude. He also finished sixth at both the U.S. Open and THE PLAYERS, and he won a bronze medal at the Olympics. But as we also saw last week, back injuries rarely go away for good, and Matsuyama had to withdraw from the BMW. Still, he looked just fine in tying for ninth at East Lake.

Sam Burns
Burns didn't win a tournament this year, and he won three times in 2021-22, so it's difficult to call this his best season. But in some ways, it was. He had eighth top-10s, showing a consistency at age 28 that he had never shown before. He surely will be a Presidents Cup captain's pick after tying for 12th in the TOUR Championship. He ranked in the top-12 in total driving and SG: Putting, and that's a great combination for a golfer to have.
 
Viktor Hovland
Hovland had only two top-10s all year. One of them came at just the right time to get him all the way to East Lake. That was a shared runner-up at the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude. Hovland underwent a swing change this season that obviously has not fully taken yet. He rallied on Sunday to climb into a tie for 12th.

Justin Thomas
Thomas got to the TOUR Championship. He finished T14 thanks to a closing 65. The question now is, will that be enough to land one of Furyk's six captain's pick for the Presidents Cup. He's far behind way more than six guys in the standings. So this could be a repeat of last year when Thomas was a controversial Ryder Cup selection. Of course, last year he didn't even male the playoffs much less the TOUR Championship.

"I would hope that Jim knows I don't need to explain how much I want to be on that team and how much I would love to," Thomas said. "But it's the same as last year; if the captains and the players on the team want me on the team, then I'm happy to be there, and whatever they need to do to assemble the best team possible, whether I'm on it or not, then that's what it is."

Patrick Cantlay
This was a very disappointing season for Cantlay. Yes, he made the TOUR Championship and received an automatic spot on the U.S. team for the Presidents Cup, but that stuff is the bare minimum for a player whose been ranked in the top-five in the world. Cantlay had only four top-10s all season. He limped home this week with a tie for 17th.