Scottie Scheffler, the top golfer in the world, concluded an incredibly successful FedEx Cup season in 2024. Scheffler’s resounding victory at this year’s Tour Championship earned him a $25 million bonus money out of the total $100 million prize pool.
After back-to-back bogeys, Scheffler hit a perfect 4-iron right next to the pin on the par-3 ninth hole, leading to three birdies in a row and an eagle on the par-5 fourteenth, a complete shift in his momentum. Scheffler ended with a 4-under 67 in his final round, securing the victory at this year’s Tour Championship, four strokes ahead of runner-up, Collin Morikawa.
Scheffler’s 2024 season stands out as one of the most impressive performances in recent history. He had seven Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour victories, alongside an Olympic Gold Medal. His PGA Tour wins consist of one major championship win at the 2024 Masters, an Arnold Palmer Invitational victory, a Player’s Championship win, the Tour Championship trophy, and many more. The last time any player had as many wins as Scheffler did in a year was Tiger Woods in the 2007 season.
Many of the top professional golfers have commented on Scheffler’s immensely successful season.
Golfer Rory McIlroy, ranked third in the world, remarked, “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.”
Adam Scott, finished in fourth at the Tour Championship, believes Scheffler’s season “is on par with those great years of Tiger’s,” adding on, “it’s very hard today for anyone to separate themselves as much as Scheffler has. I don’t think we’ve seen that in a long time. I think it’s harder to do it today.”
How has Scheffler been so successful this past season? This year, he had some incredible statistics, leading the tour in greens in regulation and putts per hole with 73.2% greens in regulation and 1.680 putts per hole. These are crucial statistics for consistently low scores.
Beyond physical abilities, which are most visible to the average viewer, Scheffler’s impressive mental fortitude truly separates him from the rest of the PGA Tour. Despite occasionally going through tough holes and hitting poor shots, Scheffler is able to let go of the results and focus on controlling what he can control.
“Just nothing fazes him,” Collin Morikawa, second-place finisher at the Tour Championship said. “Whether I was close in gaining some ground or he was gaining ground, it didn’t change how he [Scheffler] walked, how he played or how he went through every shot. That’s something to learn. I think his mental game is a lot stronger than a lot of people know.”
A seven-win year puts his season among the most successful golf seasons in modern times, being only two short of Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh’s nine-win seasons in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Additionally, his wins have garnered him $29.2 million in official money and $64.2 million counting bonus money, the most any golfer has made in a single season. While increasing prize pools in recent years have played a significant role in this achievement (with the overall prize pool for the PGA Tour rising by almost $500 million since 1994), it is nonetheless an impressive feat.
Looking forward, Scheffler looks in prime position to continue his dominance for the remainder of 2024 and into the 2025 season. He is already looking forward to the 2024 President’s Cup, a team tournament between the United States and a team of players from other non-European countries, coming up at the end of September.
“Emotionally right now, I’m pretty drained, so I’m looking forward to going home and getting rest for a week or so before I start prepping for the Presidents Cup because that’s a tournament that I really want us to go out there and win,” Scheffler said.
