Scheffler chases an $18 million FedEx Cup bonus. There might even be a case for player of the year
ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler already has one small piece of history at the Tour Championship, the only player to be the No. 1 seed going into the FedEx Cup finale in consecutive years.
He also is reminded, by history and experience, that finishing it off at East Lake to capture the silver cup and its $18 million bonus is no small feat.
The history came from last year. He not only began with a two-shot lead, Scheffler expanded the margin to six shots until he threw it all away on the front nine and wound up finishing one shot behind Rory McIlroy.
“I definitely wanted to end the season on a better note than I did last year, for sure,” Scheffler said Wednesday before another light day of practice due to temperatures in the upper 90s Fahrenheit (mid- to upper 30s Celsius).
Historically, only five times in 16 years of the FedEx Cup has the No. 1 seed at East Lake gone on to win the FedEx Cup, and only twice in the last four years — Dustin Johnson in 2020 and Patrick Cantlay in 2021 — since the Tour Championship went to a staggered start.
Scheffler starts at 10-under par as the No. 1 seed, two shots clear of BMW Championship winner Viktor Hovland, three ahead of McIlroy and four ahead of Jon Rahm. The rest of the top 30 who reached the FedEx Cup finale are grouped at various stages all the way down to the last five players who start at even par.
Is it the best system? The only agreement from players is they can’t think of anything better. The last thing the PGA Tour wanted — and golf fans needed — was keeping track of points and other forms of math to figure out who was going to win.
“There’s a lot of people that have different opinions on what it should be,” said McIlroy, the only three-time winner of the FedEx Cup.
His only conclusion was it gives the best chance to the player who has played the best golf all year, followed by the two postseason events. Scheffler has produced one of the most consistent years since the height of Tiger Woods — no missed cuts, a top-10 finish in 16 of his 22 tournaments, two victories.
Most players would take Rahm’s year — the Masters as part of his tour-leading four victories, though none since April. The Spaniard began the postseason as the No. 1 seed but then finished in the middle of the pack at the two FedEx Cup playoff events and dropped to No. 4.
That effectively cost him four shots going into the Tour Championship, and Rahm knows from experience what that means. Two years ago, he started four shots behind Cantlay, had a raw score that was three shots better and wound up one behind.
