‘Nothing like it before’: Historic end to $92m absurdity as Scott revival takes stunning step

World number one Scottie Scheffler crowned his remarkable season by winning the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship and with it the $25 million FedEx Cup title with a four-stroke win at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta on Sunday.

Scheffler began the final round with a five-stroke lead over Collin Morikawa but saw that advantage cut to just two after back-to-back bogeys on the 7th and 8th but he recovered to secure his seventh win on the PGA Tour this season.

He is the first player to win seven PGA Tour events in a year since Tiger Woods in 2007 and his remarkable season has also included a Masters win and an Olympic gold.

For the past two years, Scheffler had entered the Tour Championship as number one in the rankings but had failed to close out and clinch the FedEx Cup and having led the standings for most of this year he was delighted to get his reward.

“I think it was mostly mental, this was a challenging week. I played six rounds of golf, maybe more than that,” Scheffler said.

“It’s a challenging week, I’ve been leading for a while so always in the back of your head you know it’s going to come down to this and you’ve got to have a great week.

“You’ve got guys like Collin Morikawa chasing me down on the leaderboard and a lot of talented guys behind me trying to catch me but fortunately I had a nice week.”

According to CBS Sports’ Kyle Porter, the latest victory brought Scheffler’s total PGA earnings this year to over over $62 million ($A92m).

Scheffler began the week on 10 under-par under the staggered scoring system used for the season finale and he ended the week on 30 under after closing with a 67.

Morikawa would have beaten Scheffler by two strokes in a regular format and for a moment he put his rival under real pressure.

Scheffler shanked a bunker shot on the eighth making his second straight bogey as Morikawa made a birdie to reduce the gap to two.

But as so often Scheffler did not let the setbacks turn into a real momentum shift as he proceeded to make three straight birdies from the ninth and then his eagle on the par-5 15th put Morikawa out of sight.

What makes Scheffler’s dominance all the more incredible is the fact he can get even better. At least, that is the opinion of former major champion Rich Beem.

“I still think he’s got better in the tank which is strange to say, it’s crazy to say,” Beem said in commentary for Sky Sports.

“With Tiger you were like ‘he’s as good as he’s going to be’, but he kept getting better and better. I think Scottie is that type of player who can rule the game of golf for many years.

“When he got that birdie at the second hole I’m thinking ‘he’s going to take this thing out for a spin today and show us what he’s made of.

“All of a sudden there were a couple of mis-steps and then the shank on eight, I literally felt bad for him. I don’t want to see this happen.

“Then he responds with the shot at nine, three birdies in a row and it’s game, set and match. It was a little closer than expected but it shows who Scottie is. He’s got so much resilience, so much fortitude and it wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination.”

Elsewhere, Adam Scott capped off a resurgent season with a four-under 67 in the final round to end the week in a share of fourth.

Scott only had one top-10 finish in the season to his name by the Scottish Open in mid-July, but his second-place there sparked a strong run that has seen him burst back into the world’s top-20 players.

After the Scottish Open, he finished T10 at the Open, before finishing T18, T2 and T4 in the three FedEx Cup playoff events.

Scott finished at East Lake on 19-under, tied with Russell Henley and Xander Schauffele for a $4,830,000 (A$7.14m) payday.

Meanwhile, Scott said Scheffler’s season is “on par with those great years” of Tiger Woods.

“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,” he added.

FINAL LEADERBOARD AND PRIZE MONEY

1. Scottie Scheffler -30 ($25,000,000)

2: Xander Schauffele -26 ($12,500,000)

3: Sahith Theegala -24 ($7,500,000)

T4: Adam Scott, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley ($4,830,000)

7: Sungjae Im ($2,750,000)

8: Wyndham Clark ($2,250,000)

T9: Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Shane Lowry ($1,608,000)

T12: Viktor Hovland, Sam Burns ($1,000,000)

T14: Taylor Pendrith, Justin Thomas ($905,000)

16: Ludvig Aberg ($795,000)

T17: Patrick Cantlay, Robert MacIntyre, Matthieu Pavon ($755,000)

20: Tommy Fleetwood ($715,000)

T21: Keegan Bradley, Byeong Hun An ($660,000)

T23: Billy Horschel, Aaron Rai, Tony Finau ($615,000)

26: Akshay Bhatai ($590,000)

T27: Chris Kirk, Sepp Straka ($575,000)

T29: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Tom Hoge ($555,000)