The cream rose to the top on Sunday at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler drilled his tee shot at the par-3 second hole to 2 inches, setting the tone for a Sunday charge of six birdies en route to shooting 4-under 66 and defeating Viktor Hovland to claim the FedEx Cup for the second time.
Scheffler won the first leg of the playoffs at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in dominant fashion before coming down with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease and finishing T-12 at the BMW Championship. But with everything on the line this week, he shot 65-67-66 to sit three strokes off the 54-hole lead held by Hovland.
After the brilliant tee shot at the second to get his birdie party started, Scheffler tied the lead at No. 4, pouring in a 24-foot
left-to-right birdie putt, his longest made putt of the week. He gave a stroke back with a bogey at the seventh when he short-sided himself in the right greenside bunker. But he’s been the Tour's king of the bounce back and he delivered again, knocking a wedge from 96 yards to 7 feet. Birdie.
East Lake grew teeth overnight and turned into a demanding test on Sunday. Hovland and Ryan Gerard, who played alongside him in the final group, both shot over par as did Adam Scott and Chris Gotterup, who started the day tied with Scheffler, just three shots back. But Scheffler kept sticking short irons inside 10 feet, and rolled in another birdie at No. 10 to tie Hovland again until he made bogey at the ninth.
At 13, Scheffler wedged from 117 yards to 5 feet. Birdie. He gave it back when he drove into the rough at 14 and couldn’t get up and down, but no one behind him could mount a charge. Hovland kept lipping out putts. That wasn’t an issue for Scheffler at 16, who wedged from the fairway bunker to 11 feet and canned the putt to go ahead by two strokes. He finished with a 72-hole total of 16-under 264.
Scheffler dazzled all season, but the victories were harder to come by than in past seasons. Scheffler captured The American Express in January and then went 210 days between victories. That included five runner-up finishes during that stretch, tied for the most in the last 40 years on Tour with six other players. His victory at the Tour Championship was his third of the season and 22nd of his career.
Scheffler earned the $10 million first prize, which pushed him past Tiger Woods on the Tour’s career all-time money list. Woods had held the top spot for the past 26 years.
Scheffler also set the lowest scoring average in a season on the Tour since 1983 at 67.96.
Heading into the Tour Championship, the Tour's Player of the Year award still remained up for grabs, but Scheffler also likely sewed up that title, too, which he is bidding to win for a fifth time.
It's still Scheffler's world and the rest of the top 30 in the field is just living in it.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Scottie Scheffler wins Tour Championship, claims second FedEx Cup
