It's inevitable now. It's simply a matter of time for Tiger Woods' position atop the PGA Tour's career money list to come to an end, and it could happen as early as Sunday.
Woods is No. 1 on the money list with $120,999,166. He's been No. 1 since Feb. 13, 2000, a span of more than 26 years. His 82 wins, 31 runner-ups, 19 thirds and 163 top-5 finishes are the driving force behind all his big paydays over the years.
But the recent big-money era on the PGA Tour, with high-dollar signature events and the annual increases in purses at the majors, has allowed Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy to make up ground in a hurry.
Scheffler, in particular, has won 21 times over the past six seasons,
with wins in six signature events, four majors, two Players Championships and one of each of the FedEx Cup Playoff events. That's 15 big-money events out of his 21 titles. His career money haul would certainly look different if he won, say, some combination of the 3M Open, the Rocket Mortgage and the Sony 15 times.
At any rate, Scheffler now stands at $119,964,411. Do the math and that puts him $1,034,755 behind Tiger. The top five finishers in this week's BMW Championship:
- $3,600,000
- $2,160,000
- $1,360,000
- $960,000
- $800,000
So a three-way tie for third or better at Bellerive Country Club would vault Scheffler into the No. 1 spot on the all-time money list and end Tiger's 1,382-week reign.
Rory McIlroy, with $116,488,372 in career earnings, is the third member of the $100 million club. A win at the BMW would leave him just over $900,000 shy of Tiger's mark.
By the way, Scheffler is the defending champion at the BMW. As they say, records were meant to be broken.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Scottie Scheffler poised to pass Tiger Woods on PGA Tour's all-time money list
