Five centimetres from the flag at the second, and Hovland never recovered
Scottie Scheffler shot 66 at East Lake, the best round of the day, and won the Tour Championship on 264, 16 under. Three shots clear of Viktor Hovland.
The Norwegian started the final round with the lead. He gave it back with a 72 and finished on 13 under. Ryan Gerard also shot 72 and took third at 12 under. Nobody outside those three was ever really in it.
Scheffler set the tone immediately. His tee shot at the par-3 second stopped five centimetres from the hole. Birdie. Another at the 4th drew him level with Hovland, who had already dropped one. He went ahead alone at the 13th with a putt from a metre and a half, handed it straight back at the 14th after finding rough off the tee, then birdied the 16th out of a fairway bunker to move two clear. Hovland’s 17th finished it, a lob wedge from 94 metres flown miles long and a bogey he could not afford.
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130 million dollars, and a name off the top of the list
Two FedEx Cups now, after 2024. Only Tiger Woods in 2007 and 2009 and Rory McIlroy in 2016, 2019 and 2022 had won it more than once since it started.
The 10 million dollar cheque did something else. Scheffler’s career PGA Tour earnings now sit at 130,390,661 dollars, ahead of the 120,999,166 Woods had banked at the top of that list. McIlroy could have passed Woods himself with a solo fourth. He tied for fifth on 11 under after a 69.
He kept bringing up 2022 and 2023
The summer had been flat by his standards, no regular-season win. He ends with three titles, two of the three playoff events among them, and 10 top-three finishes. Player of the year arguments have been won on less.
“My mindset coming into these playoffs was that I might have underperformed in previous years,” he said. “I’m thinking about 2022 and 2023, when I had the lead going into this event and couldn’t close out the FedEx Cup.” Hovland offered no excuses either. “I just needed one shot under par to get into a playoff.”
The celebration was a cheeseburger, fries and a beer, which he said was his first in a long while.
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