ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler closed with a 4-under 66 at East Lake Golf Club on Sunday to win the Tour Championship, claim his second FedEx Cup title, and pass Tiger Woods atop the PGA Tour’s career money list.
Scheffler, who turned 30 in June, began the final round three shots behind Viktor Hovland. According to The Associated Press, he hit a 5-iron to within 2 inches of the cup on the 211-yard second hole and caught Hovland with a 25-foot birdie on the fourth. He did not hold the lead until the 13th. He finished at 16 under, three shots clear of the field.
At age 6, Scheffler moved with his family from Ridgewood, New Jersey, to Dallas. He played golf and basketball at Highland Park High School and won the Texas individual state title three years in a row from 2012 through 2014, then played college golf at the University of Texas. He and his wife, Meredith, are raising two sons in Dallas. Royal Oaks Country Club, where he started taking lessons at age 8, remains his home club.
Speaking at his post-round news conference at East Lake, Scheffler said the pins were in tough spots and the wind made the course play harder for the field. He counted the par at the first as half a shot gained and the birdie at the second as a full one, and he said the other contenders’ slow starts put him in the tournament early.
“I think days like today are really fun,” Scheffler said during the trophy presentation. “Coming from behind and being able to win tournaments is a really cool feeling. There was a lot of talented guys in front of me on the leaderboard, and I was fortunate to, like I said, to get off to a good start and put myself in the mix. And the crowd, like you said, this week has been amazing. The support that I’ve gotten week in, week out here on the PGA Tour has been tremendous.”
“I have a tendency to keep my head down and kind of stay in my own lane when I’m out there playing, but it’s really fun when you’re able to win and celebrate with the fans in moments like these and have my family here,” Scheffler continued. “I feel bad sometimes. I really do keep my head down and try and focus as much as I can, but I really do hear all the cheers, and I’m very thankful for all of them.”
Scheffler Passes Tiger Woods on the Career Money List
The winner’s share at East Lake was $10 million out of a $40 million purse. The Tour Championship purse now counts as official money, according to the AP, and the check moved Scheffler’s career total to $130,390,661.
Woods had held the top spot on the career money list for close to 26 years. Through his peak years from 1997 through 2008, Woods never played for a purse larger than $10 million.
Scheffler on the Tour Championship Format Change
Scheffler won the 2024 FedEx Cup under the old format, which spotted the points leader a head start on the field before the first round at East Lake. The PGA Tour removed the starting strokes ahead of the 2025 Tour Championship. Sunday was the first time Scheffler posted the low 72-hole score at East Lake.
“I’m glad we changed the format,” Scheffler explained. “Do I think it’s perfect? By any means, no. But I think having a real tournament to finish the year where I’m the winner and I am the lowest score at East Lake feels a bit more of an accomplishment than being like, well, it’s kind of a silly format, you know, he didn’t really win but he won.”
“To play with the lead in a golf tournament is hard enough, and to play with a lead in a golf tournament for essentially six months is even more challenging,” Scheffler added. “So to show up at East Lake on a golf course that I struggled on and win in ’24 was really special. But, yeah, it still bugs me a little bit that it’s like, oh, well, it’s the first time you had the lowest score. And it’s like, well, it’s kind of apples and oranges.”
Three Wins and Five Runner-Up Finishes in 2026
Sunday was Scheffler’s 22nd PGA Tour victory and his third of 2026, following the American Express and the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Two of the three came in the last three weeks of the PGA Tour’s postseason. The total matches Chris Gotterup, Matt Fitzpatrick, and U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark for the most titles on Tour this year.
Scheffler did not win a major in 2026. He finished second five times, including a playoff loss to Hovland at the Travelers Championship. Over 20 starts, he placed outside the top 15 twice. The three wins follow a nine-win season in 2024 and a six-win season in 2025.
Scheffler said he held a lead at the Tour Championship in 2022 and in 2023 and did not win the FedEx Cup in either year.
“My thought process going into the postseason this year was I felt like, you know, maybe I’ve underperformed in some of the postseasons in the past,” Scheffler said. “To come in this year maybe, you know, not winning the tournaments that I could have won throughout the regular season to come in and win two out of three playoff events is definitely, you know, a nice way to finish off the season.”
Players vote on the Jack Nicklaus Award for PGA Tour player of the year, and Scheffler has won it the last four years. A fifth in a row would tie Woods for the most consecutive.
Scheffler’s most recent win in North Texas came at the 2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney. He finished at 31 under, tied the PGA Tour’s 72-hole scoring record of 253, and won by eight shots over Erik van Rooyen.
With the FedEx Cup, Scheffler joins Woods (2007, 2009) and Rory McIlroy (2016, 2019, 2022) as the only players to win the season-long title more than once. Scheffler won his first two years ago.
Hovland closed with a 2-over 72 and finished second. Ryan Gerard, who played in the final pairing with Hovland, also shot 2 over and finished third. Gerard collected $3,705,000 and Hovland $5 million. Of the 30 players in the field, only Robert MacIntyre at even par and Gary Woodland at 2 over finished the week at or above par.
Scheffler said he had a beer after coming off the course, his first in a long time, and that his wife and his manager both remarked on it.
“Season’s over,” Scheffler said. “Now I’m gonna have a beer.”
Presidents Cup Selections Come Tuesday
Scheffler leads the United States team for the Presidents Cup, scheduled for Sept. 22-27 at Medinah Country Club in Illinois. The automatic qualifiers are set. Gerard boarded a red-eye to Switzerland on Sunday night to play the Omega European Masters on the DP World Tour this week.
Six captain’s picks are due Tuesday.
