ATLANTA – There are moments in golf when you just know something special is about to happen, when the combination of momentum and shots and the gallery and the course combine to produce magic. In the 211-par-3 second hole at East Lake Golf Club, in the final round of Sunday’s Championship, Scottie Scheffler stepped up to the tee and did this;
That set an immediate tone, Scheffler tried to chase Viktor Hovland – Scheffler started the day trailing by three – and cap the season with his third victory in 2026. Through the fourth hole, Scheffler caught him, and he walked through the eighteenth season, doing what he did No. 1 player in the world – dialing the thing, with three was released on its last – day.
Advertisement
On a day at East Lake when the birdies were finally tough, Scheffler came home with a 4-under 66, tied for the lowest round of the day. After him, Hovland came home with a 2-over 72.
With the three-shot victory, Scheffler now stands as the FedEx Cup champion and, on a larger scale, the leading money winner in PGA Tour history.
Scheffler officially passed Woods for that title on Sunday. With a $10 million paycheck on Sunday, Scheffler is now at $130,390,661 to Tiger’s $120,999,166.
Although Scheffler enjoyed much larger purses than in his first forest, the overall trend is accurate. Scheffler is competing against more than his players now, he is competing against previous generations.
Advertisement
“Defense” in name only
In theory, the Tour Championship should be the crowning event of the PGA Tour season, the culmination of eight months of prize-winning competition across the country (with the occasional trip to Canada and the United Kingdom). In practice, the Championship Tour has sought to find its own identity as a concept and tournament. Forms come and go, movements wax and wane, but through it all, the destination has always been the same: East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, the home course of Bobby Jones.
Not much longer though. In one of two major career stories that have been overshadowed within the cable, the PGA Tour announced on Tuesday that East Lake’s tenure as the home of the Tour Championship ends after next year. Beginning in 2008, The PGA Tour is rolling out a new playoff format Heavily weighted to match play – the last two events of the season will be match-play events, with narrow fields from 32 to 16 to 1. The way is much needed to chew the crack of the game format, but East Lake will be in its place at the end of the season schedule.
On Sunday, as with most every day at Wood-Tiger-Work on the Tour Championship, the gallery was enthusiastic if not necessarily completely engaged. Abundant trade and hospitality tents line the course, and until late on a Sunday afternoon, the booths are rarely more than one high gathered around any opening. Plus, from a historical perspective, the 30-man Tour Championship, while lucrative, doesn’t quite carry the weight of a major field.
Advertisement
All of these factors combine to make the Tour Championship less of a golf event to see and more of a pleasant place to hang out while it continues nearby. Abundant food and drink options, sponsor giveaways and a general cool vibe are geared toward the unchanging sensibilities of modern golf fans, who usually — though definitely not always — have a good idea.
The another great story
This leads to the second major non-golf event that drew oxygen to East Lake this week: the destruction of the reputation of Good Good Golf. YouTube launched a golf lifestyle brand, and they quickly pulled out the controversy to partner with Callaway next Friday, and then spend the next few days trying to stop the PR damage. But Jupiter had received the mark of the wound; He challenged Bonds with Bon Bon, and not long after, Bon Bon withdrew from his proposed sponsorship of PGA Tour events. The trip did not sufficiently express the regret noted in the departure.
To the course
Combined, the off-season action made much of the golf coverage void for the first few days of the tournament. The course, though, took the players around the beautiful wide and enormous greens at East Lake to limit ridiculous scores. The last three finishers were tied for par on Thursday, and only Gary Woodland finished the week at +2 above par.
Advertisement
Nearly a quarter of the field — Scheffler, Hovland, Chris Gotterup, Min Woo Lee, Ryan Gerard, Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young — finished at least one round within two shots of the lead.
No one really got away from the field at East Lake on Sunday, and no one outside of Scheffler could keep pace through the first three laps.
Starting three shots behind Hovland, Scheffler quickly carved into the lead with her near ace at the second hole. Another birdie on No. 4 And he put him in a bundle of lead. Nine holes later, a 14th birdie gave Scheffler sole possession of the lead, and even a bogey on the next hole didn’t hurt him, as Hovland bogeyed 13th after him.
Ultimately, the difference came down to the back nine, where Scheffler was 2-under while Hovland was 2-over par. That’s what I liked.