Scottie Scheffler Completes Most Dominant Year in Golf Since Tiger Woods' Prime
By Joe Lago
Not since Tiger Woods was in the midst of his prime has one golfer thoroughly dominated golf during a calendar year.
Scottie Scheffler has the resume and prize money to confirm that 2024 belonged to him and no one else.
Scheffler capped his remarkable season Sunday by winning the Tour Championship to capture the FedEx Cup and its $25 million first-place prize.
The 28-year-old's FedEx Cup victory was the first of his career and raised his 2024 winnings (including bonuses) to over $62.3 million. Like Woods in 2006, Scheffler won eight tournaments, including the Masters and The Players Championship. He even won gold for Team USA in the men's golf competition at the Paris Olympics last month.
Scheffler's seven PGA Tour titles are the most since Woods in 2007.
Scottie Scheffler's total haul this year from the PGA Tour is $62,228,357.... The $25 million FedEx bonus and $8 million Comcast bonus are unofficial. .. He set a Tour record of $29,228,357 in official prize money.
— Bob Harig (@BobHarig) September 1, 2024
"I'm just proud of the work that we put in," Scheffler told reporters Sunday. "It's hard to put into words what this year has been like for me. It's been pretty emotional. There's been a lot of stuff that's gone on outside of golf. It's been a bit of a wild year."
Scheffler's craziest moment came in May at the PGA Championship, where he was arrested for not following police orders, booked with a mug shot and released in time to make his second-round tee time.
Charges were eventually dropped, but this year, the Louisville police have been the only thing to slow down Scheffler. The birth of his son Bennett has made 2024 extra special for the world's No. 1-ranked golfer.
Scheffler's caddie, Ted Scott, will reap the rewards too, with a haul of over $5 million.
Scottie Scheffler has been so dominant this year that his caddie, Ted Scott, will take home over $5 million.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) September 1, 2024
That would place him within the PGA Tour's top 25, earning more this year than guys like Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Will Zalatoris, and Justin Thomas.
Insanity. pic.twitter.com/YG4SYbi63M
"He's the guy to beat every single week," Justin Thomas said of Scheffler. "I don't think people understand how hard that is to do, when you're expected to win, when you're the favorite to win, when every single thing you're doing is being looked at — good and bad — on the golf course, and how hard it is to get in your own little zone and own little world and truly just quiet the noise."
Said Rory McIlroy: "We'll look back on 2024 and it's obviously one of the best individual years that a player has had for a long time."
“I think it is on par with those great years of Tiger’s,” Adam Scott said.