Scottie Scheffler has suggested that he still gets annoyed when he thinks about the circumstances that led to his first FedEx Cup victory in 2024.
It was Scheffler who lifted the title on East Lake’s 18th green on Sunday after managing to catch Viktor Hovland during the final round in Atlanta.
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Of course, the format for the finale to the FedEx Cup playoffs has changed several times over the years.
For the last two seasons, the Tour Championship has been played as a standalone event where the best player that week has emerged as the FedEx Cup champion.
The previous six iterations saw the starting scores staggered depending on where a player was in the standings. For example, Scottie Scheffler started the 2024 Tour Championship at 10 under par after an incredible season.
It was no surprise, therefore, that Scheffler ended up winning the title that week. However, it is perhaps not a victory that the world number one remembers particularly fondly.
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It was Collin Morikawa who shot the lowest score on that occasion.
And speaking after his latest victory, Scheffler explained how pleased he was to see the PGA Tour remove starting strokes from the tournament.
“That’s even something that bugs me to this day is because I was playing with Collin, and when you’re sitting on a six-shot lead with a few holes left, things change. Like some lines change, some shots change. It’s a lot different when you’re coming down the stretch of a tournament and you’re tied or one shot back. I think Collin ended up maybe beating me by one shot that week,” he said.
“To this day, I feel like, whatever it was, when you’re coming down the stretch of a tournament and you’re tied or one shot back, it’s different than when you’re adding it up at the end and there’s starting strokes and all that stuff.
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“I’m glad we changed the format. Do I think it’s perfect by any means? No. But I think having a real tournament to finish the year where I am the winner and the lowest score at East Lake feels like a bit more of an accomplishment than being like, well, it’s kind of a silly format. He didn’t win, but he won. I also played with a lead that year for like six months. No matter how far ahead you are in the FedExCup, you only got two strokes.
“That year for me, I had a disappointing 2022, and then to come into ’24 the way I did — disappointing ’22 and ’23. To play with the lead in a golf tournament is hard enough, and to play with the lead in a golf tournament for essentially six months is even more challenging.
“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, well, it’s the first time you had the lowest score. And it’s like, well, it’s kind of apples and oranges.”
Scheffler’s dominance back in 2024 certainly helped expose the problem with the Tour Championship format.
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He was almost in a no-win situation. Starting the week with an advantage of at least two shots over every other player in the field meant that he was always going to be the overwhelming favourite.
And clearly, it does not sit right with him that he won the Tour Championship in 2024 without shooting the best score.
Yes, the PGA Tour were right to reward the best player heading into the finale. However, no-one could look at Scheffler’s 2024 season and think that it was worth just a two-shot lead over everyone else.
The tour attempted to have its cake and eat it too, by acknowledging the best player throughout the year while also trying to leave the door open for drama at East Lake.
Separating the season-long points race from the playoffs from 2028 looks to be an extremely smart move.
It is just surprising that it took the PGA Tour so long to take action.
