ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler’s second FedEx Cup title and his 22nd career victory on the PGA Tour during this astonishing five-year run was different from all the others, even if it looked all too familiar.
Scheffler celebrated with a beer.
He had just closed his final round at the Tour Championship with a 4-under-par 66 at East Lake Golf Club — no one else from the leading six players broke par — and Scheffler had to wait for the last two groups to finish to make it official Sunday evening.
“There was an open bar inside, and I’m like, ‘All right, I’m grabbing a beer.’ It tasted great,” Scheffler said. “I don’t really drink often. My wife and manager were like, ‘Wow, I haven’t seen you have a beer in a long time.’ Well, season’s over now. I’m going to have a beer. Well-earned beer.”
There was no arguing that, and there’s no longer a debate over who had the best season in golf.
The 30-year-old Texan took care of that at East Lake when he made up a three-shot deficit in four holes and pulled away to win the Tour Championship, add his second FedEx Cup trophy in a three-year span, and move past Tiger Woods for most career earnings on the PGA Tour.
Scheffler signaled his rally with a 5-iron shot that put the ball within two inches of the cup on the 211-yard second hole. He caught 54-hole leader Viktor Hovland with a 25-foot birdie on the fourth hole, pulled ahead for the first time on the 13th and wound up with a three-shot victory at 16-under 264.
It was his first time with the low 72-hole score at the Tour Championship.
When he won in 2024, he had a two-shot lead before the tournament began given to the No. 1 seed in the FedEx Cup standings under the “starting strokes” format. He won by four shots, even though two other players had a lower actual score. That still bugs him.
“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,” said Scheffler, who has been No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for more than three years running. “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.”
Scheffler won for the third time this year — twice in the last three weeks during the PGA Tour’s postseason — to match fellow American players Chris Gotterup and Wyndham Clark as well as England’s Matt Fitzpatrick for the most wins in 2026.
Players vote on the Jack Nicklaus Award for PGA Tour player of the year. Scheffler has won the past four seasons, and another would tie him with Woods for most consecutive awards.
Taking over the top spot in career earnings was inevitable. The $40 million purse at the Tour Championship now counts as official money. Scheffler won $10 million, pushing his career total to $130,390,661.
Woods, who never played for more than a $10 million purse during his peak years from 1997 through 2009, had been at the top of the career money list for nearly 26 years.
It was a small slice of redemption for Scheffler, who lost in a playoff to Hovland at the Travelers Championship in JUne, one of his five runner-up finishes this year.
Hovland made only one birdie Sunday and closed with a 72 to finish alone in second, worth $5 million. Most aggravating for the 28-year-old Norwegian was having three putts hit the lip in a four-hole stretch on the back nine, two of them for birdie and one for par.
“He’s just good, and he played good every day,” Hovland said of Scheffler. “I could have shot 66 easily as well today. Just didn’t have it. … It wasn’t like anybody else really played all that great in contention, and that’s what you see — a lot of guys just gagging and throwing up. And that’s where he just kind of stays in it and shoots a nice score. That gets the job done.”
Scheffler had two bogeys — one an aggressive miss with a wedge from the fairway on No. 7, the other from a gnarly lie in the rough on the 14th — and otherwise felt he didn’t miss much over a tough day of wind and firm turf that made the landing spots feel smaller.
East Lake played to a cumulative average of 67.35 through three rounds. On Sunday, the average score was 70.07.
Ryan Gerard, one shot behind Hovland starting out, made a double bogey on the opening hole, followed with 13 straight pars and closed out a 72 to finish alone in third.
“They made it as difficult as they could today, and that’s kind of what we were looking for,” Gerard said. “I just wasn’t on enough to execute shots to really tucked hole locations.”
Scheffler said winning the Tour Championship for the FedEx Cup doesn’t change his outlook on the season, believing that’s for others to judge.
Even so, he had a point to prove. Scheffler felt as though he had underachieved in the PGA Tour postseason in past years, including losing a six-shot lead to Rory McIlroy in 2022 and not putting up much of a fight when Hovland won in 2023 when Scheffler started with a two-shot lead and finished 16 shots behind.
“To come in this year maybe 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 a nice way to finish off the season,” said Scheffler, who also won in his first start this year.
“That was my motto going into the playoffs. Maybe in years I’ve underperformed in the postseason, and maybe this is a year I’ll perform better than I have in the regular season.”
That he did, and the beer no doubt went down smoothly.
Scottie Scheffler hits from the 18th tee at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club during the final round of the Tour Championship. Scheffler closed with a 4-under-par 66 to overcome a three-shot deficit and win by three strokes. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Dean delivers at Belfry
BIRMINGHAM, England — Joe Dean, a former grocery delivery driver who was No. 292 in last week’s Official World Golf Ranking, captured his first victory on the DP World Tour by closing with a 9-under 63 to win the British Masters with his wife on the bag.
The 32-year-old Englishman started the final round at the Belfry’s Brabazon Course seven strokes off the lead, but Dean made nine birdies — including four on his last six holes — to finish the 72-hole tournament at 14-under 274 and move into the lead with the late starters still having holes to play.
No one could catch him, with four players three shots back to tie for second: Spain’s Nacho Elvira (69), third-round leader Daniel Hillier (73) of New Zealand and Danish players Niklas Norgaard (71) and Jakob Skov Olesen (71).
It’s the latest big turn on the course for Dean, who spent time delivering groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and kept doing it for nearly four years to help fund his career when he didn’t have a card for the Europe-based tour.
“I enjoyed it for most of the time,” Dean said of his old part-time job. “Obviously it’s a completely different life, a completely different lifestyle. I still see the vans going up and down the road every now and then, and I keep in touch.”
It was a family success, too. Dean got married to Emily after the British Open last month, and she was his caddie throughout the tournament he made his breakthrough.
“I can’t thank her enough for what she has to put up with, with me,” Dean said. “It was bad enough off the course, with the lows and stuff. Now it’s on and off the course. I hope I made her proud.”
Joe Dean walks on the 18th hole of the Belfry’s Brabazon Course during Sunday’s final round of the DP World Tour’s British Masters in Birmingham, England. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)
Yin enjoys the moment
NORTON, Mass. — Ruoning Yin won the FM Championship for her sixth career victory on the LPGA Tour, outlasting Hyo Joo Kim at TPC Boston.
Yin ran in a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-5 12th hole for a share of the lead with Kim as they played in the same group. The 23-year-old Chinese player parred the next five in breezy conditions and birdied the par-5 18th for a 2-under 70 and a two-stroke victory as she finished the 72-hole tournament at 14-under 274.
“I think this one definitely boosts my confidence a little bit,” Yin said. “I just want to enjoy the moment.”
Kim, a two-time winner this season, closed with a 71. The South Korean player dropped back with a three-putt bogey on the par-3 16th, where she missed a nine-foot par try, and she missed a seven-foot birdie attempt on the par-3 17th.
“At the end of the day, it was Ronni,” Hyo Joo Kim said of Yin.
Sei Young Kim chipped in for a birdie on the par-3 11th to take a one-stroke lead in the final group, then dropped four shots on the next three holes with a double bogey and two bogeys. She shot a 73 to tie for fourth.
Yin won twice in 2023 and three times in 2024, with a span of 672 days since her most recent victory in the 2024 Maybank Championship.
“It’s just been so long since my last win,” Yin said. “I know I work hard and also my team, my mom is here — just everything comes together.”
Allisen Corpuz was third at 11 under after a 68. Rose Zhang (68), who will be one of her U.S. teammates at the upcoming Solheim Cup matches, was another shot back.
Top-ranked Nelly Korda, the American star, tied for 50th at 1 over after a 73 in the final event before the Sept. 11-13 matches against Europe in the Netherlands.
European captain Anna Nordqvist shot a 72 and tied for 38th at 1 under in her final event on the LPGA Tour.
“I’m not really sure how to feel,” said the 39-year-old Swedish player with nine career wins on the U.S.-based circuit. “Nothing ever prepares you for this moment. I’m definitely going to miss it.”
Ruoning Yin celebrates after sinking her final putt on the 18th green at TPC Boston to win the LPGA Tour’s FM Championship in Norton, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Back-to-back victories for Alker
GRAND BLANC, Mich. — Steven Alker won the Ally Challenge for his second straight PGA Tour Champions victory and third of the season, closing with a 4-under 68 at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club for a three-stroke margin.
Alker won the Rogers Charity Classic the previous weekend in Canada, beating Y.E. Yang with a birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff in Calgary. The 55-year-old New Zealander also won the Cologuard Classic in March, topping Padraig Harrington on the first extra hole in Tuscon, Arizona.
Alker finished the Ally Challenge, a 54-hole event, at 15-under 201 for his 13th career victory on the 50-and-older tour.
South Africa’s Retief Goosen closed with a 64 to finish second, while three players shared third at 11 under: Australia’s Greg Chalmers (68) and American players Michael Block (74) and Stewart Cink (67). Block had a two-shot lead through 36 holes, with Alker second to start the final round.