Scottie Scheffler passes Tiger Woods, becomes PGA Tour's all-time earnings leader after Tour Championship win
· Yahoo Sports
The PGA Tour has a new all-time money leader.
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Scottie Scheffler surpassed Tiger Woods and became the Tour's all-time career earnings leader with his win at the Tour Championship at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta. Scheffler posted a 4-under 66 in the final round to claim the win, which wrapped up the FedExCup Playoffs.
The win earned Scheffler a $10 million check to go with the FedExCup title. That was part of a larger $40 million purse. He’s now earned $130,390,661 playing on the PGA Tour in his career.
Scheffler's win was more than enough to push him past Woods on the all-time list, something he's pulled off way quicker in his career than Woods did. Woods has earned $120,999,166 throughout his career, and is one of just three players who has earned more than $100 million.
Scheffler nearly surpassed Woods last week at the BMW Championship. He entered that tournament in St. Louis with $119,964,411 in career earnings, just $1,034,755 behind Woods. But Scheffler finished T12, and revealed he was dealing with hand, foot and mouth disease throughout the week. That earned him $426,250, and brought him just $608,505 behind Woods.
Rory McIlroy is in third with just more than $117 million in career earnings.
Scheffler needed a solo-13th or better finish at the Tour Championship in order to surpass Woods. If he fell short of that mark, it likely would have taken him until next season in order to beat Woods — unless Scheffler made a rare stop on the Tour's fall slate.
Woods was a dominant force on the PGA Tour throughout his career, and is undoubtedly one of the best to ever play the game. The 50-year-old has won 82 times on Tour, which matched Sam Snead's all-time wins record. He's won 15 major championships, too, which is second all-time behind only Jack Nicklaus' 18 titles. Woods is currently away from golf while recovering from various injuries in recent years, and due to his car crash and arrest in Florida earlier this year.
Scheffler has won just 21 times on Tour, most recently with his eight-shot victory last week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He's won four major championships, too, and is just a U.S. Open win away from completing the career grand slam. Scheffler entered this week having earned just more than $20.5 million this season alone, with 12 top-10 finishes and five runner-up outings to go with his two wins.
But Scheffler is just 30, nearly 20 years younger than Woods. That fact is why he was able to catch Woods so quickly on the money list. PGA Tour purses are simply much, much larger today than they were when Woods was in his prime. The Tour's signature events, for example, typically carry a $20 million purse throughout the season.
Tiger Woods earned just less than $300,000 for his inaugural PGA Tour win back in 1997.Craig Jones via Getty ImagesWoods, for example, earned just $297,000 for his first career Tour win. That was back at the Las Vegas Invitational in 1996. Scheffler's first Tour win, the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, earned him $1.467 million. Woods only earned $486,000 for his first major championship win in 1997, which was part of just a $2.7 million purse at the Masters. Scheffler's first win at the Masters in 2022 earned him a $2.7 million check, part of a $15 million purse.
Scheffler still has a long way to go to catch Woods when it comes to overall golf success. But amid this dominant stretch of his — he's won 15 of his 21 tournaments in the past three seasons alone — Scheffler is clearly off to a great start on that front in the new era of the sport.
And with how golf has grown, something that Woods deserve a massive amount of credit for, it was only a matter of time before someone caught him on the career earnings list.