Collin Morikawa is the only player within four shots of Scottie Scheffler at the Tour Championship.
Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler has been the top golfer in the world and favorite to win the FedEx Cup all season. With two rounds on the Tour Championship unchanged, and some of the PGA Tour’s top players are starting to sound the alarm about their chances of stopping him… if they don’t learn to wave their white flags.
Remembering how we got here, Scheffler produced some historic golf in the first half of 2024, winning six PGA Tour events including his second Masters title. If not for his strange arrest at the PGA Championship, he might have won more.
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It seemed like no other player could touch him, and the FedEx Cup was his to lose. But Xander Schauffele went on to win two majors, the PGA and most recently the Open, to make a sudden run at Player of the Year and FedEx Cup titles.
Would Scheffler fail to win the trophy again after the first season, as has happened in the past?
Scheffler shut the door on that theory quickly with a stunning Olympic gold medal win in August. But still, as the FedEx Cup Playoffs begin, some people wonder if Schauffele can still win the trophy, as well as Player of the Year, on a pay-to-play basis.
This week at the Tour Championship, Scheffler was tied for first, making him 10 points under par. Beating the world’s best player on a back-to-back has proved to be a tall order for any player, including Schauffele.
After Scheffler hit East Lake in the opening round with the best round of the day to extend his lead from two shots to seven, all hope seemed to fade for the rest of the players in the field.
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Even after his lead narrowed Friday, some of the best expressed doubt that anyone could catch him.
“He’s the best golfer in the world. He’s very good with the leads,” said Pro Sam Burns after the second round at East Lake. “It’s not a good thing for us.”
Burns started the Tour Championship at four under, six shots behind Scheffler. Despite impressive rounds of 67 and 68 to start the tournament, he finds himself 10 shots back in the middle.
Burns was honest about the chances of Scheffler loosening his grip on the lead.
“I don’t expect him to come back at all. Someone will have to go after him,” said Burns on Friday. “I think if you drive the ball well here, put yourself in enough position and have a good day with the irons and make putts, I think the low scores should be there. When you get the ball out on the golf course, especially on hard greens, it makes it a lot harder.”
Wyndham Clark, the 2023 US Open champion, offered a similar view, saying, “It will be very difficult to catch him. He would have to not play his way and I would play in an unbelievable way.”
Collin Morikawa actually beat Scheffler on Friday by three shots. But he’ll still be four shots off the pace heading into Round 3. When asked if being in the lead with Scheffler helped him, Morikawa said “just a little bit.”
“He’s such a good player that you just know he’s going to keep going down and making birdies,” Morikawa said Friday evening. “I saw that firsthand. I’ve been seeing it for years.”
Schauffele, the only man in the running to steal POY honors from World No. 1, he also made it clear that this tournament is in Scottie’s hands.
“It’s really up to him, to be honest. I have to play with my *beep* to sniff,” Schauffele joked. “Being two back and I shot one yesterday and he hit a little bit during the day, it’s not the start I needed. The sense of urgency today is trying to pick it up.”
But it’s not all bad news for the many players trying to oust Scheffler from East Lake. The 2024 FedEx winner only gets $25 billion of the $100 million, which means there’s still $75 million up for grabs, even if winning seems less likely, as Clark admits.
“There are still many good things to finish second, third or fourth, or even fifth.”
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