Scheffler Caps Off Dominant Season With FedEx Cup

The Sunday Swing 
September 1st, 2024 

Welcome back to another edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week, the PGA Tour wrapped up its regular season at the Tour Championship from East Lake, and the LPGA Tour played the FM Championship from TPC Boston.

Tour Championship - Tournament History 

The Tour Championship is a significant event as it concludes the PGA Tour's regular season at East Lake Golf Club. The event is a culmination of a long season's work where only the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings are eligible to compete for record amounts of bonus money. The Tour Championship became the season finale back in 2007, where Tiger Woods set the tournament scoring record at 23-under par. Since 2019, the event adopted a new format in which the players start at staggered scores based on their current FedEx Cup rank. The #1 player (Scottie Scheffler) in the standings begins the tournament at 10-under par, with the rest filing in behind him. While it seems to be a great advantage, Scheffler has failed to close the deal despite starting with the lead the past two seasons. It is also worth noting that East Lake Golf Club underwent a massive reconstruction project in the months leading up to the 2024 Tour Championship. The course changed many holes drastically, providing many new challenges for players as well as plenty of familiarity from the original Tom Bendelow design. The previous five winners of the Tour Championship are as follows: 

2024 - Scottie Scheffler (-30) (-10 start)
2023 - Viktor Hovland (-27) (-8 start)
2022 - Rory McIlroy (-21) (-4 start)
2021 - Patrick Cantlay (-21) (-10 start)
2020 - Dustin Johnson (-21) (-10 start)

The Big Swing 

This week it is only fitting that the big swing belongs to Scottie Scheffler. After picking up six victories during the regular season, Scheffler entered the Tour Championship at the top of the FedEx Cup standings for the third consecutive season.

After failing to pick up his first Tour Championship in his previous two attempts, Scheffler came out of the gate flying on Thursday and carded an opening round 65 to extend his lead by multiple shots. His biggest threats from further back in the pack were Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott, Sahith Theegala, and Xander Schauffele.

Schauffele, who had a record-setting season in his own right (winning his first two majors), was hoping to spoil Scottie’s season for a third straight year. Schauffele started out well, posting 70 and 64 in his first two rounds, but a third round 71 took away any chance of catching the world No. 1. Theegala and Morikawa were the two who applied the most pressure to Scheffler on the weekend.

Early in his round on Saturday, Theegala called a 2-shot penalty on himself on the third hole for supposedly making contact with the sand in the fairway bunker. Even though the footage showed no clear contact with the sand, Theegala insisted he was certain he saw the sand move and took 2-shot penalty. Even after a 1-over par front nine, Theegala made 7 birdies on the back nine and salvaged a 5-under 66.

Morikawa, despite shooting rounds of 66, 63, and 67, still found himself trailing Scheffler by four heading into the final round thanks to Scottie’s stellar performance.

On Sunday things got a little bit interesting when Morikawa cut the lead to two shots after Scheffler made some uncharacteristic bogeys to close out the front nine. Despite the adversity, Scottie bounced back with birdies on Nos. 10 & 11, followed by an eagle at the 14th. Pars the rest of the way in were enough for Scottie to win by four over Morikawa, with Theegala claiming solo 3rd after a Sunday 64. For Scheffler, the victory caps off an incredible season in which he picked up 7 victories on tour, a gold medal, and another green jacket – along with his first Tour Championship and FedEx Cup title.

Key Stats:
Strokes Gained: Off The Tee- 1st
Strokes Gained: Approach to Green- 3rd
Strokes Gained: Around the Green- 23rd
Strokes Gained: Putting- 3rd
Strokes Gained: Total- 1st

In the World of Women’s Golf 

This week the LPGA Tour was on the East Coast at TPC Boston for the FM Championship. This season marks the first for the FM Championship, and the tournament featured the largest purse outside of the majors and the Tour Championship at $3.8 million. With the Solheim Cup approaching in just under two weeks, many of the game's big names took this week off, but there was still plenty of firepower. Jin Young Ko, Allisen Corpuz, Jennifer Kupcho, Hannah Green, and Haeran Ryu were all among the players who competed in Boston. 

Haeran Ryu, the 23-year-old from South Korea got her first victory last season at the age of 22. This week she went head to head with her fellow countrywoman and former world #1 Jin Young Ko. Ko has already had a remarkable career, with 15 victories on the LPGA Tour including two majors. 

Ko started out relatively slow with an opening round 71, but came out firing the next two rounds with a pair of 67s to surge up the leaderboard. Ryu’s route to the top of the leaderboard was very much a rollercoaster. After opening with 69, Ryu fired a Friday 62, opening up a 6-shot lead. On Saturday, she shot 16 strokes worse after carding a 78 to fall back to the pack. 

On Sunday, Ryu was back to her Friday form, making birdies on the first six holes and carding a front nine 30. Ko also started out hot and made two eagles in the first four holes. Ko would go on to play the rest of her round at even par, carding 68. Ryu played her final nine in 2-under to match Ko’s 15-under number and force a playoff. 

On the first playoff hole, Ryu played the hole perfectly, hitting her drive in the fairway and stuffing the approach shot within 15 feet. Jin Young Ko struggled and ended up making bogey, leaving Ryu with an easy 2-putt for the win. The victory marks Ryu’s second on the LPGA Tour, and her first this season.