No one likes coming in second place over and over.
Certainly not Scottie Scheffler, even though he has already collected more wins on the PGA Tour than most see in a lifetime.
The best golfer in the world hadn’t won a tournament since January, when he made his season debut at The American Express in the California desert. Oh, but he was close, time and time again — placing second five times since that win and taking third at another two events.
“I felt like I was on repeat all year just being like, ‘Hey, I’m playing solid. I’m close,’” Scheffler said Sunday. “It feels good to be answering some different questions at the end of this week.”
That’s because Scheffler broke through in the most Scheffler way possible, winning the FedEx St. Jude Championship by eight to kick off the FedEx Cup playoffs.
I could use this space to describe why Scheffler is now the shoo-in to win his second FedEx Cup in three years, but what would be the point? Scheffler has jumped from first in the FedEx Cup standings all the way… to first. There’s no way to improve his position, and with the removal of the Tour Championship’s starting strokes format in 2025, he could skip the upcoming BMW Championship and still be comfortably in the Tour Championship field, but without a baked-in advantage over any of his peers.
Not that he minds. The flip side of coming in second and third so often this year is that it’s a mark of Scheffler’s otherworldly consistency.
Check out where Rory McIlroy finished the St. Jude for some contrast — 66th out of 68. He takes three weeks off after the Open Championship and starts talking about having to find his game like he misplaced it in the wrong drawer of his mansion.
Why didn’t Scheffler win more in 2026?
His putting perhaps kept him from being more of a threat at the majors, but some of his missed chances were also pure luck. He shot scores that were low enough to win most years at Pebble Beach (20 under, T4), Augusta National (11 under, second to McIlroy) and Doral (13 under, second to World No. 3 Cameron Young). He lost in playoffs at both the RBC Heritage and the Travelers Championship.
When Scheffler blasted out of a bunker at the par-5 third hole Sunday, his shot inauspiciously ricocheted off a sprinkler head, slid over the green and landed in the water. He made bogey and later revealed that he asked caddie Ted Scott, “When is this going to stop happening?”
Rest assured, this would be the day. Five birdies later, not only had he righted the ship, but nobody playing the same course as Scheffler was getting anywhere near him.
Three simple points tell the story better than I could:
Scheffler leads the PGA Tour in both scoring average and total strokes gained for the fourth straight season.
Officially, he has converted his last nine 54-hole leads on tour into wins. He’s now the fifth guy to win by eight-plus strokes multiple times in his career, and the first to do it since… Scottie Scheffler at the 2025 Byron Nelson.
Scheffler, who did not win a tournament until 2022, just passed McIlroy for second on the all-time money list.
That last one’s not a joke. Scheffler is also one million and change from Tiger Woods’ money list record.
It sure is the right era to be pretty consistent at golf. Because even when you don’t get that trophy, second and third pay out handsomely too.
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