Throughout the 2026 PGA Tour season, Scottie Scheffler was far and away the best golfer. Curiously, however, there was one shortcoming in his game. It was, of all things, his number of wins. He wasn’t winning.

Not any more.

Scheffler completed what in many ways was his finest season ever by winning the Tour Championship on Sunday at East Lake to capture his second FedEx Cup championship. Only two other golfers have won multiple Cups: Tiger Woods (2) and Rory McIlroy (3).

The world No. 1 — and, by the way, Scheffler now astoundingly has double the OWGR points of McIlroy in second — took control on the back-nine to break free from Viktor Hovland by three strokes with a 16-under score.

TWICE AS NICE 🏆🏆

Scottie Scheffler is a two-time FedExCup champion after winning the @TOURChamp. pic.twitter.com/ffvleBLLGT

— PGA Tour (@PGATour) August 30, 2026

Scheffler won eight times in 2024 and six times in 2025. But, after capturing the Amex tournament in his first start of 2026, he went seven months without another win. Mind you, he was runner-up five times and third twice, but there were no other wins till this month. He won the playoff-opening FedEx St.Jude and now the season-ending Tour Championship to settle on three wins. That’s the same as Wyndham Clark, Chris Gotterup and Matt Fitzpatrick for most on Tour in 2026.

Scheffler was asked if the two late wins changed his viewpoint of the season.

“I don’t know if it changes my outlook as much as it will change y’all’s,” he said, referring to reporters.

“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.”

This was Scheffler’s second Tour Championship/FedEx Cup win, with the other coming two years ago. But that was under the controversial “starting strokes format,” and he didn’t actually shoot the low-72. Collin Morikawa did.

But there can be dispute this year who won the tournament, and certainly not who the best golfer is.

Scheffler led the Tour in scoring average – the 67.86 number was his best ever and more than a shot better than No. 2 Morikawa. He also led in Strokes Gained: Total, SG: Tee-to-Green, greens in regulation, scrambling, birdie average, final-round scoring average and, well, you get the point and we’ll stop here.

He also led in money, obviously, and has now overtaken Woods for the most ever on Tour.

Expanding on the five runners-up and two third-place finishes, Scheffler had 13 top-5 finishes in 20 starts in 2026. It’s hard to put into words how elite that is. The fact that he wasn’t winning swayed very few people off him for Player of the Year, which he surely will win now.

Before the tournament, Scheffler was asked about that, having so many high finishes but very few wins. Would he have traded a bunch of those high finishes for another win?

“The hypothetical game is not something I really love playing,” he said. “I think over the course of my career, I feel like one thing I’m most proud of is my consistency week in and week out. I think that’s something that I take a lot of pride in. It’s not easy to show up every single week and play the way that I play and play the intensity that I play and that I bring to each and every tournament. That’s something I’m really very proud of.”

That answer illustrates just what makes Scheffler the best player of his generation.

We won’t see Scheffler much the rest of the year. He’ll be a part of the U.S. Presidents Cup team next month, and he’ll likely take part in Woods’ Hero World Challenge in early December.

And then we’ll start this cycle all over again, perhaps beginning again at the 2027 Amex.

But for now, you could tell how relaxed Scheffler was now that his season was over. He went on Golf Channel and playfully bantered with Brandel Chamblee. And he also shared what he did in the immediate aftermath of a very big win to punctuate a season that at once was frustrating, mystifying and, yes, successful.

“I had a beer for the first time in a long time,” he told reporters on Sunday before heading over to the Golf Channel set. “It just sounded good. Right when we got off the course, I got in there, these guys are trying to get me to do media and all this stuff. I was like how much time do we really have? They’re like we’ve got a couple minutes. All right, let me go inside and get some air conditioning. There was an open bar inside, and I’m like, all right, I’m grabbing a beer. It tasted great.

“I don’t really drink very often. My wife and my 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.”

It’s hard to win one … even harder to win multiple. pic.twitter.com/MORBcIxWGd

— PGA Tour (@PGATour) August 31, 2026MONDAY BACKSPIN

Viktor Hovland
It was Hovland who went toe to toe with Scheffler at the Travelers in June and handed him one of those five runners-up with a playoff win. Not Sunday. While Hovland showed all through the playoffs, he still can be an elite player, he couldn’t keep up with Scheffler on Sunday. He shot his worst score of the week, a 72, to Scheffler’s 66. Hovland can bring it, but not every round, not like Scheffler, which Hovland alluded to after his round on Sunday. So that’s what he has to figure out in the fall, when he will play some DP World Tour events – how to be more consistent, instead of these mid-tournament roller-coaster rides.

Ryan Gerard
Gerard led for a chunk of the tournament and still had a shot on Sunday. But, like Hovland, he shot 72 and wound up solo third, four behind Scheffler. Gerard probably is on Brandt Snedeker‘s radar for a Presidents Cup captain’s pick. There are so many candidates, it’s hard to think Gerard will get one. But he made the Tour Championship for the first time and, while he didn’t win this season, he was second three times and third once, Kind of a Scheffler-light. And he showed he can putt, which is always important in these international team competitions. Snedeker will announce his picks on Tuesday evening.

Rory McIlroy
What an odd season for McIlroy. Besides the Masters, he made only 13 starts. He didn’t do much after winning at Augusta – until the final two weeks of the season. He finished third last week at the BMW and in a seven-way tie for fourth at East Lake.  And so he finished fourth in the FedEx Cup standings. It seems that McIlroy is resigned to playing the tournaments he wants to play, including around the world, often in the fall, without concern for the PGA Tour regular season or his standing in the world rankings.. 

Chris Gotterup
Gotterup played alongside Scheffler on Sunday and couldn’t keep up. He shot a 71 to be a part of that large group in fourth place. He was also T4 at the BMW. Besides his three wins this season, he didn’t have another top-5 – until the final two weeks of the season. Gotterup surely will want to do better in the majors next season. He had only one top-10, and that was a T10 at the PGA Championship.

Ludvig Aberg
Statistically, Aberg had a fantastic season. Not as good as Scheffler, but still great. And yet, no wins. And no seconds and only one third. Sunday’s T4 was his sixth top-5. So Aberg has been, can we call it, close-adjacent? Whatever it is, that’s his job for the offseason – to figure out how to truly be in the mix on Sundays. He was at THE PLAYERS, leading on the back-nine before imploding and winding up T4.

Russell Henley
Henley also tied for fourth. He has to be the most anonymous player in the top-10 in the world rankings (he’s sixth). He won the Charles Schwab, was also third at the Masters and top-10 at the Open Championship. He had six top-10s and 14 top-25s. At 37, Henley is playing his best golf and really doesn’t need to change anything – just keep doing what he’s doing.

Jacob Bridgeman
Bridgeman had a great first half of the season, with a win at Riviera. But he had done next to nothing for months until tying for fourth at the Tour Championship. A few months ago, you had to think he had a great shot to be on the Presidents Cup team. Now, probably not. The best thing he has going for him is that he’s an elite putter – he led the Tour in 2026. Is that enough?

Alex Fitzpatrick
When Fitzpatrick won the Zurich alongside brother Matt, many people snickered, and maybe were even a little upset that he got a PGA Tour exemption and a two-year playing exemption riding on the back of his world-class brother. Well, he showed how far from the truth that was. First by making the Tour Championship and then by tying for fourth. The younger Fitzpatrick had six top-10s and eight top-25s while missing only one cut. His game stands on its own.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood tied for 11th in defense of his Tour Championship title. He had eight top-10s and 14 top-25s in 19 starts, but he never contended for a title. In other words, it was a very Fleetwood season to match so many of the years before he finally broke through last year on the PGA Tour.

Cameron Young
Young is ranked third in the world. You can’t get much higher. But the first half of his season was decidedly better than the second. He won THE PLAYERS and Cadillac Championship by the first week in May. He wasn’t nearly as good thereafter, though he did finish second at the Open Championship. His putting really fell off, to a ranking of 107th, and it’s hard to win big golf tournaments like that.

Adam Scott
At 46, making the Tour Championship is amazing. Scott tied for 11th. Just getting there puts him in all the majors for next year, allowing him to keep his streak of consecutive majors played alive for another year. He’s at 101 and counting.

The oldest player in the field has a history at East Lake.

20 years after he won the @TOURChamp, 46-year-old Adam Scott is T3 heading into Sunday. pic.twitter.com/oxyHBbu80l

— PGA Tour (@PGATour) August 30, 2026

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele tied for 14th, completing a second straight season without a win. Yes, he won in Japan last fall, and it was a PGA Tour event. But 2027 will be a very important year for Schauffele to show he is still an elite player.

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa had a win at Pebble Beach early on and appeared to be headed toward his best season in years until throwing out his back one hole into THE PLAYERS. He did have seven top-10s and 10 top-25s (including T14 at East Lake) but his season was never the same. Morikawa was his usual great self with his irons, ranking fourth in SG: Approach. He even improved his putting greatly, ranking 62nd. So you have to think he will still be among the top players in 2027.

Si Woo Kim
Kim completed his best season ever with only a tie for 14th. It can’t dampen how great he was all season, though he wasn’t able to win. He was second three times and third twice among 11 top-10s. He ranked first on Tour in SG: Approach. His putting, while better for him, was only 109th on Tour. Imagine how many times he could’ve won by being just a smidge better on the greens. This season was such an outlier for Kim, we’re hesitant to say he can do it again in 2027, even if he does manage to pick off a win.

Sam Burns
Such heartache for Burns in 2027. Second at the U.S. Open, third at the Open Championship, seventh at the Masters. Plus some other top-5s, including at the playoff opener in Memphis. This was his best season, even though he didn’t win and hasn’t won in three years. He closed with a mere T18 at the Tour Championship.

Matt Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick had three wins in 2026. It was his best season on Tour. But he couldn’t even beat his younger brother at East Lake. He tied for 21st.

Wyndham Clark
Clark could muster only a tie for 21st this week when another win maybe, just maybe, might’ve pushed Scheffler for Player of the Year honors. No matter. With a win at the U,S. Open and two other tournaments, including the BMW, it was an incredible bounceback year for Clark. He’s had so many ups and downs, it’s hard to figure which Clark will show up in 2027.

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