Golf Digest

Starting last week, the Tour Championship officially entered its lame duck era. That probably sounds harsh, but it's not meant that way. Sunday’s action in the final round of the 2026 edition was plenty entertaining (would've been more entertaining if literally anyone could have challenged Scottie Scheffler, but what are you gonna do?), and next year could be the same. But the fact remains that we're killing time until the PGA Tour’s shiny new match-play model takes effect in 2028.

Blink and you’ll miss 10 years of golf history right now. Last week, LIV Golf—once the foremost threat to PGA Tour dominance in professional golf—played quite possibly its final tournament. Then Good Good, the hottest brand to come out of the YouTube golf movement, had all its feel-good momentum washed away (and then some) after a controversial Callaway driver ad.

The six automatic qualifiers were finalized for Captain Geoff Ogilvy’s International Presidents Cup team Sunday after the Tour Championship. All six of the men who qualified also happened to play the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake, which Scottie Scheffler won. Si Woo Kim tops the list, but at No. 6 is Adam Scott, who will be playing in his 12th Presidents Cup, Sept. 24-27 at Medinah’s No. 3 course outside Chicago.

The PGA Tour season is over. Scottie Scheffler reigned supreme, capturing three victories, including two in the playoffs—the FedEx St. Jude Championship and the Tour Championship—which handed him $10 million for winning the FedEx Cup. Before the playoffs, when there was discussion about the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year award, Scheffler only had one victory, when several others had won multiple times.

Scottie Scheffler didn’t own this PGA Tour season like he had the last few years, but once again he ended up defining it. For the second time in three years, Scheffler won the FedEx Cup title, rallying from a three-stroke deficit on Sunday to capture the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Scottie Scheffler started Sunday $608,505 behind Tiger Woods in career PGA Tour earnings. Four-plus hours later, after shooting a smooth 66 to win the Tour Championship, Scheffler collected $10 million as the FedEx Cup champion and suddenly led Woods by almost $9.4 million in career earnings. Sure, it’s a sign of the times. Money and purses are so hefty now on the PGA Tour that Woods was bound to get passed. But look at it this way—Woods had been the leader in career earnings since September 2000.

Ruoning Yin became so emotional knowing she was going to win the FM Championship that she hadn’t even tapped in for birdie on the 18th hole at TPC Boston when the tears started flowing. The 23-year-old won for the sixth time, but she hadn’t won in 34 starts.

The Tour Championship provided a fitting climax to the season with 2023 champion Viktor Hovland and 2024 winner Scottie Scheffler trading blows on the back nine. Scheffler, however, delivered more of them and came away with the title, the FedEx Cup, a very healthy bank account and likely another PGA Tour Player of the Year award. Scheffler started the day in arears but a 6-iron tee shot to two inches at the par-3 second sent a message.

Joe Dean started the final round of the British Masters seven shots off the lead. Five hours later he had made nine birdies to shoot a bogey-free 63 at the Belfrey in Sutton Coldfield, England, and won fairly easily by three shots over four others. While impressive, it’s not the most impressive part of his story.

Adam Scott has been around long enough that when he won the Tour Championship in 2006, the FedEx Cup Playoffs were one year away from being created. The payoff was exceptional in its day, worth $1.17 million. He can win nearly 10 times that on Sunday, and that would be no small achievement.