McIlroy won $18 million, bringing his PGA Tour earnings to over $26 million for the season. He closed with a 4-under 66 to move past Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, who made just one birdie in a 73. Scheffler was hoping to cap off his best year in golf with the FedEx Cup title. Instead, his entry in the record books tied a PGA Tour record for longest blown 54-hole lead. The last to do so was Dustin Johnson in 2017 at the HSBC Champions. Sungjae Im fell behind with a double bogey on the 14th hole and still managed a 66 to tie for second with Scheffler. McIlroy referred to the final round as a “spectacle,” and not just because of the pro-McIlroy crowd chanting his name along the closing holes. “Two of the best players in the world going head-to-head for the biggest prize on the PGA Tour and I hope everyone at home enjoyed that,” he said. McIlroy needed plenty of help from Scheffler, the No. 1 seed, who started with a two-shot lead and never trailed until the 70th hole. Scheffler, who birdied four of six holes Sunday morning to complete the third round and build a six-shot lead, lost it in the first seven holes. And then it was a tragic nail-biter to the finish, a stunning afternoon at East Lake that took two shots. McIlroy holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th hole to take the lead. After hitting the green about 20 yards on the 16th, his pitch was running fast and left the front of the green when it hit the pin and settled 7 feet away. Save par Scheffler stepped out of a bunker just 10 feet away and missed, making a bogey that put him behind for the first time all week. Scheffler badly misfired a 10-foot birdie chance on the 17th to tie, sending the Tour Championship to the final hole with $18 million on the line. Scheffler’s 4-iron at the par-5 18th sailed short and right and into a bunker, and rocketed over the green. McIlroy went left into the fairway, eased up and into the green for an easy par. Scheffler and Im earned $4.75 million each. “Certainly money didn’t enter my mind. I wanted to win the season title,” Scheffler said. “I’ve had a really great year and I wanted to end it with a win here, and unfortunately I couldn’t.” McIlroy won the 2016 FedEx Cup in a playoff. He won the FedEx Cup again in 2019, the first year of a staggered start. But this might have been the sweetest of the fall, coming off a year in which the PGA Tour was locked in a nasty battle with Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf, which has already drawn about two dozen players and is now part of an antitrust suit against the PGA Tour. It was McIlroy who declared a fierce allegiance to the PGA Tour in recent years when rival championships began to emerge. And it was McIlroy who joined Tiger Woods in a major players-only meeting last week that led to major changes ahead of the tour. So yes, that had an extra level of satisfaction. “I believe in the game of golf. I strongly believe in this tour. I believe in the players on this tour,” McIlroy said upon receiving the trophy. “It’s the best place in the world to play golf, bar none, and I’ve played everywhere.” Even at the Tour Championship, usually an end-of-year celebration, there was talk all weekend about more autonomy in the coming days. The Daily Telegraph reported three weeks ago that British Open champion Cameron Smith was leaving for LIV Golf and renewed reports over the weekend confirmed the same. Two people with knowledge of the moves said Harold Varner III, Marc Leisman and Anirban Lahiri are leaving. They spoke on condition of anonymity because it has not been announced. Cameron Tringale announced his decision via Twitter. Joaquin Nieman remains to be named, whose manager said the Chilean would discuss options with his father later on Sunday. “Everyone on tour has had to deal with a lot. Even the kids who went to LIV had a lot to deal with. It was just a very tumultuous time in our game,” McIlroy said. “This is the best place in the world to play golf. It is the most competitive. He has the best players. It has the deepest fields. I don’t know why you would want to play anywhere else.” With all this speculation, the Tour Championship that seemed like a runaway turned into a dynamic show. Most of that fell on Scheffler, who looked like a different player when he returned Sunday morning after a two-hour break before the final round. He couldn’t get anything and let four more into the game. Scheffler hit only nine of 18 greens in regulation. McIlroy seized the opportunity early with three straight birdies, the last from 30 feet on No. 7 that drew cheers from corporate hospitality tents throughout the course. Scheffler fought back, showing surprising toughness without the game going with him. He had three big saves early on the back nine and took the lead for the last time when McIlroy missed the 14th green with a short iron from the fairway and bogeyed. McIlroy started the tournament six shots back as the No. 7 seed. He opened with a tee shot out of bounds for a triple bogey, and after another bogey, he was 10 behind before Scheffler even started. And in the end, the tour’s biggest voice had its biggest trophy.
