What next for Scottie Scheffler after FedExCup glory? Former major champion Rich Beem reflects on a memorable Tour Championship win for the world No 1 and looks at why he can continue his dominance in the sport…
I look at Scottie Scheffler as one of these complete players that is going to continue to rack up the big wins time and time again, simply because that is exactly what he expects out of himself each and every week.
When he lost that big lead to Rory McIlroy at East Lake a couple of years ago, he certainly didn’t have the same mentality as he does now. He struggled a little bit that day, but he’s a completely changed man.
Scheffler completed a record-breaking season on the PGA Tour with FedExCup victory at East Lake
He’s a different player and different man to what he was, not just back then in 2022, but even last year. This week he delivered, when the pressure was probably at one of the greatest levels he has had, to close out his season in style.
He deals with pressure in such a calm way that his exhale moment is a lot less than our inhale moment would be, which is something only reserved for the great players. He is winning at such a clip that being on top coming down the stretch is starting to become easy to him.
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Rich Been and Nick Dougherty review the final-round tussle between Scheffler and Morikawa at the Tour Championship
Scheffler closes out FedExCup success
When Scheffler got that birdie at the second hole on the final day and went seven ahead, I was expecting him to race off into the sunset as he looked like he was swinging so freely. All of a sudden, the mistakes came in and you feared it wasn’t going to be his day again.
He responded to that shank at the eighth with that amazing shot on nine and the three birdies in a row, which basically left it game, set and match from there. It was a little closer than we expected after those early holes, but Scheffler got the job done.
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Scheffler saw his lead reduced during the final round of the Tour Championship after shockingly shanking the ball from the bunker!
Scheffler has got so much resilience and so much fortitude in his game, which was crucial because it wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. Collin Morikawa pushed him all the way, but Scheffler showed us why he is world No 1.
You can also say it’s the nail in the coffin for who the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year is! Make no bones about it, although Xander Schauffele has had an amazing season and those two major wins, it has to be Scheffler now.
Scheffler has won seven times on the PGA Tour in 2024 and also secured gold for Team USA at the Paris Olympics
I look at a lot of those courses Scheffler has won at and think how difficult they were at that time of year. Bay Hill was first up for the Arnold Palmer Invitational and that has always some of the firmest greens on the planet.
He won The Players the next week and again at The Masters, where the greens are always difficult. The weather at the RBC Heritage was atrocious and he has kept winning all season across some of the PGA Tour’s biggest events.
More success to come for Scheffler?
With what I saw of Scheffler at the Tour Championship and how he felt during the week, if he can keep building on this – especially with his putting and the resilience he has been showing – then he could be set for a special career.
It seems a little bit strange to say, but I really feel like he’s got a bit more in the tank to get even better. We used say about Tiger Woods that ‘he’s as good as he’s going to be’, only for him to then keep improving.
Scheffler will have earned over $62m for his efforts on the PGA Tour this season
I genuinely think Scheffler is that type of player right now and he could rule the game of golf for many, many years. I don’t know if his seven wins a year is going to be sustainable, but he’s not showing me much else in his game that’s not there!
He’s not reinventing any kind of wheels out there, he is just playing some really good golf, putting the ball in play and just keeping it simple every single day. His consistency speaks for itself.
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After claiming the FedExCup, Scheffler discusses what helped him succeed at East Lake
Is his play sustainable? Realistically, it’s going to ebb and flow, like any other player on the PGA Tour. Even Woods wasn’t spot on every single year, although his ‘off years’ seemed like they finished with him winning five times.
Will it be seven wins for Scheffler again in 2025? That would be insane. Five wins? Without a doubt, or at least a minimum of three wins next year, is certainly well within reach. You could easily see him being one of the dominant forces for quite some time – he really is that good.
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