Scheffler back to his dominant self, opens PGA Tour post-season with 8-shot win

That shrunk his lead to one shot over Sungjae Im. Then Scheffler made consecutive birdie putts on the fifth and sixth holes and was on his way.

He finished at 17-under 263, eight shots clear of his Dallas neighbour Si Woo Kim, who closed with a 68 to finish eight shots behind. The previous record was John Cook winning at TPC Southwind by seven shots in 1996.

Scheffler now has 21 career victories on the PGA Tour, 10 of them by four shots or more.

Sam Burns, one of Scheffler’s best friends in golf, played with him in the final group and took double bogey on the par-5 third hole. He shot 73 and tied for third with Alex Noren (69).

“I don’t think it would have mattered if I played well,” Burns said. “He was going to be tough to beat today.”

Scheffler won US$3.6 million from the prize fund, and he clinched an additional US$23 million in bonus money for being No. 1 in the FedEx Cup through next week’s BMW Championship. No one can catch him. No one is particularly close in the game at the moment, even when he’s not piling up trophies.

Scheffler now has two victories, five runner-up finishes and five other top 4s in another stellar year that until Sunday was marked by his lack of winning compared with previous years. The TPC Southwind was the course he had played the most times without winning, and the FedEx Cup playoffs opener had been the only post-season tournament he had yet to win. All that changed.

Im wound up with a 75 to tie for fifth, but it was enough for the South Korean to move from No. 53 into the top 50 who advance to the BMW Championship next week in St. Louis. Im kept alive his chances of reaching the Tour Championship every year since he was a rookie in 2019.

Im bumped out Keith Mitchell, who stood in the water left of the 18th fairway to play a shot from the bank as he tried to give himself his best chance. That shot tumbled into the water, he made bogey and narrowly missed out.

So did Jordan Spieth, who needed to close with four pars to reach the BMW Championship for the first time since 2023, and finished with a bogey from the water on No. 15 and three pars for a 70.

Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., finished in a three-way tie for 39th at even par. Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., and Sudarshan Yellamaraju of Mississauga, Ont., finished in a five-way tie for 47th at 2 over.

The top 50 who advance also are assured of playing all the $20 million signature events next year.

Scheffler put himself squarely in the mix for a fifth straight PGA Tour player of the year during a season in which no one has stood out based on titles alone. The body of work has been impressive, and Scheffler still has two tournaments remaining.

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See AP’s full golf coverage here

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Scheffler back to his dominant self, opens PGA Tour post-season with 8-shot win

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