[PHOTO: Alex Slitz]
Scottie Scheffler, the leader in the FedEx Cup standings heading into this week’s Tour Championship on the PGA Tour, holds a 3,769-point advantage over No.2 Rory McIlroy after winning the BMW Championship yesterday. To put that into context, that’s more than double the number of points McIlroy has earned all year.
And yet that huge lead will mean nothing at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club, as Scheffler is set to start the season finale at even-par, the same as the other 29 golfers in the field. In May, the PGA Tour Policy Board made the decision to let everybody playing in the season finale have the same chance of winning the tournament, claiming the FedEx Cup title and cashing a $US10 million first-place prizemoney payout.
It was a decision that Scheffler was in agreement with, having said on numerous occasions that he didn’t like the previous format where the leader in points entering the Tour Championship got to start the tournament at 10-under-par.
But it was one made with a very important trade-off. While the finish at East Lake determines for history where a player falls in the final FedEx Cup points standings for 2025, it won’t decide how much every player gets from the $US100 million FedEx Cup bonus pool. Instead, the PGA Tour rebalanced the bonus distributions, handing out various amounts at the end of the PGA Tour regular season and after last week’s BMW Championship.
Since Scheffler was No.1 in points entering the FedEx Cup Playoffs, he earned $US10 million. And by being No.1 again after the BMW, he cashed in another $US5 million. If he can win the Tour Championship, he’ll then earn the remaining $10 million of the $25 million previously distributed to the FedEx Cup champion.
Here’s how the FedEx Cup bonus money has been handed out so far (all in US dollars):
Scottie Scheffler, $15,000,000
Rory McIlroy, $7,500,000
J.J. Spaun, $3,195,000
Tommy Fleetwood, $2,000,000
Justin Rose, $1,800,000
Ben Griffin, $1,500,000
Sepp Straka, $1,785,000
Russell Henley, $1,700,000
Justin Thomas, $1,165,000
Harris English, $1,030,000
Keegan Bradley, $790,000
Robert MacIntyre, $550,000
Maverick McNealy, $515,000
Cameron Young, $350,000
Ludvig Aberg, $335,000
Andrew Novak, $325,000
Sam Burns, $285,000
Brian Harman, $280,000
Corey Conners, $275,000
Patrick Cantlay, $270,000
Collin Morikawa, $240,000
Viktor Hovland, $235,000
Hideki Matsuyama, $230,000
Shane Lowry, $225,000
Nick Taylor, $220,000
Harry Hall, $215,000
Jacob Bridgeman, $210,000
Sungjae Im, $205,000
Chris Gotterup, $205,000
Akshay Bhatia, $195,000
Meanwhile, here’s the prizemoney payouts (in US dollars) for each player at this week’s Tour Championship (note this will be considered as official tournament prizemoney earned and will count towards the all-time moneylist).
Win: $10,000,000
2: $5,000,000
3: $3,705,000
4: $3,200,000
5: $2,750,000
6: $1,900,000
7: $1,400,000
8: $1,065,000
9: $900,000
10: $735,000
11: $695,000
12: $660,000
13: $625,000
14: $590,000
15: $560,000
16: $505,000
17: $490,000
18: $475,000
19: $460,000
20: $445,000
21: $430,000
22: $415,000
23: $400,000
24: $390,000
25: $380,000
26: $375,000
27: $370,000
28: $365,000
29: $360,000
30: $355,000
