ATLANTA, GEORGIA | Scottie Scheffler crowned his 2024 season in the only proper way it could have ended: with a FedEx Cup title as the PGA Tour’s best player of the year. The first player since Tiger Woods in 2007 to win seven PGA Tour events in a season, Scheffler didn’t do anything small. He won a major (Masters), near-major (Players), gold medal (Olympics), four signature events (Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Memorial Tournament, and Travelers Championship) and a season-long race (Tour Championship). His wife (Meredith) had their first baby (Bennett), and he even fought the law (Louisville) – and the law lost, of course. Scheffler was such a dominant player that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan felt compelled to say last week: “Amazingly, Scottie isn’t the only story.”
Scheffler’s unqualified excellence this season overwhelmed a lot of other narratives. One in particular is the undeniable two-sided nature of the PGA Tour in the signature-event era. Monahan claims the full-field events “had stronger fields,” but the results don’t illustrate that view. Only eight players collected all 16 signature/significant/playoff/major victories, and only two weren’t ranked in the top 50 when they won (No. 52 Chris Kirk at Sentry and No. 55 Hideki Matsuyama at Genesis Invitational). Of the 22 individual full-field events, only two of the 20 winners were ranked in the top 50 (No. 44 Robert MacIntyre in the Scottish Open and No. 48 Aaron Rai at Wyndham), and MacIntyre climbed into the top 50 only after winning the RBC Canadian a month earlier at No. 76. Not saying any of that’s bad; it’s just revealing.
Some postseason grades for the calendar season:
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Scottie Scheffler. This really isn’t open for debate. Scheffler’s competition-related earnings in 2024 (including FedEx Cup and Comcast Business Top 10 bonuses) exceed $62 million. Not bad for a new dad who spent a few hours in jail this season.
MAJOR POY: Xander Schauffele. Any other year, his two major victories might have been a slam-dunk POY choice. Wins at the PGA and Open Championships have been a long time coming for a player who always seemed destined to win on the biggest stages. His “arrival” was impressive as Schauffele has put in the work to get better in every aspect of his game. He has emerged as the biggest rival to Scheffler for years to come.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Nick Dunlap. With apologies to Matthieu Pavon and his exceptional season that includes winning at Torrey Pines and contending at Augusta and Pinehurst, the 31-year-old Frenchman doesn’t feel very rookie-ish after seven seasons on the Euro tour. Dunlap, 20, started the year as a collegian, became the first amateur to win on tour (The American Express) since Phil Mickelson in 1991 and in July at the Barracuda became the first player to win as an amateur and pro in the same tour season. Had he received FedEx Cup points for his triumph in Palm Springs, he’d have easily qualified for the Tour Championship. I know whose futures I’m buying.
COMEBACK POY: Keegan Bradley. This might seem out of place since Bradley won twice in the previous wraparound season and started 2024 ranked 16th in the world, but his last 12 months have been an emotional rollercoaster. Left off the 2023 Ryder Cup team (RETRO BOGEY: Zach Johnson), the snubbing was painfully chronicled and his disappointment laid bare on the Netflix “Full Swing” series. A year later, he’s the chosen U.S. Ryder Cup captain, a playoff winner after barely advancing, a Presidents Cup candidate and potentially the first RC playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963. Talk about a full swing.
AMATEUR OF THE YEAR: Luke Clanton. While it was Dunlap who became the first amateur to win a tour event in more than three decades, he yielded his amateur status three weeks into January. Clanton, the Florida State junior, had one heck of a summer spree mixing with the pros, finishing runner-up at the John Deere, fifth at the Wyndham, T10 at Rocket Mortgage and lipped out sharing low amateur at the U.S. Open. His efforts lifted him to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and earned him 14 points in the PGA Tour University Accelerated program, leaving him needing just six more points to earn a full PGA Tour card when he’s ready to transition.
CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR: Bryson DeChambeau. He played only the four majors, but his win at the U.S. Open, runner-up at the PGA and early lead before a T6 at the Masters contributed to the most engaging competition of the season. His $6.993 million would have ranked ninth on the PGA Tour money list. The 1,412.5 FedEx Cup points he didn’t receive in those three events would have ranked 21st at the end of the regular season. Get a deal done already.
TOUR EVENT OF THE YEAR: Players Championship. Outside of the majors (PGA and U.S. Open in particular), the most compelling drama came in the tour’s flagship event. Three players – Brian Harman, Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark – came to the 72nd green with a chance to catch Scheffler’s clubhouse mark. Harman and Clark had the best looks at birdie – and Clark’s was halfway in the cup before cruelly horseshoeing out. That left Scheffler as the first repeat winner in the event’s 50-year history.
BIRDIE: Robert MacIntyre. There were six multiple tour winners this season. The Scotsman from Oban, despite suffering homesickness on the PGA Tour, pulled off an impressive double by winning the Canadian and Scottish Opens – the first with his father carrying his bag and the second with the hopes of a thirsty home nation on his own shoulders. He can afford to commute now.
BOGEY: Transaction Committee. Whatever (or whomever?) is the holdup in negotiations to forge some kind of deal to reunify the top of the men’s game, it is depriving golf fans of what they really want to see: the best players competing more often than just four times a year. The stalemate on getting a deal done seems increasingly likely to drive Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund elsewhere to invest its wealth in golf – potentially even turning the European tour from strategic ally into a legit rival of the PGA Tour with deeper links to LIV. That may actually be good for golf but not the PGA Tour.
BIRDIE: Money list. When the PGA Tour established its FedEx Cup points system in 2007, it banished the money list from being a determining factor for qualifying to play the Tour Championship and all the perks (such as a Masters invite) that came along with that. Turns out money earned is a pretty effective measuring stick. Brian Harman ($5.138 million, 20th) is the only player in the top 30 on the money list who didn’t qualify for East Lake, nudged out by Justin Thomas ($4.475 million, 32nd) for the 30th spot.
BOGEY: Ratings. In general, TV viewership across the golf board has cratered – even for the tour’s marquee signature events. While there are myriad reasons for the decline, one the tour seems unwilling to consider is limited-field events just aren’t as interesting even when many of the participants are household names. The best golf always is when there’s more depth to the story and the competition has higher stakes than just a big pile of guaranteed money. See the majors.
BIRDIE: DP World Tour 10. The first class of Euro circuit players to take up PGA Tour cards proved to be stronger on average than Korn Ferry Tour grads. Two of them (MacIntyre and Pavon) combined to win three tour events and reached East Lake, and Victor Perez qualified for the playoffs. Three more (Ryo Hisatsune, Sami Välimäki and Ryan Fox) are inside the top 125 and in position to retain their tour cards. One (Adrian Meronk) left for LIV. The 30 KFT grads also notched three wins (Grayson Murray, Jake Knapp, and Chris Gotterup) but placed…
