Tour stars doubt Scottie Scheffler’s FedEx Cup waltz stop

World number 1 Scottie Scheffler has been the best golfer on the planet and the favorite to win the FedEx Cup all season. Through two rounds in Championship tournament that hasn’t changed, and the rest of the PGA Tour’s best are starting to sound the alarm about their chances of stopping him… unless they’re getting their white flags ready to wave.

To recap how we got here, Scheffler accomplished a stretch of golf history in the first half of 2024, winning six PGA Tour events including his second Masters title. If not for his The strange arrest at the PGA Championshiphe may have earned more.

It seemed like no other player could touch him and the FedEx Cup was his to lose. But then Xander Schauffele went and won two majors, the PGA and most recently the Open, to suddenly make Player of the Year and FedEx Cup titles.

Would Scheffler once again fall short of winning the Cup after an early-season blowout, as has happened in the past?

Scheffler shut the door on that theory quickly with a dramatic gold medal win at the Olympics in August. But still, with the start of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, some people wondered if Schauffele could still win the Cup and Player of the Year with a playoff fee.

Going into this week’s tournament championship, Scheffler was still in first, which gave him one initial score of 10 under. Beating the best player in the world when hitting him seemed like a tall order for any player, including Schauffele.

After Scheffler hit East Lake in the opening round for the best round of the day to extend his lead from two shots to seven, all hope seemed to be gone for the other players in the field.

Even after his lead shrunk a bit on Friday, the rest of the best looked doubtful anyone could catch him.

“He’s the best golfer on the planet. He’s really good with directions,” pro Sam Burns said after the second round at East Lake. “It’s not a big deal to us.”

Burns started the tournament four shots under, six shots behind Scheffler. Despite impressive rounds of 67 and 68 to start the tournament, he finds himself 10 shots back at the halfway mark.

He Burns was honest about the chances of Scheffler loosening his grip on the lead.

“I don’t expect him to come back in any way. Somebody’s going to have to go after him,” Burns said Friday. “I think if you drive the ball well here, get yourself in position enough and have a good day with the irons and make some shots, I think you should have a low score. When you put the ball out of position on this golf course, especially on the harder greens, it makes it pretty tough.”

Wyndham Clarkethe 2023 US Open champion offered a similar perspective, saying: “It’s going to be very difficult to achieve it. He wouldn’t have to play his best and I would have to play unbelievable.”

Collin Morikawa actually beat Scheffler on Friday by three strokes. But he’s still four shots off the pace heading into Round 3. Asked if it helped being in the final pairing with Scheffler, Morikawa said only “a little bit.”

“He’s such a good player that you know he’s going to keep going low and make birdies,” Morikawa said Friday night. “I saw it first hand. I’ve seen it for years.”

Schauffele, the only man with a chance to steal POY honors from the world No. 1, also made it clear that the tournament is in Scottie’s hands.

“It’s really up to him, to be honest. I have to play by my *beep* to smell,” Schauffele joked. “Being two behind and then shooting one under yesterday and he shot during the day, it’s just not the start I needed. A sense of urgency today to try and get some.”

But it’s not all bad news for the many players trying to follow Scheffler to East Lake. The FedEx 2024 winner gets just $25 million of that Bonus pool of 100 million dollarsmeaning there’s still $75 million up for grabs, even if a win looks increasingly unlikely, as Clark acknowledged.

“There are still a lot of big things to finish second, third or fourth, or even fifth.”

Kevin Cunningham

Editor of Golf.com

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A two-time former intern, he also helps make GOLF.com sound outside of the stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the technology team on developing new products and innovative ways to deliver engaging engagement. site for our audience.