But that wasn’t the only rare air that Scheffler joined with his victory at PGA West.
In cashing the $1.656 million winner’s check, Scheffler’s career earnings on the PGA Tour eclipsed the $100 million mark, joining Woods and McIlroy as the only members of the PGA Tour’s nine-figure club. Scheffler has now officially earned $101,109,136.
Here’s the top five on the PGA Tour’s all-time money list:
1. Tiger Woods: $120,999,166
2. Rory McIlroy: $107,981,766
3. Scottie Scheffler: $101,109,136
4. Phil Mickelson: $96,727,968
5. Dustin Johnson: $75,695,066
Of course, joining that elite company barely registered with Scheffler, who was already focusing on what comes next by the time he started to answer questions about his new place in PGA Tour history.
“It’s pretty wild,” Scheffler told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis after the round. “It has been a great start to my career. Some nice wins out here. It has been special. I try not to think about that stuff too much. I was just trying to do the things I need to do in order to be prepared to come out and play this week. I’m going to go home and rinse and repeat. You know, my next start will be in Phoenix. Just go from there.”
It was Scheffler’s fourth win in his last seven starts, dating back to his win at the Open Championship.
Since Scheffler dominated the field at Royal Portrush, he has lost to a grand total of eight golfers. He has gone Win-T3-Win-T4-Win-T4-Win.
While Scheffler might be able to shrug off a dominant run that has seen him win 40 percent of his last 35 starts, per Justin Ray, his competitors see it for what it is — relentless greatness.
“I mean, just the patience and not only the belief that he has in his game, but the ability to be able to shake off all the distractions around him,” former World No. 1 Jason Day, who finished T2 at the American Express, said. “To be able to get on to the golf course and play the way he does.
“Very unorthodox in the way that he swings the club, and it’s not like we’re looking at Tiger, but he’s putting up Tiger-ish numbers, even though Tiger was, you know, obviously the GOAT. Every time he tees it up, he’s right around the lead. And that is one of the most difficult things to do, to always stay hungry to the point of not being satisfied. Because it’s very easy to get satisfied out here. You win a couple of times, you’re like, well, I’m kind of relaxed and I can coast for a little bit. And it seems like he never wants to relax. He always does his work, needs to do whatever he needs to do to be able to prepare, and he’s always around the lead. And that’s a very, very difficult thing to do with how many distractions there can be, especially at No. 1.”
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