ATLANTA — World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler won’t start this week’s Tour Championship with a two-stroke lead on the field, like he did last season before winning his first FedEx Cup.
With the PGA Tour doing away with starting strokes for its season-ending championship, Scheffler will start at even par like the other 29 golfers in the field.
“I guess no more sandbagging for me at the end of the year,” Scheffler joked Wednesday.
“I was not a fan of it,” he added. “I didn’t think it was a good way to end the year, for a variety of reasons. I’m much more happy with this format. I think having a good golf tournament on a really good golf course to finish off our season is extremely important.”
Last year, Scheffler started the Tour Championship at 10-under. He was 20-under on his own over 72 holes and beat two-time major champion Collin Morikawa by four strokes — even though Morikawa was 22-under without starting strokes.
Scheffler suggested having a lead on the field before the tournament started made winning even more difficult.
Before last season’s Tour Championship, Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, told him that he’d been sleeping on a lead since February because he’d led the FedEx Cup points standings the entire season after winning six times before East Lake.
“I was leading the entire year in the FedEx Cup, and it all comes down to a four-day tournament on a golf course that I hadn’t really played great on,” Scheffler said. “It was a challenging week. It was stressful.”
Two years earlier, Scheffler squandered a six-stroke lead in the final round and lost to Rory McIlroy by one stroke at East Lake.
“It just frustrated me,” Scheffler said. “I think it was [former NBA coach] Phil Jackson [who] said, ‘You’re only a success at the time you’re performing a successful act.’ It just irked me so bad finishing off the year where guys were like, ‘Hey, great playing. I’m sorry about how it ended.’
“It’s like, ‘You know what, man? I won the Masters this year, won a few other tournaments. It was a pretty good year.'”
Scheffler has already collected $23 million in bonuses this season. Another $40 million is at stake at East Lake, including $10 million to the winner.
The four-time major champion has won five times in his past 10 starts, including last week’s BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland.
What keeps him motivated to keep winning? Scheffler said showing up every week was something he took away from the only round he ever played with 15-time major champion Tiger Woods.
In the final round of the 2020 Masters, Scheffler played with Woods and Ireland’s Shane Lowry. Woods famously made a 10 on the par-3 12th. He responded with birdies on five of the last six holes to card a 4-over 76.
“It was like, ‘What’s this guy still playing for? He’s won the Masters four or five times,'” Scheffler said. “Best finish he’s going to have is like 20th place at this point.”
Woods ended up tying for 38th at 1-under. Scheffler tied for 19th at 6-under in his Masters debut.
“I just admired the intensity that he brought to each round, and that’s something that I try to emulate,” Scheffler said. “It’s not an easy thing to play a golf tournament. If I’m going to take a week off, I might as well just stay home. I’m not going to come out here to take a week off. If I’m playing in a tournament, I’m going to give it my all. That’s really all it boils down to.”
