Scottie Scheffler capped off the most lucrative PGA Tour season in history on Sunday, winning the Tour Championship for his seventh official PGA Tour win of the year and his first FedEx Cup title.
All told, Scheffler earned $62,228,357 throughout the course of the season, which ran from January through Sept. 1. That total includes $29,228,357 in official tournament winnings, $25 million for winning the FedEx Cup and an $8 million bonus for topping the FedEx Cup points list at the end of the PGA Tour regular season.
Scheffler may well have Rory McIlroy to thank for the eye-popping sum he's won this year.
See, back in February, Scheffler was still visibly struggling with his putting -- a problem that plagued Scheffler in 2023 and rears its head every now and then for the current best tee-to-green player on the planet. At The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, McIlroy went on CBS and spent some time doing commentary with the team, including interviewer Amanda Balionis. It was during this time that McIlroy suggested Scheffler try a different putter.
“I’ve certainly been through my fair share of putting woes over the years, and I finally feel like I’ve broken through and become a pretty consistent putter. For me, going to a mallet was a big change,” McIlroy said on international TV.
Ultimately, he reached the conclusion that Scheffler would be better with a new putter: "So I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet."
At the time, Scheffler was still using a Logan Olson Golf putter he started using at the 2023 Hero World Challenge. However, the next start that Scheffler made was at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando. It was at that tournament that Scheffler made a putter change to a TaylorMade Golf Spider Tour mallet-style putter.
What if Rory McIlroy recommending Scottie go to a mallet on international TV turns out to lead to the greatest heater of Scheffler's life? https://t.co/WYfiu87Zxz
— Ryan Ballengee (@RyanBallengee) March 5, 2024
The mallet-style putter, which he started experimenting with at home after The Genesis, was more forgiving and allowed Scheffler to make a more consistent stroke. The Spider Tour X that Scheffler started using is also a half-inch longer than the putter he had been using, allowing him to address the ball more comfortably.
This wasn't the first time that Scheffler had turned to a mallet-style putter. Scheffler had used mallet putters in certain runs of golf, including a Spider model for part of the 2023 FedEx Cup playoffs. However, the Spider Tour X turned out to be a better fit for Scheffler.
After winning the Tour Championship, Scheffler explained that he felt his putting was improving before the putter switch at Bay Hill -- but that there was no doubt that the change was a big deal.
"I got the hot week at Bay Hill where I was able to kind of improve my putting as the week went on," he said. "I switched to the Spider but it wasn't something immediate, where first day I just made everything. It was one of those deals where I had to give it the full chance because it's different than the putter I've used pretty much my whole life.
"I gave it a good chance that week and was able to improve as the week went on. Had the big finish on Sunday, and then I made a lot of putts this year when I really needed to."
Scheffler looked back at some of the big putts he made over the course of the year that made his incredible year possible.
"I think of the putt to win Memorial. I think of some of the putts I made over the week at The Players and the putts I made on the back nine Sunday at the Olympics," he said. "I made some putts this year when I really needed to, and that's why I'm sitting here with a lot of wins instead of a few.
"Last year I was playing good golf and I wasn't able to make the key putts at the right time, and this year I was. That's really just the difference."
