BREAKING: Officially Scottie Scheffler Cap off record wins the Tour championship ahead of Collin Morikawa… full details below
It’s Scheffler’s seventh PGA TOUR title of 2024 and his eighth win of the year when looping in the men’s Olympic golf competition.
He was the favorite in all of them. Not only did he single-handedly shove aside the early-season narrative of longshots connecting for victories, but he also outpaced the market when considering the totality of his 19 starts.
Including his odds on BetMGM’s pre-tournament board to win the TOUR Championship of just +120, Scheffler’s kickbacks on $100 bets to win in each of the eight victories totaled $3,320. So, had you bet $100 on him to win in all 19 starts, with 11 results that were not wins, your net positive would be $2,220 today. Absurd.
Scottie Scheffler underlined his status as the world’s number one golfer with a dominant victory at the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.
It caps a remarkable 2024 for the American who has won an Olympic gold medal, his second Masters and become the first to land successive Players Championship titles.
He is the first player since Tiger Woods in 2007 to win seven events in a PGA Tour season.
Scheffler, who started the final round with a five-shot lead over Collin Morikawa, shot a four-under 67 to win on 30 under and collect $25m (£19m) of the $100m prize fund.
He was four clear of Morikawa, who hit a 66, with another American, Sahith Theegala, in third on 24 under after a 64.
After so many criticism comments Jon Rahm has been sanctioned and restrict of tittles… full details
After so many criticism comments Jon Rahm has been sanctioned and restrict of tittles… full details
The marquee former Masters and U.S. Open champ was one of the headline-grabbing signings for the nascent Saudi circuit during this offseason but hasn’t quite hit the heights of his former world No. 1 status from 2023. It was rumoured that the Spanish golfer longed for a return to the PGA Tour and would hand back the cash received from the Saudi Public Investment Fund if possible.
“There’s zero validity to what any of that said,” Rahm emphatically told the New York Post. “I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know why they feel the need to say that some of us are unhappy when we’re not. It’s one of the things that frustrates me a little bit, the fact that they can claim that there’s a source and there’s zero truth to it.”
The speculation seemed to stem from a detailed account in Golf Digest+ magazine regarding Rahm’s controversial switch to LIV Golf, mentioning a “veteran tour insider” who felt “100 percent confident” that Rahm would dash back to the PGA Tour if he could. The article written by Diaz underscored a seeming disinterest in shaping a significant golfing legacy, something all the more striking for Rahm, whose passion for the game had won him a multitude of fans during his time with the PGA Tour.
Hailing from Spain’s Basque country, Jon Rahm made waves in the US after joining Arizona State in 2012. He clinched an impressive 11 collegiate tournaments over four years and became the first to win the Ben Hogan Award twice, which honours the best NCAA golfer. Turning pro after his senior year, Rahm made his debut at the 2016 Quicken Loans National and bagged his first PGA Tour win in San Diego the next year.
The marquee former Masters and U.S. Open champ was one of the headline-grabbing signings for the nascent Saudi circuit during this offseason but hasn’t quite hit the heights of his former world No. 1 status from 2023. It was rumoured that the Spanish golfer longed for a return to the PGA Tour and would hand back the cash received from the Saudi Public Investment Fund if possible.
By 2023, Rahm had already carved out a significant place in golf history, triumphing over Brooks Koepka by four strokes at Augusta to claim his second major tournament win, although he just missed out at the British Open later that year. Reigning as world No. 1 for an impressive 52 weeks, Rahm also spoke out as several golfers defected to LIV Golf.
Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka mocked by golf legend in brutal dig at LIV Golf
Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka mocked by golf legend in brutal dig at LIV Golf
Nick Faldo has been a vocal critic of both the LIV Golf and Saudi Golf Leagues and has claimed that the professional game is struggling due to the formation of the breakaway tours
Nick Faldo took a cheeky jab at LIV Golf for their dismal TV ratings, while also attributing the decline in interest in men’s professional golf to the new Saudi-backed series.
While hosting the Betfred British Masters at The Belfry, a venue steeped in his own personal history, the European golf legend reaffirmed his allegiance to the DP World Tour and PGA Tour amidst the sport’s recent schism, maintaining his critical view of the LIV league.
He underscored the league’s failure to captivate the home audience, remarking, “I think they [LIV] are an island and go and do their own thing,” and added, “That’s absolutely fine with me, go and play their tour.
“And I think we are now seeing that, wow, they’ve had three seasons, and they haven’t made much impact on the [viewing] numbers. Quite amusingly, pickleball was bigger than their two stars [Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm] in a play-off.”
Faldo couldn’t help but find humor in the fact that pickleball outperformed LIV Golf’s playoff featuring big names like Koepka and Rahm in terms of viewership.
He concluded with a pointed observation: “The sort of excitement everyone wants. But it got beat for viewership by pickleball. “I think bottom line is that the players have got the last laugh because they are being rewarded so much either through the size of the prize money or appearance fees and they are not moving the needle.”
LIV isn’t the only golf circuit struggling to pull in viewers. The PGA Tour has also seen a decline in its audience, with recent data showing a 30 percent drop in viewing figures for this month’s opening FedEx Cup playoff, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, compared to last year.
According to Faldo, LIV’s financial impact is the culprit. “It’s been so damaging to the public’s attitude to golf. I still talk to my producer friends in TV and people are just not watching [it]. It’s hurt the attitude towards golf.
Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus ‘involved’ in controversial golf venture
Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus ‘involved’ in controversial golf venture
Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus are widely regarded as the greatest players in golf history, but the pair are being dragged into a controversial venture to build courses in Florida
Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus are set to get caught up in a controversial golf venture for courses designed by the legendary duo to be added to Florida national parks.
Woods and Nicklaus are widely regarded as the two greatest players in golf history. The pair have won the most majors in history, with Nicklaus’ 18 edging out Woods’ 15 for the all-time lead.
Given the duo are the most famous athletes in the sport’s history, they often get asked to be part of golf ventures around the world. The plan in Florida has sensationally received backlash from both Democratic and Republican politicians.
On Friday, NBC News revealed that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been heavily criticized recently for an ambitious proposal to put golf courses in state parks. The golf course implementation proposal is one of the notable changes to nine state parks, with pickleball courts and new lodges among other additions.
But the addition of golf courses has received widespread opposition from around the state, with DeSantis taking heat for the plan. This comes even after his office tried to distance him by claiming he never “approved” the plans.
As a result of the negative reaction, the proposal to build courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Southeast Florida is now on hold. However, if the idea had received state backing, both Woods and Nicklaus would have reportedly been involved in course design.