The past eight months in Scottie Scheffler's career have been curious to say the least. Scheffler hasn't quite hit the heights of the past few years, but nevertheless he's still won twice on the PGA Tour and leads the Official Money rankings by a very long way.

The runaway World No.1 also leads several other statistical categories on the PGA Tour such as Strokes Gained: Total, Scoring Average (adjusted/actual) and Greens In Regulation percentage.

All that is to say he remains the best male golfer on the planet and is being richly compensated for being so.

Scheffler banked more than $50 million in 2025, all told, thanks in part to a couple more Major victories and four further PGA Tour triumphs.

And his earnings enjoyed another boost following his competitive debut in 2026. At The American Express in California, Scheffler surged to success and picked up $1.656 million.

Top-five finishes at the WM Phoenix Open and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am thereafter added just over $1.3 million in total as well before a check for $415,000 at the Genesis Invitational helped the four-time Major champion reach nearly $3.4 million in four starts through February.

A pretty underwhelming March saw the father of two fail to break the top-20 at Bay Hill or TPC Sawgrass, but Scheffler responded in kind courtesy of three runner-up finishes in succession at The Masters, the RBC Heritage and the Cadillac Championship.

That run of near-misses earned him $6.75 million, however, with Scheffler's total pay for the year exceeding $10 million.

Scheffler's next five events featured three top-fives without a win and a worst finish of T14th at the PGA Championship, with a handful of six-figure checks boosting his coffers.

The 30-year-old's biggest payday during that time ($2.16 million) arrived at the Travelers Championship after a Monday playoff defeat to Viktor Hovland.

Following a rare and surprising missed cut at the Genesis Scottish Open, Scheffler bounced back admirably with a solid defence of his Open Championship title at Royal Birkdale. His T4th finish led to a payout of $827,500.

Having returned to the United States ahead of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Scheffler warmed back up with a fifth runner-up finish of the season at the 3M Open before a second win at the FedEx St Jude Championship.

Between The Open and first event in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Scheffler secured just under $5.4 million.

And with a check for $426,500 in his back pocket at the BMW Championship, Scheffler's Official Money tally dipped over the $20 million mark - some $6.5 million clear of Cameron Young in second place.

If that wasn't enough, Scheffler then banked a cool $23 million for topping the FedEx Cup points list ahead of the Tour Championship. He had already scooped a $10 million bonus for sitting in first place ahead of the Playoffs, too.

All told, Scheffler has earned more than $53 million in prize money during 2026 so far. Plenty of that will end up being taxed, but the World No.1 will also receive a great deal of further income from sponsorships and endorsements, so his eventual actual earnings total could vary significantly.

Below is a full breakdown of Scheffler's results and earnings by event this season.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER EARNINGS 2026

While Rory McIlroy was rather disparaging about what value LIV Golf players would bring to the PGA Tour, Scottie Scheffler says there's "a few players that are really good" who should be welcomed back.

The World No.1 does add that there should be penalties for any LIV Golf stars returning to the PGA Tour, but insisted some top guys "would provide a lot of value to the Tour" should they come back.

LIV Golf has a new potential investor lined up, but CEO Scott O'Neil has amitted he's on a deadline to try and get enough top players signed up to ensure the deal goes through.

There's plenty of specualtion about the future of top players, especially Jon Rahm with rumors of him seeking a PGA Tour return, so the topic of players returning is again a hot one.

McIlroy questioned whether LIV golfers added any value to their own tour, while warning the likes of Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau that it'd be a tough road back to the PGA Tour.

But Scheffler can see quality in the likes of Rahm, DeChambeau, and possibly players such as Tyrrell Hatton and Joaquin Niemann among others - and also would like the chance to compete aginst them again more regularly.

"When we talk about the best players, LIV has a few players that are really good," Scheffler said at the BMW Championship

"I think the depth that we have on our Tour is bit unmatched, but I think when you look at the higher levels of LIV Golf there's definitely some players that would provide a lot of value to the Tour, and guys that I love competing against as well.

"So I think going forward there obviously has to be, I think, some sort of penalties. What those are, I'll let Rolapp and all those guys figure it out. We have great leadership within the Tour now.

"But I think having those guys come back and competing with whatever happens with LIV, whether those guys want to leave, I mean, you got to ask them.

"But I think for me being able to compete against the best players in the world there's certainly some guys on that Tour that can compete out here and I look forward to the chance to compete with them more often."

The best players competing more often is a theme for many about how golf should move forward, and that's what Scheffler expects from the PGA Tour changes coming from 2028 onwards.

"I like the direction that the Tour's heading," he added. "Getting the best players competing against each other more often is I think what everybody wants.

"For us as players, that's what we want. I assume that you guys in the media, that's what you'd want to see. I assume that's what the fans want as well. I assume that's the direction that we're heading.

"Making things a bit simpler in terms of who is going to be at what tournament at what time. Golf has always been a difficult game to rank when you're not playing head-to-head, and so getting the best players playing head-to-head more often than not, in a proper golf tournament, I think is the best way to do things."

Scheffler closing in on Tiger Woods record

After Scheffler's impressive victory at the FedEx St Jude Championship last week, he's now closing in on overhauling Tiger Woods at the top of the PGA Tour's career money list.

Obviously, the huge increase in prize money has had a massive part to play, but it will still be a landmark event as Woods has held the title for over a quarter of a century.

Currently just over $1m behind Woods, a top-two finish at the BMW Championship will put Scheffler in first place but regardless he'll soon be the biggest earner in PGA Tour history.

"I mean, that has a lot to do with the purses and all that. I'm not really too close to him in terms of career wins," said Scheffler, playing down the impending achievement.

"What, am I like a fourth of the way there? Something like that. No, I mean, Tiger did a lot for the game of golf and he put us in a position where we're able to earn some pretty good stuff financially, so that's something we're very grateful for.

"Tiger's contributions to the game, when you look at where the purses were at before he came out on Tour to where they're at now is a pretty stark difference and we're very thankful for his contributions to the game and hopefully we'll see him back out here competing again soon."

Scottie Scheffler has switched into the TaylorMade Qi4D driver at this week's FedEx St Jude Championship.

The World No.1 has previously put the 2026 club in the bag this year but he has overall remained loyal to his trusty Qi10 model that was released in 2024.

Scheffler found just 4/14 fairways in his opening round of 68 (-2), ranking 66th out of 69 players for driving accuracy. He did manage an average of more than 317 yards and ranked 10th in Strokes Gained: Off the tee to gain 1.057 shots.

It's the third time he has put the Qi4D into play during competition, having first used it at the Hero World Challenge in December and then again at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.

After going back to the Qi10, which he has used for the entire season since, he explained the new model was not fading in the way his Qi10 would.

"I've seen some improvements in the new driver; like my spin is much more consistent. It's actually a touch faster than my driver," Scheffler said in March.

"But the way I play, I always hit so many different types of shots and the one last week felt like it was going a little left on me, and when I want to hit my peeler a lot of times I would hit it out of the middle of the face it would start drawing on me."

Scheffler ranks 3rd in Strokes Gained: Tee to green on the PGA Tour this year, averaging 0.661 per round. He has averaged 311 yards, which ranks him 46th.

In a move that marks a significant shift in the modern golf equipment landscape, TaylorMade will not be releasing a new driver until 2027, having switched from a 12-month product cycle in its metalwood franchise to a two-year launch cycle.

It means Scheffler has plenty of time to dial in his new driver and we may well see him use it throughout the entire 2027 campaign.

The Qi4D range has had big success on tour this year, with the likes of Rory McIlroy, Nelly Korda, Tommy Fleetwood, Charley Hull and Collin Morikawa all using it.

McIlroy won The Masters with the driver in the bag and it has had five PGA Tour wins this year, three with the Qi4D Core and two with the Qi4D LS.

Gary Player has called on Scottie Scheffler to add more international events to his schedule following the World No.1 recently admitting his desire to play in Australia and New Zealand.

Scheffler is closing out his 2026 season after just two international tournaments so far from 17 starts, with the Scottish Open and The Open the only events outside of America.

He will likely play in The Bahamas at the Hero World Challenge to make it three of a potential 21 tournaments outside of the USA.

Asked whether the World No.1 should travel more, nine-time Major winner Gary Player said yes.

"Scottie Scheffler is without a doubt the best player in the world today, and what I admire about Scottie Scheffler is that he’s very much a family man. And your family is so vitally important," Player said.

"I was deprived of that because I had to travel away from my family from South Africa. At least he’s lucky he lives in America, he finishes a tournament, most of these guys have their own jets, they’re back home on Sunday night and they can see them.

"But I would like to see Scottie Scheffler, who’s such a wonderful golfer and such a nice man, to travel and promote golf internationally more than he does because we have a debt incurred.

"Golf has done so much for us and if Scottie would travel and play just a little more, I would say five tournaments a year like Nicklaus did, like Palmer did, like Sam Snead did, like Trevino did, like Tom Watson.

"I think he eventually will. I think at the moment he’s so intent on setting as many records in America and I’ll follow him with great interest."

The comments come after Scheffler recently said a more international schedule would "definitely" interest him.

The PGA Tour's new Championship Series will run from February to August in 2028, and the tour will partner with the DP World Tour and other global circuits to promote events like the Australian Open.

The fall has some of the biggest international events like the Australian Open as well as the BMW PGA Championship, French Open, Dunhill Links Championship and the DP World Tour Play-Offs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

"It definitely interests me. I'd like to see how it shapes out the next couple of years. There's a lot of places I think I'd like to play," Scheffler said this summer.

"There's always just, you know, the time and the place for me. I'm at a time in my life where I have a young family at home and young kids. The fall is a special time for our family. It's where we can really check out and be together, and I get to spend a lot of time with my kids. So I hold those moments pretty sacred.

"But at the same time I love golf and I would love to be able to play more internationally. Like Australia, New Zealand is a place we would love to be able to go to. My wife as always wanted to go to New Zealand.

"But like I said, I love this style of golf [links], and I feel like it's pretty unique to here. But going to play the Sandbelt in Australia would be pretty special as well.

"Hopefully I can find the time. It's definitely an intriguing part of the schedule and yeah, it definitely interests me, as well."

While stating that he would love to travel, Scheffler admitted his home country is where the largest audience is and conceded that it's a tough time for him to incorporate a more international schedule with a young family.

"The United States is a hub for sports, and I think that's why you see so many professional sports like the NBA and the NFL have an audience that reaches worldwide," he said.

"I definitely have a desire to travel the world and play golf, but with a young family, I'm not really in a spot right now where that is very easy for us to do.

"Coming over here for a few weeks with the time change and a two year old can be exciting, and we have a structured season now in which we compete in.

"It can be challenging to make it across the world to play. But it's something that I'll look forward to in the future."

How many international events does Scheffler play?

Scheffler's most international season to-date was his first as a pro, when he played in countries like The Bahamaas, Colombia, Panama and Mexico in his rookie year on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Since then, he has played in the Scottish Open, The Open, the Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas and occasionally one tournament in Mexico.

He also competed in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where he won gold, but he tends to only play twice in Europe each season and has never teed it up in Asia or Australasia.

Two of the other biggest global stars in the game, Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, travel far more than the World No.1.

McIlroy played in the UAE, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, India and Australia last year, while DeChambeau competed in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, Korea, Spain and the UK as part of his LIV Golf contracted events as well as India on the Asian Tour.

Scheffler is not contracted to play in LIV events so it's unrealistic he will play as many international tournaments as DeChambeau, who remains suspended by the PGA Tour, while McIlroy is a European who holds membership on the PGA and DP World Tours concurrently.

It would be great to see Scheffler play more outside of the US, and it certainly sounds like it's a real possibility in the coming years.

Jordan Spieth was a surprise name in the field for the 3M Open when he was announced just a couple of weeks before the tournament with a big fanfare, so his withdrawal was as surprising as it was disappointing for organisers.

Spieth was announced as the other big name in the field at TPC Twin Cities alongside Scottie Scheffler, but when the field list was published last Friday Spieth's name was not on it.

The 3M Open has had a few withdrawals with Jason Day injured and Open champion Ryan Fox taking the week off, while headliner Spieth's absence was the biggest blow.

And World No.1 Scheffler, a good friend who lives near him in Texas, says the reason for Spieth now skipping the trip to Minnesota is the mental grind of his struggling form.

Spieth is down in 55th in the FedEx Cup standings, just outside the crucial top 50, after a bitterly disappointing Open Championship - where he missed the cut after shooting 10 over par for the first two days on his return to Royal Birkdale.

And Scheffler says that the mental aspect of Spieth struggling to find any form has taken its toll, meaning he just needed a week off before trying to make a late run for the playoffs.

"I haven't spoken to him since after The Open, but Jordan's played a lot of tournaments this year, a lot more I think than maybe he normally has," Scheffler said at TPC Twin Cities.

"Golf is tough in terms of I think mentally it's more of a grind than anything. Physically it can wear you down as well, but mentally it can be challenging just from I think just the grind it is in order to play a tournament.

"He's played a lot of tournaments this year, so from my point of view it's understanding for him to maybe need a week off especially as he tries to grind and make his way into the top-50 to get back into the bigger events next year."

Spieth's first target is to remain in the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings in order to make the first playoff event - the FedEx St Jude Championship - with just two tournaments remaining after the 3M Open.

Only the Rocket Classic and Wyndham Championship now remain for Spieth to rescue a season of frustration, he feels his best stuff is close but he's failed to even land a single top 10 this year.

The frustration is obvious, and Scheffler knows about it firsthand as he practices with Spieth back in Texas, and sees how hard he's been working behind the scenes.

"We play a lot of golf at home and he works super, super hard," said Scheffler. "I'm sure he's bummed not to be here this week, but like I said, he's worked really hard this season and played a lot of tournaments.

"So I'm sure he wishes he could be here, but rest and time at home is also important as you try and play good golf."

Spieth faces a fight to try and make the top 50 in the FedEx Cup, which brings with it access to all the big events on a changing PGA Tour next season - but his puzzling continued struggles don't show too many signs of improving.

After the saga and the drama of the Open Championship it's back to regular PGA Tour action at the 3M Open in Minnesota.

It's a relatively new event at TPC Twin Cities with just seven previous events and some decent low scoring - Kurt Kitayama shoot 60 last year along the way to winning on 23 under.

Adam Svensson also stuck in a 60 last year while Lee Hodges shot 24 under to win in 2023, but although low scores are out there it's not always a full-on birdie fest as Cameron Champ won on 15 under while Jhonattan Vegas and Tony Finau both hit 17 under in their victories.

Scottie Scheffler is making his tournament debut as the red-hot favorite, with the bookies seeing this as a gimme for the World No.1 as the runaway +250 (5/2) market leader.

Scheffler should stroll to victory

Scheffler will see this as a fantastic opportunity to grab his first win since January - coming off a fourth place at Royal Birkdale when only the putter let him down.

Trends at the 3M Open point to driving accuracy and also more importantly approach play being key for success, and Scheffler's not only head and shoulders above the rest of this field but also the best in the world with an iron in hand.

Scheffler missed his first cut in four years in Scotland and has to make the trans-Atlantic trip back from The Open after a frustrating Sunday, but they're not big enough negatives to suggest he won't stroll to victory a week later.

Scheffler leads the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained with 2.154, the next best in this week's field is Jake Knapp in 20th with 0.903, while the next highest in the FedEx Cup behind leader Scheffler is Gary Woodland in 29th and Hideki Matsuyama down at 30th is the highest ranked player in the OWGR besides the World No.1.

There's a gulf in class and form in this field that you rarely see on the PGA Tour. Annything can happen in a golf tournament and his odds are crazily short, but it's not often you say a player should, not could, win on the PGA Tour. This is one of those weeks.

Back Scottie Scheffler to win the 3M Open at +250 (5/2) with BetMGM

3m Open betting without Scottie Scheffler

You've got options this week as with Scheffler being such a hot favorite you could take him out of the equation and use the winner without Scottie Scheffler market, or just take your chances in the regular market and hope for some eacy-way money if the favorite does indeed romp home.

So who else could make the frame, or even shock Scheffler?

Pick One: Jake Knapp +4000

Hideki Matsuyama had top-20 finishes at The Open and Scottish Open and was seventh on his debut here in 2019 so has to be on the shortlist alongside Sungjae Im, who is also a flusher, tied for 14th at Birkdale and has a runner-up finish at this event in 2022.

But preference here goes to Jake Knapp despite his results recently being the worst of this bunch, with three missed cuts in four starts as he returns from a thumb injury.

He missed the cut at the Scottish Open and The Open but gained strokes on approach in both - only just at Birkdale but his ball striking was great up in Scotland.

Knapp was third at the 3M Open last year so knows how to avoid the vast array of water hazards on the course, and when and where to use his length off the tee - while he's shot 59 at PGA National which many put up as a closely comparable course to TPC Twin Cities.

Missing the weekend at The Open was a blow, but Knapp had extra time to return to the United States and could be one of those happy to get back home rather than sorry to leave the links behind.

Even with Scheffler in the field he should have a chance.

Back Jake Knapp @ +4000 (40/1) with BetMGM

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Pick Two: Corey Conners +5000

Corey Conners is coming off 14th at The Open and is as good a ball striker as you'll get, so if his putter is hot here he will surely go close.

He put up his third-best Strokes Gained numbers in both approach and putting in the final round at Birkdale, so that's great momentum to return back across the Atlantic with.

Conners was seventh on his last start in the USA at the Travelers so has plenty of positives, and in a field not exactly filled with star names and multiple winners behind Scheffler, there aren't many with as much class as the Canadian.

He'd get a pick anyway but Conners is also in the final automatic spot for the Presidents Cup so will want to ensure he gets into the International Team by right.

Back Corey Conners +5000 (50/1) with BetMGM

Pick Three: Ben Kohles +6600

With plenty of players jetting in from the UK, Kohles had the week off last week after a fine spell where he won on the Korn Ferry Tour and finished no lower than 29th in six starts. He also should've won the John Deere Classic but for an error on the final hole.

Three of the last six winners of the 3M Open arrived after a top 20 at TPC Deere Run, while Kohles' superb iron play recenting (SG: Approach 35.11 across last 10 starts) suits the task in hand in Minnesota.

He's finished 20-24 in the last two years at TPC Twin Cities and if there's any jet leg, links fatigue or just plain old tiredness in the rest of the field, a well-rested and in-form Kohles can take advantage.

Back Ben Kohles +6600 (66/1) with BetMGM

Golf Monthly Tour Issue Podcast 3M Open betting picks

As always, the Golf Monthly Tour Issue Podcast team made their PGA Tour picks for the PGA Tour this week as part of their Tipster's Challenge segment.

Here's who we've selected:

Scottie Scheffler said he had thoughts but wasn't ready to share them on Saturday, 24 hours after playing alongside Bryson DeChambeau when the LIV star received a two-stroke penalty for inadvertently improving his swing in the rough. Now he has given some of them.

Scheffler was in the recorder's hut late on Friday at Royal Birkdale alongside DeChambeau, and two days later he gave media his brief thoughts on the situation with a very measured response.

The World No.1, who came up short in defending his Claret Jug but finished T4th to continue his incredible Major form, said golfers need to be policed a little stricter but made it clear that DeChambeau is 'definitely not a cheater.'

"I've been really focused on the tournament. I think that opens up a greater discussion that - all I can really say is I think maybe we need to be a little bit more strict in the way that we are policing guys, but it's a little bit of a balance because you've got certain guys like a Bryson who every shot he hits is going to be shown on TV," Scheffler said on Sunday evening at Birkdale.

"When you have camera angles that are far away, things can look different than they do when you're right there. I hate saying stuff out here because I don't want anything to get taken out of context.

"All I'll say is Bryson, I've known him for a long time, and he's a lot of things, but he's definitely not a cheater.

"I've never seen him cheat once, whether we were having a putting contest on the putting green or chipping contest, or anytime we played amateur golf, I never saw anything suspicious.

"When you're watching him there from that camera angle, maybe he was a touch careless around his ball, but I don't think he did anything intentionally.

"We've seen penalties happen with - like you remember Jon Rahm a couple years ago at the Memorial when his ball moved in the rough, and it's like to the naked eye, can you really tell that?

"I think sometimes it's just a difficult position in the game of golf.

"When I was growing up, if this was the line between things that were - like if this was the line, here are the rules and this was the right side of it and this is when you're doing things against the rule, you always tried to stray really far that way.

"I feel like at times, sometimes you see players maybe push it a little bit further than they should.

"I think we need to kind of get back to the traditions of the game and maybe we do need to police things a little bit more stricter in the game.

"But like I said, it's a tough line to kind of cross. So that's why it's hard for me to say anything like this.

"Bryson is a guy that I've known for a really long time. Like I said, he's not a cheater."

Scheffler was involved in his own rules confusion on Sunday, as he received a free drop despite losing his ball in a Temporary Immovable Object.

He found a hospitality unit down the left of the 17th and was allowed free relief due to it being 'known or virtually certain' that his ball had finished there.

DeChambeau ended the tournament in T14th after a two-over-par 72 on Sunday. It marks the first cut he has made in the 2026 Majors and is his third top-15 in The Open from nine starts.

Golf fans can be forgiven for being a little confused as to why Scottie Scheffler got a free drop on the 17th hole during the Open final round despite losing his golf ball.

The World No.1 found himself in the rough off the tee and pulled his second shot into a hospitality unit. His ball was not found but thanks to the Rules of Golf, he was able to take a free drop before getting it up-and-down for an unlikely birdie.

Scheffler's ball flew into the hospitality unit on the left of the 17th, which is considered a 'TIO' - a Temporary Immovable Object. These are very common in professional golf and include things like grandstands and other pop-up structures.

If a TIO impedes a golfer's shot, they are allowed a free drop within two club lengths of the object. This is very standard, but the interesting point relating to Scheffler's was the fact that his ball was never found.

Usually a lost ball would result in a stroke-and-distance penalty, meaning he would have had to go back to where he played his original ball from with a one-stroke penalty. Yet Rule 17.1d saved him, as it was considered to be 'known or virtually certain' that his ball had gone into the TIO.

If you can't find your ball but you saw it go in and are 'virtually certain' of it, you may take relief. If you're virtually certain your ball went into a bush or a part of the general area, you would have to take a penalty drop, but if you're virtually certain your ball went somewhere where you can get a free drop, like a TIO or Ground Under Repair, then you can take free relief.

The incident took some ten minutes and following his drop, Scheffler wedged it to around 10ft on the par 5 and holed the putt for a remarkable birdie.

The ruling caused controversy and confusion on social media, with many fans questioning whether it was fair or not. PGA Tour pro Michael Kim admitted he was "dumbfounded" by it:

It got him to eight-under for the tournament and within one of clubhouse leader Cameron Young. He bogeyed the 18th to eventually finish two back of Young's total.

Ball not found in TIO rule:

Relief When Ball in TIO Not Found

If the player's ball has not been found but is known or virtually certain to have come to rest in a TIO:

The player may take relief under this Local Rule by using the estimated point where the ball last crossed the edge of the TIO on the course as the spot of the ball for purposes of finding the nearest point of complete relief.

Once the player puts another ball in play to take relief in this way:

The original ball is no longer in play and must not be played.

This is true even if it is then found on the course before the end of the three-minute search time.

- via The R&A

Scottie Scheffler has dominated professional men's golf over the last few years, with the American claiming four Major victories and several Signature Events on the PGA Tour.

There are many reasons for his success, with one of them being down to finding form with the putter, following Scheffler's switch to a mallet-style flatstick in 2024.

However, at The Open Championship in 2026, the mallet went cold, but that still didn't stop the World No.1 from contending, despite his remarkably poor putting stats.

Throughout the week at Royal Birkdale, Scheffler is 144th in Strokes Gained: Putting, losing 3.6 shots on the field with only 12 players ranking worse than the four-time Major winner.

During round one, he ranked 85th in SG: Putting, while round two and three he was 141st and 55th, well below the field average.

In fairness to Scheffler, he has only made three bogeys through 63 holes, with two of those featuring in his first round.

What's more, he has just one three-putt through his four rounds, but has only holed 218.2 feet of putts through those 63 holes.

The SG: Putting stat is certainly worse than his PGA Tour stats, where Scheffler is 14th and has gained 0.5 shots on his fellow peers.

On the other end of the scale, Scheffler's long game has been excellent in Southport, as expected from the World No.1, who leads the PGA Tour rankings in SG: Tee-to-Green.

Creating 17 birdie chances inside 10-feet, which leads the field, he is fourth in SG: Approach, gaining nearly 6.5 shots.

Scheffler also ranks just outside the top 10 in Driving Accuracy and inside the top 10 in SG: Driving, showcasing how much the poor putting has impacted his chances of defending the Claret Jug.

Carding rounds of 68, 68 and 70, the 30-year-old found himself five back of good friend Sam Burns going into the final round at Royal Birkdale.

Although he made a hot start on Sunday, producing three birdies through his opening five holes, missed birdie chances stalled his charge to Open Championship glory.

Missing an eight-footer at the eighth, he followed it up with a missed seven footer at the ninth. That kept him seven-under, a few shots back of fellow countryman Burns as Scheffler tackled the back nine.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler’s comments ahead of last year’s Open at Royal Portrush questioning what the point was of achieving greatness in golf reared their head on Tuesday in the build-up to the 2026 edition of golf’s oldest championship.

The American raised eyebrows in Country Antrim in Northern Ireland when he admitted he didn’t get much in the way of meaningful fulfillment from his career before, ironically, going on to win the Claret Jug for the first time just a few days later.

At Royal Birkdale, those remarks from 12 months ago were put to the World No. 1, and although he was more careful about how he conveyed his message, the subject drew laughs from the press in attendance when a reporter inadvertently created another Scheffler soundbite we could well be looking back on in another year’s time.

“You mentioned history; we're all going to die someday and all that kind of stuff,” the question began.

“Sorry,” a shocked Scheffler replied. “Is that going to be a quote after last year's ‘what's the point?’ This year we're all going to die.”

Once the laughter subsided, there was a poignant question about legacy and if it truly doesn’t matter how Scheffler the golfer is remembered when all is said and done.

“I think it matters more to me just in terms of the competition,” Scheffler began. “There's things I would like to accomplish in the game, but at the end of the day, I have never once thought about how I'm going to be remembered. To me, it truly doesn't matter from a sense of like accomplishment.

“Like when I die, hey, Scottie won four majors and 20 tournaments and he won this much money. That has zero effect on me.

“It's more just the things that I can try to achieve in the game. That's something just for me just trying to get the most out of myself, like do you want to be able to win tournaments, you want to be able to put yourself in those positions. That's what I love about the game.

“History, to me, I guess maybe just isn't that important. I don't necessarily want to be remembered for winning the tournaments that I won. I'd much rather be remembered for the way I did it than the tournaments that I won.

“So if I'm doing things the right way, treating people the right way. A successful week for me is when I approach things the right way, when I'm committed to what I'm doing.

“I love being able to go out and compete, but over time I've gotten much better at just being able to take your hat off and shake hands. I've met some great people in the game of golf. Some of my best friends in the world I met through playing golf.

“History for me has never been the most important thing.”

The same question was later put to six-time Major winner Rory McIlroy, and his response struck a very similar chord.

“I think it would be a pretty unfulfilling pursuit if you're just chasing records and chasing results,” the Northern Irishman said. “You have to enjoy the process. You have to enjoy the journey to get there. I've learned that the hard way at times by chasing results and chasing records too much.

“You start to focus on your craft and your practice and doing the things you need to do to try to become a better golfer, and then if you do that, the results and the winning almost take care of themselves, or at least you put yourself in position enough to at least step through the door a few times.

“You're obviously trying to win, but winning is such a… like it's not a real tangible goal, right? So the real goal is I want to do this with my swing or I want to hit this sort of shot or I want to feel good when I'm over the ball, whatever it is. If you do that stuff enough times, hopefully you get yourself in a position to win.

“Then from there, you can start to think about winning the tournament. But if all you're thinking about is winning and results, you're playing the wrong game.”

While they might not be bothered, both McIlroy and Scheffler’s legacies are almost certain to stand the test of time.

McIlroy became just the sixth male player in history to complete the career Grand Slam with his 2025 Masters win and, just a US Open victory shy, few would bet against Scheffler following in his footsteps.

After 78 events and 1,428 days Scottie Scheffler has finally missed a cut on the PGA Tour - as he won't make the weekend at the Genesis Scottish Open.

It's hardly the ideal preparation for the upcoming Open Championship for the defending champion and World No.1, who will now have to make alternative plans for the weekend ahead of Royal Birkdale.

Scheffler followed an opening round of 68 with a 72 on Friday at the Renaissance Club to finish on level par - just one shot off the projected cut line but down in 91st place on the leaderboard.

That means the longest active streak of cuts made on the PGA Tour comes to an end, with Scheffler missing his first cut since the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August 2022.

Xander Schauffele had the previous longest active streak with 72 straight cuts made until he missed out at Torrey Pines in January this year - 1,391 days after he last failed to make the weekend.

And now Scheffler's own run of 78 made cuts is over, leaving him well short of the PGA Tour record set by Tiger Woods, with a whopping 142 cuts in a row made.

The current longest active streak is now Matt Fitzpatrick with just 28 in a row - showcasing what an achievement it was for Scheffler.

Now Scheffler has to find new plans for the weekend as he looks to defend his Open Championship title at Royal Birkdale next week.

“A little different than I was planning,” Scheffler said about his preparation for The Open after missing the cut in Scotland.

“I’ll figure out how to get down to Birkdale and go from there.”

Scheffler won the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush last year and is still seen as one of the favorites to win at Royal Birkdale, but missing the cut in Scotland is a big blow.

He's currently on his longest winless run for three years, with the Scottish Open his 14th start since his last victory at the American Express at the start of the year.

Scheffler still had four runner-up finishes and arrived in Scotland on the back of a playoff defeat to Viktor Hovland at the Travelers Championship.

But a missed cut throws his prep into disarray, with Scheffler admitting he didn't give himself enough birdie chances with his approach play.

“I got off to a tough start and then on the back nine I didn’t feel like I was hitting it close enough to give myself enough opportunities," said Scheffler.

"I think that’s what it really comes down to. I got off to a poor start and didn’t really hit it close enough to give myself a bunch of looks and that’s how you shoot over par.

“I was just trying to get some looks. I felt like I struck it better on the back nine. Overall, not quite good enough. Like I said, I felt like I was hitting it too far from the hole and wasn’t holing any of those putts."

Scheffler will now head to Birkdale early and have an extended practice run on the Southport links ahead of his Claret Jug defence.

It's going to be a bumper 3M Open this year with Jordan Spieth joining Scottie Scheffler in committing to play in Minnesota the week after The Open.

It's not usually one of the bigger events on the PGA Tour for a couple of reasons, but the 2026 3M Open will now have two of the biggest stars in the world teeing it up at TPC Twin Cities.

As both Spieth and World No.1 Scheffler will be making their 3M Open debuts this year, heading to Blaine, Minnesota directly after competing for the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale.

Scheffler confirmed he'd play at the 3M Open back in May, and now just ahead of returning to Royal Birkdale, the scene of his 2017 Open triumph, Spieth has joined him.

It was a surprising announcement from Scheffler, who would usually take time off directly after the final Major of the year before then heading into his final prep for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Spieth has followed Scheffler's example, but also maybe more out of necessity as he's currently down in 52nd in the FedEx Cup rankings and 54th in the Official World Golf Ranking so could do with some improved results.

Of course, a big performance back at Birkdale where he won his last Major in epic fashion nine years ago would help improve his standing.

Despite results not being so good, Spieth's still a huge crowd favorite though, one of the biggest draws on the PGA Tour, so it's a huge plus for the tournament.

A relatively new event on the PGA Tour, the 3M Open only debuted on the schedule in 2019 and with a prize purse of $8.8m it's one of just three main schedule tournaments to play for under $9m, with only the Wyndham Championship having a smaller prize pot with $8.5m

Also being staged the week after the Open Championship is the toughest possible spot in the calendar, with the world's top players across in the UK playing the final Major of the season.

But this year will be one of the best, if not the best, field ever assembled for the event thanks to two of the biggest guns on the PGA Tour now attending.

Spieth will join Scheffler and the likes of Hideki Matsuyama, Billy Horschel and Gary Woodland in the current field for the 2026 3M Open - along with defending champion Kurt Kitayama.

Scottie Scheffler insists completing the career Grand Slam "has never been a motivating factor for me" as he looks to join the exclusive club by winning the US Open.

The World No.1 catapulted himself into the Grand Slam picture by winning the PGA Championship and The Open last year to add to his two Masters titles and move just one win away from joining golf's immortals.

Scheffler is looking to join Rory McIlroy and become the seventh man to win the career Grand Slam but unlike McIlroy he'd like to get the job done at the first attempt at Shinnecock Hills this week.

But he insists that chasing history is not what drives him on, as he tries to ease the pressure on himself.

"For me, would it be a dream to win the US Open? Of course," said Scheffler. "But at the end of the day, the Grand Slam has never been a motivating factor for me. I always just wanted to be the best version of myself, and that got me this far."

McIlroy mentioned after he won the Grand Slam about having that feeling of what to do next after climbing his Everest - and that's something Scheffler is acutely aware of, hence why he's trying to not make it his main goal in golf.

"If I win this tournament, that would be amazing, but I think then I show up the next week, and it's like, okay, now Scottie's won the Grand Slam, he's won all these golf tournaments. Now where do we go from here?

"I think as a player and as a professional athlete, you're never going to live up to the expectations of people. I think sometimes that's a little bit of the fallacy in our sport is like, if I win the US Open, then I'm going to be satisfied.

"I've won all the tournaments, and my career is essentially over, and I've accomplished everything I could want to accomplish. But I think the goal posts are always just moved further and further."

No fear of failure key for Scheffler success

Scheffler has always insisted he's not defined by his golfing success, and he again offered an insight into his perspective on his sport - which may explain why he manages to keep such an even keel in the heat of battle.

"Golf is such a funny game. A good example this week, if I finish second this week, it's almost like, hey, you failed in your first chance to win the career Grand Slam," said Scheffler. "It's kind of, like, is finishing second a failure?

"It can feel that way, but I think sometimes when you look at more of kind of a wider view of the sport and where your game's at, second is not always that bad, but man, does it frickin' hurt at the same time.

"So you can feel like a failure in this sport oftentimes just because you're not winning, and I think that's just part of it. That's why I said I try not to focus too much on my successes or my failures, one, because you get beat up an awful lot in this game. It's a tough sport.

"But, two, if I was feeling so good about all my successes, I probably wouldn't be too much fun to be around either."

Scheffler has already come close at the US Open, finishing in the top seven in four of the last five years so he can rightly fancy his chances at Shinnecock - as he expected the Open Championship would've been the hardest Major for him to win.

"I always felt like The Open would be one of the hardest ones for me to win because I didn't have a lot of experience playing over there in the UK," Scheffler explained.

"Growing up, I played a lot of golf here in the States. I didn't really play much internationally at all. For me, not having the experience on links golf, I would have said that would probably be the most difficult for me to win.

"I always had self-belief. I always believed that I could win golf tournaments out here. I always had that belief in myself that I could accomplish some nice things in the game of golf."

The third Major of the year is upon us and there's plenty to talk about ahead of the US Open at Shinnecock Hills.

We've got an iconic venue on Long Island but one that's seen controversy the last two times it's hosted America's national open, will the USGA learn from those lessons?

There's history on the line as Scottie Scheffler looks to join the Grand Slam club, but is his game in good enough shape?

Australian iron man Adam Scott is serving up another slice of history while at the other end of the spectrum one of the best college golfers of all time is preparing to start his pro career.

With Rory McIlroy looking to end a long drought in a tournament that arguably suits his game best, there's no shortage of storylines to keep us gripped this week.

Can Scottie Scheffler win the Grand Slam?

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler headlines at Shinnecock Hills as he chases the US Open title that will see him join Rory McIlroy and become the seventh man to win the career Grand Slam.

Although McIlroy joined last year and Jordan Spieth has a chance at the PGA Championship, don't underestimate the size of the task ahead - and why Scheffler will feel that extra weight of history.

Scheffler has already scouted Shinnecock Hills so knows his game will need to be on point - especially his short game and putting which will be key this week thanks to the devlish greens he'll face.

Scheffler's putting is the one chink in his armour in the big events - he ranked 72nd at the PGA Championship at Aronimink in putting and 51st around the greens, if he repeats that he'll have no chance at Shinnecock.

And for Scheffler he's on something of a drought, having 'only' won once this year, back in January, with his current 11 tournament winless run his longest for three years.

He's finished second three times with three other top fives so it's hardly a slump, and it'd surprise nobody if he lifted the trophy on Sunday, but he's clearly not quite at his brilliant best.

Can Rory McIlroy win perfect Major again?

The US Open was Rory McIlroy's first Major way back in 2011 when his game looked absolutely perfect for the test. It still does, and it's incredible to think he's not managed to pocket another one.

McIlroy's driving prowess should make the US Open right up his street, but in the immediate aftermath of his victory at Congressional he perhaps thought it would all come too easy for him.

The Northern Irishman earned just one top 10 and missed four cuts in the next seven US Opens, before the penny dropped about having to be more patient in what is often the toughest of the four Majors.

He then had a run of six straight top 10s including two near misses, in 2023 - chasing home Wyndham Clark in LA and his infamous 2024 meltdown at Pinehurst to allow Bryson DeChambeau to claims victory.

McIlroy's since won back-to-back Masters and is focusing more and more on the Majors, having already scouted out Shinnecock. It could be time for McIlroy to add another US Open to his trophy cabinet.

Will Shinnecock be hero or villain?

The Long Island venue is clearly one of the finest courses in the United States, but it's known more for the controversial last two US Opens at Shinnecock Hills - when the USGA was accused of losing the course.

The greens became borderline unplayable in both events, with Phil Mickelson infamously hitting a moving ball in 2018 while grounds crew had to water the greens during the final round in 2004.

The USGA’s chief championships officer John Bodenhamer has vowed to take a more hands-off approach this year, to "let Shinnecock be Shinnecock" and allow Mother Nature to provide the difficulty.

The fairways are wider than before but the greens remain as tough as you like, so both approach play and getting up-and-down will still be a problem - par will be a good score even without the USGA picking out the worst pin placements.

With strong winds expected organisers won't even have to get too tricky with the flags, and if Shinnecock is allowed to shine on its own this time it'll end up being the hero of the US Open instead of the villain.

Iron man Adam Scott joins rare century club

There's a big milestone being achieved at Shinnecock as Adam Scott makes his 100th consecutve Major appearance - joining Jack Nicklaus as the only men ever to reach three figures.

He's still got some way to go to catch the great man as Nicklaus made 146 consecutive Majors, but becoming just the second centurion is still a huge achievement for the Australian.

Being fit enough to play in 100 straight Majors is one thing, being good enough to get in to 100 straight Majors is something else, but Scott has been an ever present since making his second Open appearance in 2001.

Tom Watson managed 87 straight Majors and Sergio Garcia 86, which gives you an idea of the how tough it is to pile up 100 consecutive appearances in golf's biggest tournaments.

College superstar set to turn pro

One of the highest-rated college stars on record, Jackson Koivun will turn pro after the US Open, so all eyes will be on him at Shinnecock Hills in his last event as an amateur.

The 21-year-old led Auburn to two NCAA Championships in three years, and set all kinds of records in a college career to rival any of the greats

Data Golf had him as the highest rated amateur since it began tracking, and Koivun became the first man to win all three of college golf's top awards (Fred Haskins, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus) on multiple occasions.

Now, one of college golf's greatest ever players will tee it up at the US Open before turning pro and hitting the PGA Tour at the Jon Deere Classic. He has a card through 2027 thanks to gaining enough points on the PGA Tour University’s Accelerated program.

He's had to give up a spot in The Open at Royal Brikdale to go pro, but you get the sense he won't have too many problems getting into the Majors in the future. The hype could well be real with this kid.

The usually mild mannered Scottie Scheffler erupted at The Memorial Tournament as swirling wind conditions at Muirfield Village got the better of him.

Scheffler's long-term caddie Ted Scott bore the brunt of Scheffler's frustration after what the World No.1 felt was a perfectly struck tee shot on the par-three 16th that ended up finding the water.

The shot cost Scheffler a double bogey and earned Scott some earache as the double defending Memorial champion vented his frustration at the pair not being able to work out the changing wind direction.

Scheffler finished a frustrating day with a one-over round of 73, six shots behind leaders Wyndham Clark, JJ Spaun, Tommy Fleetwood and Ryan Gerard.

"I don’t think you understand how frustrating that is," Scheffler barked at Scott as the two made their way to the drop zone.

The exchange was caught on the broadcast microphones and was quite extraordinary in how Scheffler kept going and going.

“I never thought that I was in the water,” Scheffler shouted at Scott who, as every experienced caddie would, kept his head down and walked off ahead. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”

Scheffler continued: “I feel like that was a good shot. Now I’m in the water. Absolutely flushed a 7-iron and we get the wind wrong, and I end up in the water.

"I don’t think you understand how frustrating that is. I thought it was a good shot. It really was. … Golly."

“I liked that shot,” Scheffler continued after the pair reached the drop zone. “I don’t understand what I’m meant to do. I don’t understand. I really don’t. I mean, it was five yards short of the green, flushed 7-iron, because it’s into off the right.

"Like there’s no way it could curve that much. It’s so frustrating. I’m hitting good shots and dropping. We cannot get the wind wrong.”

Scheffler explains Memorial outburst

The Golf Channel's Curt Byrum said on the broadcast that “sometimes being a good Tour caddie is being able to just take the abuse the player is going to give you, take the shrapnel that’s coming your way".

Scheffler later told the press his frustration was due to constantly hitting good shots throughout his round but not getting the results due to the wind.

“That’s just another really good iron shot, and the wind switched from down off the right to pretty significantly in off the right,” he said of his tee shot on 16.

“So just don’t really know what I’m supposed to do there outside of trying to hit a good shot, and then it’s frustrating when it doesn’t work out, especially when it doesn’t work out in that direction.

“I would rather get gusted in off the left, not in off the right there. All you can do is just try to hit good shots. It can be very frustrating sometimes when you feel like you’re hitting good shots and then you’re going to the drop zone.”

Scheffler's opening round makes it highly unlikely he'll earn a rare three-peat, which will make it 11 tournaments in a row without a victory - not a dreadful run by normal standards but it's already his longest winless run since 2023.

Scottie Scheffler can join an exclusive club this week as a third consecutive victory at The Memorial Tournament would make him just the seventh man to achieve a modern-day PGA Tour three-peat.

Even taking into account the entire history of a sport as old as golf, only 19 men have won the same tournament three times in a row - with 27 instances of a three-peat.

The likes of Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen and Arnold Palmer achieved three-peats before the official formation of the PGA Tour in 1968.

Since then it's been achieved just 11 times by six different golfers - with Jack Nicklaus the first to do it and Tiger Woods accounting for six of those, including two tournaments he won four times in a row.

The last time we had a three-peat on the PGA Tour was Steve Stricker's three wins at the John Deere Classic between 2009-11.

Who has won same PGA Tour event three times running?

Going back through history, Young Tom Morris won four Open Championships on the spin, while Peter Thomson later won three in a row in the 1950s.

Walter Hagen won four straight PGA Championships after claiming three straight Matropolitan Opens, while Gene Sarazen won four Miami Open titles and three Miami Beach Opens in the same four-year span.

Arnold Palmer went back-to-back-to-back at both the Texas Open and Phoenix Open as did Billy Casper at the Portland Open in the early 1960s.

Jack Nicklaus claimed the first three-peat of the modern PGA Tour era at the Disney World Golf Classic - which given his dominance was surprisingly his only three-peat, showing how tough it has been.

Tough for anyone not named Tiger Woods though, as he won four times in a row at both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Farmers Insurance Open, while adding four more three-peats.

Three of those came at WGC events - doing it twice at the event held at Firestone - while he also achieved it at Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament.

How have recent three-peat bids gone?

Since Steve Stricker claimed his John Deere hat-trick in 2011 there's been 20 attempts to join the list of three-peat winners by 18 different players coming into a PGA Tour event as back-to-back champions.

Not many have come particularly close - only four attempts ended in a missed cut but only two tries saw players seriously challenge with one runner-up and one T3 finish the best of the bunch.

There were 12 top-25 finishes with seven top 10s made in pursuit of that elusive hat-trick - showing just how tough it is to achieve even in an event and on a course that they've tasted such success on.

Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Viktor Hovland have all tried and failed as back-to-back champions looking to add that third win on the spin.

Brooks Koepka has had two high-profile efforts in the Majors during his extraordinary period of dominance in golf's big four, with only Gary Woodland stopping him from claiming three straight US Opens in 2019 at Pebble Beach.

After a solo second there, Koepka incredibly had the chance of a hat-trick of PGA Championships a year later but finished T29 behind Collin Morikawa at TPC Harding Park.

Scottie Scheffler has tried, and failed, twice before his third attempt at The Memorial - coming T3 at the WM Phoenix Open in 2024 before last year attempting to do it at the most unlikely of venues at TPC Sawgrass.

Scheffler became the first man ever to win back-to-back Players Championship titles in 2023 and 2024 but came up short with a T20 finish in 2025 - still a valiant effort given the size of the task.

Full list of players to win same tournament 3+ years in a row

The top two players in the world have been on scouting trips to Shinnecock Hills with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy giving their opinions on what it will take to win the US Open.

World No.1 Scheffler will head to Shinnecock Hills chasing history, as victory at the US Open will see him joing McIlroy to become the seventh man to win the career Grand Slam.

Back-to-back Masters champion McIlroy also played the US Open venue on the same day as Scheffler - on Monday - before heading to Muirfield Village for The Memorial Tournament.

And both men came away with the same impression - that Shinnecock Hills may have some generous fairways, but thanks to how tough the greens are, if you miss a fairway "you have no chance."

McIlroy warns about Shinnecock green speeds

McIlroy made several prep trips to Augusta National before winning his second Green Jacket in a row, and he's also been to Long Island to take a look at what test Shinnecock will provide.

"If it's set up the right way, I think it's one of the best championship tests in the country," was McIlroy's overall verdict. "I mean, it's an amazing golf course.

"The fairways are very generous. They're more generous than they were in 2018. But the first cut of rough is five inches long. So it's like the first cut is maybe three paces wide and then it gets into the fescue.

"So if you miss the fairway even by a yard... but you shouldn't. The fairways are very, very generous. So if you miss the fairway, I feel like you deserve a bad lie."

The USGA was accused of losing control of the course in both the 2004 and 2018 US Opens at Shinnecock with greens becoming unplayable - and McIlroy warned again about the putting surfaces not being allowed to get too quick.

"We played on Monday. The greens are rolling around 11, 11.2, something like that. And I really don't think they need to get much faster," said McIlroy.

"I think if they can keep them at that green speed, they can get them firm, and they can use the hole locations that they want to use without having some of the struggles that they have had the last couple of US Opens.

"So to me, it's all about them just maintaining the green speeds really where they are and not getting them too out of hand, and I think it will be a great week."

Scheffler - USGA can make scores as high as they want

Scheffler made his first trip to Shinnecock Hills and agreed with McIlroy's assessment of the wide fairways - and also that missing them would be fatal.

"That was my first time on property. It was kind of what I expected. I had heard some rumors about how difficult the greens were," said Scheffler.

"I was a little surprised at the width of the fairways, but the green complexes there are extremely difficult, and I think that's where the greatest challenge comes from.

"The rough, also, was a really good penalty, I think, for the width. Once you start missing fairways out there, you have no chance."

Scheffler says the USGA could use the difficulty of the greens to make the scores as high or low as it would want them.

"The fairways are generous enough to where it provides you some opportunity and that way it's just that the green complexes are extraordinarily difficult," he added.

"And so they can put the pins wherever they want and make the scores as high as they could possibly want them to be."

After making a surge and joining the leaders on three-under after day one, many had expected Scottie Scheffler to push ahead on day two at the PGA Championship.

That wasn't the case at all, though. The World No. 1 actually went backwards slightly, recording a score of +1 on Friday to drop to a tie for seventh as things stand.

Scheffler shot bogey on the 10th (his first hole of the day), and would go on to hit another three bogeys on 12, 13, and the sixth on his way back to the clubhouse.

Much has been made of the tricky course setup at Aronimink already, and Scheffler has added his voice to that particular chorus.

In fact, the 29-year-old insists he has never seen pin positions as intentionally difficult as this in his whole career.

Speaking to the media after his round on Friday, Scheffler highlighted a number of holes around the course where the pin positions were particularly challenging, and how he tried to deal with them.

"The par I made on 14 was extremely good. That was one of the craziest pins that I've seen," he said.

"Your ball wasn't going to roll off 50 yards away, but they put the pin on this high point. I hadn't seen anything like it."

He also wasn't keen on the setup for hole 10, adding: "I'm sitting there, the wind's blowing 20-25 miles an hour right-to-left, and I got a green that goes down right-to-left into a valley, up left-to-right, back right-to-left.

"Then the pin is quite literally, if I hit that chip shot and the pin's here and it goes to there, it goes all the way over the back of the green, and now I have a very, very difficult up-and-down for bogey.

"So you just have to play smart and patient and understand that, I hit good shots on the 10th hole, but there's sometimes, especially around a golf course like this, where you're going to hit some good shots that aren't quite good enough and you get punished pretty severely.

Scheffler claimed these were the "hardest set of pin locations" he's ever seen on the Tour. He even asked Justin Rose's caddie and his own if they had seen anything similar, and they both admitted the only course that comes close is next month's US Open veue Shinnecock Hills.

Scheffler did, rather rationally, admit that sometimes on the golf course, things are simply out of your control. However, he did go on to describe the pin positions at Aronimink as "absurd," too.

He's not the only one who's been criticizing the decisions, though. Justin Thomas, who saw his playing group put on the clock for purported slow play, said: "How can time par on this course be the same, when it's blowing 25 and the pins are tough?"

Meanwhile, Chris Gotterup recorded the lowest score of the week so far, but even he had some complaints.

"I don’t think it’s unfair, but I do think for pace of play and certain aspects, 14 today is probably aggressive," he said.

"You’re hitting a four iron to a 10-foot circle, and if it doesn’t go there, it’s off the green, and if you hit it 40 feet left, you have a very hard two-putt."

Still, all three golfers are comfortably within the projected cut at the PGA Championship. Now, we have to wait and see if adjustments are made tomorrow in light of the critique of the pin positions.

Claiming the coveted PGA Championship title is one of the four steps any golfer needs to take if they want to become a Grand Slam winner.

The second Major of the golfing season is unique in that it's the only Major that only allows professionals to compete, giving it an extra air of prestige.

The event has been running since way back in 1916, when a match play format was used, before converting to strokeplay in 1958 and becoming the tournament we know and love today.

Of course, with great prestige comes great payouts, and the PGA Championship purse is naturally among the biggest in the golfing world.

Winning the Wanamaker Trophy is one thing, but landing a share of the huge purse is a very nice bonus indeed.

While Jack Nicklaus holds the records for the most wins at the PGA Championship (during the strokeplay era), he doesn't come close to featuring on the all-time list of top earners from the event.

Interestingly, when we look at the top 10 earners in PGA Championship history, there are two golfers who haven't actually won the tournament.

Justin Rose takes tenth place, with earnings of $3,540,011 across a whopping 23 events. The British star's best finish at the PGA Championship was a tie for third back in 2012, which earned him $384,500.

Bryson DeChambeau is also on the list in seventh with earnings of $4,636,217. He's racked up that impressive amount from just eight involvements in the PGA Championship, with back-to-back second place finishes in 2024 and 2025 earning him $2,837,332 alone.

It probably doesn't come as much of a surprise, at least when you really think about it, that Brooks Koepka is at the top of the PGA Championship money list. He's won the tournament more than anyone else in the past couple of decades with three triumphs coming in 2018, 2019, and 2023.

Koepka is clear out in front, too, with earnings of $9,456,726 from 13 events putting him well ahead of Tiger Woods, who comes in second place with winnings of $7,354,862 from 23 events.

Woods did win the tournament four times (in 1999, 2000, 2006, and 2007), but the money on offer back then is nothing compared to where the game of golf is now.

With 32 involvements, Phil Mickelson is the golfer in the top 10 who has featured in the PGA Championship the most, and his earnings of $6,510,066 put him third in the all-time list.

That's not much of a shock considering Lefty also made the cut in 27 out of those 32 events with two victories.

He's followed by another two-time winner, Rory McIlroy. His wins in 2012 and 2014 earned him a combined $3,245,000 towards his total of $6,349,228 over the years.

Rounding out the top five is 2025 PGA Championship winner Scottie Scheffler. That win secured Scheffler $3.42m last year, and he's already earned $6,152,768 from just six events.

The rest of the top 10 includes Justin Thomas ($5,672,581) thanks to his two victories at the PGA Championship in 2017 and 2022.

2015 champion Jason Day ($4,369,608) is in eighth place and Xander Schauffele, who won in 2024, comes in ninth with earnings of $4,363,822 across nine involvements in the PGA Championship.

Another triumph this year for McIlroy or Scheffler would send them to the top of the pile ahead of Koepka, but that man will be desperate to add a fourth title to his name and extend his lead at the top of the money list.

It's a big question ahead of every Major, so players and pundits alike have been discussing what will the winning score be at the PGA Championship?

Aronimink near Philadelphia will stage the second men's Major of the year and the first at the Donald Ross layout in 64 years.

Rory McIlroy and others have said that the course could be easily overpowered by the big hitters but the testing, sloping greens will be the big defense.

But how will that play out in terms of a winning score?

"The greens are the main focus this week, and I think getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole for the most part. That's the key this week," said McIlroy.

Scottie Scheffler says there's a huge difference in a wet Aronimink and a dry and firm one - with the PGA Championship weather forecast suggesting it could be a bit damp to start with but dry out heading into the weekend.

The PGA of America do have a manner of control in terms of pin placements and whether they water the greens or not - but most believe the field will be good enough to post a relatively low score at the par-70 layout.

Keegan Bradley won on -20 at the 2018 BMW Championship held at Aronimink, but we're expecting conditions to be tougher this week.

Still, around the -16 mark has been touted by those on the ground in Pennsylvania as a possible winning score, while Ben Griffin predicted it will be tougher with -12 his pick.

Winning scores in recent years have fluctuated, with Keegan Bradley pointing out that the PGA of America has no agenda in terms of what score it wants to win the Wanamaker Trophy.

Weather can play a part given the new date in May for the PGA Championship - with Xander Schauffele winning a birdiefest at a soggy Valhalla a couple of years ago.

Southern Hills in 2022 was the toughest of the last decade in relation to par as Justin Thomas won a play-off after finishing on five under, while Phil Mickelson took the most strokes to win of the last 10 champions with 282 needed to win at Kiawah Island on six under.

Five of the last 10 have been single figures under par - and while Scheffler was -11 last year he was five shots clear of the field.

And while around that 10 under mark may be the aim, the PGA of America is seemingly more bothered about making the event a spectacle rather than worrying about the winning score.

What do you think the winning score will be in the 2026 PGA Championship? Have you say by joining the conversation below...

PGA Championship winning scores

Since its inception in 2019, the 3M Open has attracted some top players, including Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa.

However, its place in the schedule immediately after The Open means it doesn’t always attract the game’s highest-profile stars.

They don’t come much bigger than the man at the top of the world rankings, though, and in 2026, the TPC Twin Cities event will have that honor with Scottie Scheffler confirming his maiden appearance.

That represents a change of approach for Scheffler, who normally takes some time away from competitive action following The Open to prepare for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Speaking to the event’s official website, Scheffler said: "I'm looking forward to playing the 3M Open for the first time.

"I've heard great things about the event and I'm excited to get to Minnesota and compete at TPC Twin Cities."

Scheffler’s participation in the tournament, which runs from July 23rd to July 26th, was welcomed by vice president of partnerships at 3M, Kady Stoll, who said: “Scottie's commitment to the 3M Open is a milestone for this tournament and our partnership with the PGA Tour."

"His participation reflects the experience we want to deliver for fans, players and the communities we support."

It’s not just the 3M Open Scheffler has committed to playing in recent days. He will also compete in the Genesis Scottish Open the week before The Open.

Unlike the 3M Open, he is far more familiar with the Renaissance Club tournament, with 2026 marking his fifth appearance.

Scheffler will use the links-style layout to prepare for the defence of his Open title the following week, which will be held at Royal Birkdale.

Scheffler, whose best finish at the Genesis Scottish Open was a T3 in 2023, told the DP World Tour website: “I always enjoy coming to the Genesis Scottish Open and taking on the challenge of links-style golf as part of an exciting couple of weeks in the UK.

“The tournament always has a strong field, and the Scottish fans help to make it a fun week.”

It's safe to say that Quail Hollow has been a happy hunting ground for Rory McIlroy in the past, earning four victories at the course throughout his career.

For 2026, the Truist Championship returns to the lay-out after a brief stint at Philadelphia Cricket Club, and McIlroy is to make his competitive return to action after taking a break following his Masters win in April.

Having not featured at either the RBC Heritage or Cadillac Championship Signature Events, or indeed the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, McIlroy will be the star name in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Taking place a mere few hours away from Augusta National, it'll be the first tournament the 36-year-old has played since he became the fourth player in history to defend The Masters.

Earning a one shot win to secure his sixth Major, McIlroy's nearest challenger that week, Scottie Scheffler, won't be present, as the World No.1 takes a week off following three events in four weeks.

Last year, Quail Hollow staged the PGA Championship instead of the Truist Championship, and, at that Major, Scheffler dominated proceedings, forging out a five shot win over Harris English, Bryson DeChambeau and Davis Riley.

This year, Quail Hollow returns in a Signature Event role, and will play as the starter for the main course of the PGA Championship, which takes place the week after at Aronimink Golf Club.

Much has been made of the 2026 PGA Tour schedule and, since The Masters, three Signature Events are taking place in a four week stretch, with notable names prioritizing their scheduled starts.

The PGA Tour returned to Trump National Doral for the first time in a decade but, despite this, notable names, including McIlroy, opted to skip the $20 million Cadillac Championship.

Major season is upon us and, consequently, with such a tight schedule, some will want to play the week before a Major, while some won't.

Scheffler falls into the won't camp, as he skips the Truist Championship. For the majority, though, they will be present in Charlotte, where a 72-man field will get some competitive reps in at the no-cut event.

Truist Championship Full Field

• Ludvig Aberg
• Harris English
• Nicolai Hojgaard
• Rory McIlroy
• Jordan Spieth
• Daniel Berger
• Tony Finau
• Max Homa
• Maverick McNealy
• Sam Stevens
• Akshay Bhatia
• Alex Fitzpatrick
• Viktor Hovland
• Collin Morikawa
• Sepp Straka
• Chandler Blanchet
• Matt Fitzpatrick
• Mackenzie Hughes
• Alex Noren
• Nick Taylor
• Keegan Bradley
• Tommy Fleetwood
• Sungjae Im
• Andrew Novak
• Sahith Theegala
• Jacob Bridgeman
• Rickie Fowler
• Michael Kim
• Taylor Pendrith
• Justin Thomas
• Sam Burns
• Ryan Fox
• Si Woo Kim
• JT Poston
• Jhonattan Vegas
• Brian Campbell
• Ryan Gerard
• Kurt Kitayama
• Aldrich Potgieter
• Matt Wallace
• Patrick Cantlay
• Lucas Glover
• Jake Knapp
• Patrick Rodgers
• Gary Woodland
• Ricky Castillo
• Chris Gotterup
• Min Woo Lee
• Justin Rose
• Sudarshan Yellamaraju
• Bud Cauley
• Ben Griffin
• David Lipsky
• Xander Schauffele
• Cameron Young
• Corey Conners
• Harry Hall
• Robert MacIntyre
• Adam Scott
• Pierceson Coody
• Brian Harman
• Hideki Matsuyama
• Alex Smalley
• Jason Day
• Ryo Hisatsune
• Denny McCarthy
• Austin Smotherman
• Nico Echavarria
• Tom Hoge
• Matt McCarty
• JJ Spaun

Being the caddie of the world’s number one golfer isn’t just a great way to enhance your professional reputation, it’s also guaranteed to boost your bank balance.

Ted Scott is the man entrusted with carrying Scottie Scheffler’s bag, whose unbroken spell at the top of the world rankings is approaching three years.

The first full calendar year of Scheffler’s current dominance came in 2024, when the American’s total earnings amounted to $55,228,357, helped by eight victories.

Winners typically hand out 10% of the prize money to their caddie, while players finishing in the top 10 of events are thought to give their caddies around 7-8% of their prize money, with 5% for other positions after making the cut.

As a result, it is estimated that Scott earned over $5.3m that year, on top of the undisclosed salary he picks up for being Scheffler’s caddie

In 2025, Scheffler continued to dominate, winning another six times. Because of that, it is thought Scott banked around $2.5m.

Scheffler hasn’t been quite as all-conquering so far in 2026, but by anyone else’s standards, he’d still be having a brilliant season, with one win - at The American Express - and three top fives leading up to the PGA Tour's latest Signature Event, the $20m RBC Heritage.

Still, there are signs that, like 2025, when it took him until May to pick up his first win, he’s finding his best form now we’re in the thick of the season.

Scheffler seemed back to his best in the final round of The Masters, where he gave winner Rory McIlroy an almighty run for his money in the final round before falling just one short of a playoff.

That handed him prize money of $2.43m. If we assume Scott was given a 7% share, he will have earned $170,100 from his assistance to Scheffler at Augusta National. If Scheffler’s agreement with Scott is for 8% for a top-10 finish, that figure increases to $194,000.

Scheffler again fell just short at the RBC Heritage, this time having reached a playoff as Matt Fitzpatrick took the title, but that still handed him prize money of $2.16m, meaning Scott is likely to have earned between $151,200 and $172,800 for his week at Harbour Town.

That means that, in just the last two weeks alone, Scott’s bonus money has likely amounted to between $321,300 and $366,800.

Following the RBC Heritage, that would place him somewhere between 113th and 120th on the 2026 PGA Tour money list – and all without needing to swing a club!

As for 2026 overall so far, with his latest runner-up, Scheffler now has earnings of $8,406,430.

Assuming a $7% caddie bonus for his top-10 finishes, that would take Scott’s earnings from just eight events to $597,178. If Scheffler pays Scott an 8% bonus when he finishes in the top 10, the figure for 2926 so far comes to $657, 294.

April is not only Masters month for the world of golf, it's also a time to reflect on the past financial year and see which golfers have earned the most money.

With massive prize funds given out each week across the PGA Tour, the LIV Golf League and the DP World Tour, the best players in the world are racking up huge bank balances throughout the season.

Rory McIlroy has just added another $4.5m to his career earnings thanks to his incredible triumph at Augusta National. That'll give him a nice head start for next year's totals, but it doesn't help him surpass one other golfer for the 2025-26 tax year.

The data comes from Sportico, breaking down the earnings of the top-10 highest paid golfers in the world, with details as to how much they earned on the course and off it through sponsorship deals and the like.

McIlroy was in the top two, and led the way in off-course income, but it's actually Jon Rahm who earned the most in total for the last year.

Rahm benefits massively from his contract with LIV, of course. It is though the Spaniard was offered $300m to join the breakaway tour, with half paid upfront and the other $150m paid equally across the years of his contract.

Last year, Rahm is said to have earned a total of $102m, and is the only golfer to break the $100m barrier. Of that figure, $92m came from on-course earnings, with another $10m in sponsorship payments.

The 31-year-old didn't actually win an event throughout the LIV Golf season in 2025, but he still claimed enough points to come out on top in the individual leaderboard. That earned him a massive $18m, which is exactly how much he beat McIlroy by in the money charts.

McIlroy is arguably the most marketable golfer in the world, especially after his remarkable double Masters win. It speaks volumes that McIlroy's net worth was thought to be around $294m in 2023, and will be much higher now.

But, for 2025-26, he is reported to have earned $84m from golf. $29m of that comes from event payouts, while a whopping $55m comes from off-course deals. That actually makes McIlroy the leader in commercial income, narrowly beating Tiger Woods.

Still, McIlroy's closest competitor is Scottie Scheffler, who recorded $81m in earnings last year. Not surprisingly, given his dominance on the Tour, $51m of that came from winnings on the course, while he's thought to have earned a huge $30m from sponsorship deals with the likes of Turtlebox, Nike, TaylorMade, and Huntington Bank.

Looking elsewhere, there's quite a gap between that top three and the rest of the top-10 highest paid golfers. Bryson DeChambeau is next in line, but his earnings stood at around $65m, with $45m of that coming from his lucrative deal with LIV.

Woods, as we mentioned, is the second highest-earner when it comes to commercial deals. $54m of his total came from that side of the game, while only $200,000 was earned from his performances on the course.

Rounding out the rest of the top-10, Tommy Fleetwood enjoyed a successful year thanks to his Tour Championship win in August. That netted the Englishman a mega $10m payout which contributed to his $42m earnings.

Joaquin Niemann is the third and final LIV golfer in the top 10. The Chilean won five events last year, so it's not surprising that he's up there, with earnings of $41m in total.

Beyond that, we have Hideki Matsuyama sitting at $31m. That's largely thanks to his endorsement portfolio, which contributed $25m. Xander Schauffele ($30m) and Collin Morikawa ($28m) complete the list.

Highest-Paid Golfers 2025-26

The 2026 Masters looks like one of the most wide-open in years with some of the big tournament favorites all having question marks around them.

And there's a recent trend around Masters champions that would rule out a host of the big guns at Augusta National this week if it holds true.

As the recent stats say you can't win The Masters if you've had more than a week off before heading down Magnolia Lane to tackle Augusta National.

If that run continues then the likes of defending champion Rory McIlroy, two-time winner Scottie Scheffler, former champions Jon Rahm and Patrick Reed and the in-form Bryson DeChambeau all have no chance this week.

Two weeks off too long to win The Masters?

It's a strong trend too, with only two of the last 20 Masters winners having more than a week off before claiming the Green Jacket, and none of the last 11 champions - according to stats maestro Justin Ray.

The LIV Golf contingent have had no option as the last event on their team golf tour took place in South Africa three weeks ago, meaning Rahm and DeChambeau, along with Tyrrell Hatton, have had two full weeks off.

After trekking around the globe playing in the Middle East, Australia and Asia that doesn't seem like too bad a plan at all - and both Rahm and DeChambeau have been in brilliant form - but this trend says that it is too long a break to take.

All the LIV Golf players, along with former LIV man Reed, also haven't even teed it up in the USA this year yet, which could be seen as a bit of a negative for their chances.

PGA Tour players usually fit in one of either the Houston Open or Texas Open following The Players Championship to have one last tune-up for Augusta and ensure they have no more than a week off.

That's not the case for a large number of well-fancied players though, with Matt Fitzpatrick taking the full two weeks off after winning the Valspar - as has Xander Schauffle after finishing fourth at the same event.

Justin Thomas, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay are another three to have had two weeks off, along with FedEx Cup leader Jacob Bridgeman who is fancied to do well on his Masters debut.

He won't win it though if this stat holds, with Bubba Watson the last man to take a fortnight off before winning The Masters in 2014.

McIlroy, Scheffler & Rose have had lengthy lay-offs

While that's bad enough, this year there are some big names that have taken even longer off before heading to The Masters, for various reasons.

And as the AP's Doug Ferguson points out you have to go back to Adam Scott in 2013 to find a Masters champion crowned after a three-week break from golf.

This then brings in World No.1 Scheffler, who has just welcomed his second child to the family, and current Green Jacket holder McIlroy who has to end that long run if he's to become just the fourth back-to-back Masters champion.

But it doesn't end there, as Players Championship winner Cameron Young hasn't teed it up since winning at TPC Sawgrass while Collin Morikawa hasn't been seen since withdrawing from the PGA Tour's flagship event with a back injury.

We can add Masters runner-up Justin Rose to that mix as well as he's not played since Sawgrass, while former champion Patrick Reed, who always seems to go well here, hasn't played for a month.

Reed last played at the Joburg Open on the DP World Tour after leaving LIV as he's not yet allowed to return to PGA Tour action. He'll definitely be on the rusty side but his course form could help him.

That's still a lot of big names that are battling against the recent rust factor, among other things, and the sheer amount of them means we likely could see an end to this run, but it does bring a few doubts for the usual suspects and could make this one of the most open Masters tournaments in years.

Congratulations must go to the Scheffler family after it was announced Meredith and Scottie have welcomed their second child into the world shortly before The Masters begins.

First announced by the Associated Press' Doug Ferguson on Sunday, the Schefflers welcomed their second son nine days ago, on Friday, March 27. Bennett's younger brother has been named Remy.

And as soon as both mom and baby were ready, the family headed over to Augusta National Golf Club as dad prepares to try and win a third Green Jacket. As you do.

Per the PGA Tour, all four members of the Scheffler group were on site at Augusta on Sunday as Scottie took part in a vital practice round before presenting some of the trophies after the Drive, Chip & Putt finals.

Meredith and Bennett watched the World No.1 warm up while his parents, Scott and Diane, tended to the newborn who was in a stroller.

The practice will be extremely important for Scheffler given he has not played competitively since The Players during mid-March.

The four-time Major winner was due to compete in his adopted home state last week but withdrew from the Texas Children’s Houston Open in anticipation of Remy’s birth.

Scheffler was on a run of 18 consecutive top-10s prior to a T12th at the Genesis Invitational in February. In his two starts since then, the 29-year-old has failed to crack the top-20 (Arnold Palmer Invitational - T24th, The Players - T22nd).

He triumphed in his opening start of the season, at the American Express, before ending T3rd at the WM Phoenix Open and T4th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Scheffler will aim to resume normal service at Augusta National this coming week while also maintaining his streak of winning The Masters in even years since 2022. His first two Green Jackets arrived in 2022 and 2024.

Betting favorite Scottie Scheffler has withdrawn from the 2026 Texas Children's Houston Open due to "family reasons", it has been announced.

Scheffler had been due to compete at this week's PGA Tour event in his adopted home state - held at Memorial Park Golf Course where he has three runner-up finishes over the past four years.

However, Golf Channel's Brentley Romine was the first to report the World No.1 and his wife Meredith are expecting their second child very soon and therefore Scheffler chose to exit the tournament before play begins in a couple of days' time.

As a result of the four-time Major winner's withdrawal, nine-time PGA Tour champion Matt Kuchar will now tee it up in the 135-man event instead. Chris Gotterup is now the highest-ranked player in the field as World No.10.

With a baby brother or sister due for Bennett Scheffler - who was born on May 8, 2024 - the soon-to-be father of two is now not expected to play again until The Masters in a little over a fortnight.

There, Scheffler will pursue a third Green Jacket off the back of a mildly turbulent preparation period.

His most recent start was at The Players where he failed to overcome a relatively disappointing first round and ended up finishing T22nd at TPC Sawgrass.

Before that, Scheffler saw his 18 consecutive top-10 finishes come to a halt via a T12th at the Genesis Invitational before a T24th result at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

As a result, Scheffler's last top-10 was at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in mid-February (T4th). The 29-year-old was T3rd at the WM Phoenix Open and claimed a runaway victory in his opening appearance of the year at the American Express.

Meanwhile, Scheffler was not the only early exit from the Houston Open thanks to six further withdrawals since Sunday.

Austin Smotherman, Cam Davis, Ryo Hisatsune, Michael Kim, Matt McCarty and Bud Cauley have all chosen to give this week a miss, with the group replaced by Doug Ghim, Danny Willett, Jimmy Stanger, Paul Waring and Jesper Svensson.

Plus, due to the inclusion of Brooks Koepka, Andrew Putnam and Kris Ventura were the pros added to the field, taking the total number of players up to 135.

Scottie Scheffler's return to the TaylorMade Qi4D driver lasted just a week as the World No.1 is now back into his beloved Qi10 at The Players Championship.

TaylorMade's new driver has seamlessly gone into the bags of Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Nelly Korda and Charley Hull among others, but Scheffler is finding it tough to switch out his usual gamer in the early part of the year.

The four-time Major champion ranked 19th in Strokes Gained: Off the tee at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with the Qi4D, gaining 1.28 strokes per round with it while hitting 53.57% of fairways.

He was full of praise for the new model after his opening round at TPC Sawgrass despite going back to his Qi10, where he explained that he was struggling to trust the new driver and admitted his old faithful has "done pretty good the last few years."

He actually lost strokes on Thursday with the Qi10, missing multiple drives to the right for a loss of -0.011 strokes off the tee to rank 68th - well below his average of +0.743 for the season so far.

"I've seen some improvements in the new driver; like my spin is much more consistent. It's actually a touch faster than my driver," Scheffler said after his opening 72.

"But the way I play, I always hit so many different types of shots and the one last week felt like it was going a little left on me, and when I want to hit my peeler a lot of times I would hit it out of the middle of the face it would start drawing on me.

"So I think that's a little bit today why the ball started going right. You look at a hole like 14, 7, 16, you can't really miss left.

"I don't think I had enough trust in what the driver head was doing compared to where I was last week. I think it can be tough sometimes to kind of block that stuff out.

"But I have seen some improvements in the new driver, it's just I haven't been able to trust it in all the different shots that I hit, especially off the tee.

"Yeah, it's done pretty good the last few years. I don't know what you think my results have been with the ball-striking, but it's a driver I've used since 2024 and 2025. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, it's a pretty good driver."

The two-time Players Champion was well below his best on Thursday but is only five back of the lead after 18 holes.

Since turning professional in 2018, Scottie Scheffler has scooped up a plethora of financial records and recently joined Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy as the only players to have surpassed $100 million in Official Money on the PGA Tour.

Multiple victories in select tournaments and the ever-inflating prize money pools in modern pro golf will go a long way to helping in that regard, but the sheer number of wins and extraordinary level of consistency when he doesn't is also no hindrance.

To date, Scheffler has 25 professional victories and two of those have arrived at The Players Championship. He is accompanied by McIlroy, Woods, Davis Love III, Hal Sutton, Steve Elkington and Fred Couples as the only golfers on a pair of triumphs at TPC Sawgrass.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jack Nicklaus is the only man so far to have won three or more Players Championships. Yet, the Golden Bear earned a grand total of $229,670 from his 18 starts - $170,000 of which were garnered from his wins in 1974, 1976 and 1978.

Meanwhile, Scheffler's total prize money at The Players is in a completely different animal entirely and helps him top the list of all-time earners by over $1 million.

The four-time Major winner has collected almost $9.3 million in just five starts - largely thanks to victories in 2023 and 2024.

Having said that, Scheffler missed the cut in his first appearance at TPC Sawgrass, so - technically - has nearly $9.3 million from only four completed tournaments.

A T55th in his second go around the PGA Tour's home course didn't pan out the way he would have wanted either, although a made cut and a check for just under $50,000 helped kickstart Scheffler's stratospheric rate of income from this event.

In 2023, the first year a $4.5 million first prize was introduced, the New Jersey-born pro truly found his feet and dominated The Players to win by five strokes on 17-under. The contest was much closer in 2024 as a one-stroke success was achieved via a 20-under score.

Having boosted his coffers by a cool $9 million in the space of two events, Scheffler was forced to settle for T20th in 2025 and picked up a perfectly agreeable consolation prize of just under $250,000.

That took his total earnings to $9,286,450 and in excess of seven figures more than his closest challenger which, after a second Players win of his own last year, is now McIlroy.

LIV Golf's Sergio Garcia is third on the all-time list with a shade under $6 million from 22 starts while Woods is fourth on $4.72 million and Jim Furyk is fifth thanks to a little more than $4 million.

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP ALL-TIME MONEY LEADERS

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER CAREER EARNINGS AT THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

Scottie Scheffler looks to be back in the TaylorMade Qi4D driver ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, having been pictured using it during the Pro-Am at Bay Hill.

The World No.1 moved into TaylorMade's brand new model in December at the Hero World Challenge but was back in his beloved Qi10 Dot for the American Express in his first start of 2026.

He won his 20th PGA Tour title in Palm Springs with his old faithful and has kept it in the bag, until this week.

The World No.1's Qi4D is fitted with his usual Fujikura Ventus Black Velocore 7 X shaft and also has his own custom blue carbon face, just like the one fitted in the Qi10.

It also doesn't have the white strip at the top like usual TaylorMade driver faces, and the blue helps with his confidence of seeing the face and loft at address.

Scheffler rarely changes his driver, having used the Qi10 since early 2024 all through the 2025 season. It was in the bag for three of his four Major wins as well as multiple PGA Tour victories and the Olympics.

He is a fairly late adopter of the new Qi4D driver, with TaylorMade staffers including Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Charley Hull, Nelly Korda and Brooke Henderson all moving straight into it this year.

"Yeah, for me so far this driver's been a really good fit for my eye and that's always the first test for me," he said of the Qi4D in December.

"So far the performance has been good, my spin numbers have been really consistent, ball flight's been consistent and looking forward to getting it in competition.

"So last year I had a little bit of trouble getting into the Qi35 and I feel like we learned a lot throughout that process of what I like to see in a driver, the way it needs to perform for me specifically.

"Going into this year I feel like Adrian [Rietveld, his fitter] and the whole team at TaylorMade had a really good kind of idea of what my eyes needed to see in order for the driver to be able to work.

"We went through a lot of different kind of options for what the face needed to be specifically for me and felt like we're in a good spot, and then the testing was a lot simpler this time around for sure."

Scheffler ranks 2nd in Strokes Gained: Off the tee this season so far and has been averaging 310.8 yards.

Most people know by now that Scottie Scheffler is very good at golf. And with that comes the ability to earn an awful lot of money.

The World No.1's Official Money total on the PGA Tour recently surpassed $100 million, with only Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods for company in the exclusive nine-figure earnings club.

And, as far as Scheffler's overall career earnings go, we make that number more than $200 million (and climbing steadily early on in 2026), largely thanks to 25 professional wins.

Two of those victories have arrived at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which has helped inflate Scheffler's extraordinary bank balance to the level it now finds itself.

The first of Scheffler's API successes was in 2022 when the then-25-year-old saw off Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton and Billy Horschel by a stroke after posting five-under for the week.

It was only Scheffler's second-ever PGA Tour victory, but it arrived just weeks after his first at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open. For his reward at Bay Hill, the adopted Texan earned $2.16 million.

Then, in 2024, the former University of Texas at Austin golfer absolutely ran away with the title, posting 15-under and winning by five from Wyndham Clark.

With the API having been designated as what is now known as a Signature Event by that point, Scheffler was able to scoop the $4 million first prize.

His record in the other three appearances at this event isn't bad, either, by the way. The four-time Major winner finished a career-worst T15th on his debut in 2020 before Covid ensured he wouldn't have the chance to improve on that in 2021.

Sandwiching his wins in 2022 and 2024 was a respectable T4th in 2023, where an $800,000 windfall arrived at the end of his first title defence. In 2025, during the second title defence, Scheffler managed T11th and collected just over $450,000.

In total, the most dominant figure in men's golf right now has earned more than $7.5 million in just five starts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Remarkably, that has allowed him to move within touching distance of Woods in terms of most money won at this event.

In case you weren't aware, Woods has claimed this championship a record eight times from 18 starts and banked almost $7.66 million along the way.

Woods tops the all-time API money list by nearly $86,000, meaning that if Scheffler can finish solo 40th or better this week, he will overtake the 82-time PGA Tour winner's cash total in 12 fewer starts.

Clearly, there are a couple of key caveats involved in that statement - such as inflation and larger prize pools - but the wider point remains that Scheffler is making a considerable amount of money from this event and appears unlikely to stop any time soon.

Below are the top-three earners of all time at the Arnold Palmer Invitational as well as a full breakdown of Scheffler's results and payouts since his debut in 2020.

ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL CAREER MONEY LIST

• 1: Tiger Woods - $7,657,559 (18 starts, 8 wins)
• 2: Scottie Scheffler - $7,571,675 (5 starts, 2 wins)
• 3: Rory McIlroy - $5,580,328 (11 starts, 1 win)

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER'S ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL RESULTS AND PAYOUTS

Slow starts have become a theme recently for Scottie Scheffler of late, but he's made his worst one ever on the PGA Tour during the rain affected first round of the Genesis Invitational.

It's a rare sight to see the World No.1 at the bottom of a leaderboard, but he was propping up the field when play was stopped on the first day at a sodden Riviera Country Club.

The caveat of course is that due to weather delays Scheffler had only completed 10 holes before Thursday's play came to a close - but it was the worst 10-hole start he'd ever made on the PGA Tour.

Scheffler made three bogeys and a double bogey in an error-strewn start at Riviera to sit on five over for 10 holes, which stats guru Justin Ray reliably informed us all was his worst ever return.

His next worst was a four-over start after 10 holes of the 2014 Byron Nelson - when Scheffler was a mere 17-year-old amateur just starting out on what would build into an amazing career.

And it's the four-time Major champion's dominant displays of brilliant consistency that make any big mishaps like Thursday at Riviera headline news in golfing circles.

Even if Scheffler can rescue the situation on Friday, it still marks three first rounds in a row for him, after also starting slowly at the WM Phoenix Open and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

We also have to emphasize these are bad starts for Scheffler, given his insane level of production - as on the face of things shooting 73 at TPC Scottsdale and 72 at Pebble Beach aren't exactly disasters.

Phoenix was a bad round statistically for Scheffler. It snapped a run of 33 straight rounds under par and he showed rare signs of frustration after some basic errors.

He came roaring back both times though to finish T3 and T4 and make it an amazing 18 consecutive top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour - the most since Billy Casper's 17 in 1964-65.

So he'll likely not stay at the foot of the leaderboard much longer, but he already has a lot of ground to make up on clubhouse leader Rory McIlroy, who made his best ever start to the tournament.

The Northern Irishman is making his 10th start at Riviera and carded a five-under round of 66 as he navigated the tough conditions with just one bogey.

Jacob Bridgeman was the only man who could match McIlroy's 66, but England's Aaron Rai could top him as he sat on six under after 16 holes.

Scottie Scheffler has been the best player on the planet by some distance over the last few years and, in his last 17 PGA Tour starts, he hasn't finished outside the top 10.

However, this impressive record is in jeopardy at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, with the 20-time PGA Tour winner finding himself not just well back of leader, Akshay Bhatia, going into the final round, but also the top 10 positions.

Sitting 11-under-par, and alongside nine other players going into Sunday, Scheffler is three shots back from those inside the top 10, as well as eight back of fellow countryman, Bhatia.

Scheffler hasn't finished outside the top 10 since The Players Championship in March of last year, where he ended his tournament T20th following rounds of 69, 70, 72 and 73.

Since then, and in his last 17 starts, Scheffler has claimed seven wins, including two Majors, and hasn't registered a result worse than T8th, which came at the Genesis Scottish Open.

The 17 straight top 10 finishes is the most on the PGA Tour since Billy Casper in 1965 and, if Scheffler were to make his way into the top 10 at Pebble Beach, it would give him the second longest streak of consecutive top 10s in PGA Tour event history, with the top accolade belonging to Byron Nelson.

On Sunday, though, Scheffler will need to find a low score in what will, likely, be tough conditions on the Monterey Peninsula, with tee times moved up to avoid inclement weather.

Last week, Scheffler's record was in doubt at the WM Phoenix Open, especially after the 29-year-old opened his tournament with a two-over-par 73 that left him well down the leaderboard.

In typical Scheffler-fashion, though, he shot second, third and fourth rounds of 65, 67 and 64 to finish one back of leaders Chris Gotterup and Hideki Matsuyama, with the former winning in a playoff.

If Scheffler were to finish outside the top 10, it would also be another impressive record that has ended in 2026, with Xander Schauffele's cut streak of 72 falling by the wayside at the Farmers Insurance Open.

At Torrey Pines, Schauffele, who was making his first start of 2026, carded rounds of 73 and 69 to miss the cut by a single stroke and fail to make it into a weekend for the first time in 1,391 days.

For Scheffler, who finished T9th at the AT&T Pebble Beach last year, he will hope for another strong Sunday showing to keep his record intact ahead of a busy period of golf.

Over the last four years, Scottie Scheffler has become the dominant force of the men’s game, having won his maiden PGA Tour title at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, and heading to the TPC Scottsdale event in 2026 with an incredible 20 wins on the circuit.

That dominance is also reflected in the length of time he has been at the top of the world rankings, with Scheffler’s fourth stint at the summit standing at 142 weeks and the American having spent a total of 177 weeks looking down on everyone else.

Inevitably, a player demonstrating such superiority very rarely has a failure. Indeed, you have to go back almost 11 months to find the last time Scheffler didn’t finish in the top 10 at a tournament, when he “slumped” to a T20 at The Players Championship while defending his title.

Scheffler no doubt arrived in Arizona confident of not only continuing that run of top-10s but winning the title for the third time, particularly after getting his season off to a dominant start with victory at The American Express two weeks earlier.

However, after the opening round, not only did he risk missing out on the top 10, but he also had work to do to make the cut.

Scheffler made some uncharacteristic errors in the first round of the tournament, including five bogeys and a double to finish on a two-over 73.

Fans also aren’t accustomed to seeing Scheffler lose his cool on the course, but that happened at the 18th, when he duffed a chip onto the green, appearing close to snapping a wedge across his legs as the ball rolled back down towards his feet.

The upshot of Scheffler’s frustrating round meant that, as well as avoiding the media, he was likely needing to go at least two under on Friday to continue a long run of made cuts. But how long?

Well, the last time Scheffler failed to make it beyond the halfway stage of a tournament was in August 2022 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, when rounds of 71 and 68 meant he finished under par but missed the cut by one.

Since then, Scheffler has made it beyond 36 holes on 65 consecutive occasions, with Corey Conners his nearest rival on the list with 20.

While that is a yawning gap, remarkably, until last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, where Scheffler didn’t play, he wasn’t even the player with the most ongoing consecutive cuts made.

Going into the Torrey Pines event, Xander Schauffele held that honor, leading Scheffler by seven on 72, the fifth-longest running in PGA Tour history, before he failed to make it beyond 36 holes.

All eyes will be on Scheffler on Friday to see if he can continue his own remarkable run by making it to the weekend.

However, even if he does, he still has some way to go to beat the PGA Tour record of consecutive cuts made, which is held by Tiger Woods and was set at an astonishing 142, coming to an end at the 2005 Byron Nelson Classic.

So Scottie Scheffler is human after all! That was the general feeling at TPC Scottsdale after the World No.1 produced a rare stinker of a round at the WM Phoenix Open.

The huge favorite heading into an event where he won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023, Scheffler laid an uncharacteristic egg with some bad errors we're just not accustomed to seeing from the model of sustained excellence.

The fact only he signed for a two-over round of 73, yet makes headlines as if it was 83, speaks volumes for just how stratospheric a level he usually operates at, but it was more about the body language and visible frustration over his mistakes which caught the eye.

Shaking his wedge in rage after a duffed chip and skipping the media after a round containing five bogeys and a double are both sights we just don't associate with usually the coolest cucumber on the PGA Tour.

Just a week after inheriting the longest active streak of made cuts following Xander Schauffele's early exit at Torrey Pines, Scheffler now faces a tough task to make the weekend in Scottsdale for the 64th straight event.

The viral clip on social media sees Scheffler almost duffing a chip onto the 18th green, than almost snapping a wedge across his legs as the ball rolls back down towards his feet.

Cue the 'one of us' lines emerging - as even the best golfer on the planet shows the type of maddening frustration that only this sport can elicit. Sooner or later, golf will get you.

But it's taken some time to get to Scheffler, who has been a golfing robot of late with Thursday's 73 ending a run of 33 rounds of par or better dating back to last June's Travelers Championship.

Scheffler's also been a Strokes Gained machine pumping out numbers only Tiger Woods could live with, but this effort was his worst for over two years - since the 2023 Tour Championship.

The 29-year-old also lost ground on the field with his iron play, which is almost unheard of, while around the greens he lost over two shots to the pack as his usually gifted hands let him down.

Such sloppy play obviously rattled Scheffler as he went bogey-bogey-doubley bogey around the turn in his round - with that run of three holes equalling the total dropped shots he had during his American Express victory a couple of weeks ago.

That win in his 2026 debut maintained his astonishing run of form and gave him a seventh win in 14 events, a 50% strike rate that just shouldn't be possible in the modern game.

The run includes two Major victories and a lowest finish of T8, and that consistency meant that nobody saw this round coming - not so much the score but in Scheffler's irritated demeanour.

Declining to speak with the media Scheffler instead headed straight to the practice ground as his target now shifts to making the weekend and trying to preserve his incredible run of 16 straight top-10 finishes.

If there's one player you couldn't rule out making a roaring comeback though it's Scheffler. He'll be must-watch viewing on Friday.

Blades Brown just experienced a Sunday that is almost unfathomable for most 18-year-olds, getting the chance to go toe-to-toe with the World No.1 in a PGA Tour final group.

The young prospect found himself in the final trio at The American Express alongside Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim before dropping down to T18th after a closing 74.

Still, the teenager ended the week at 19-under-par for 72 holes to take home $118,000 along with some remarkable learnings after seeing Scheffler up close, who won his 20th PGA Tour title in an assured final day.

"Yeah, I have so much to take away from this week," Brown said after his round, where he revealed which part of Scheffler's game really stood out.

"Getting to play with Scottie Scheffler in the final group at 18 years old is - I had to pinch myself couple of times just to make sure I was, you know, this was real. Not the Sunday that I would have liked, but I overall had so much fun playing the American Express this week.

"I was feeling really good throughout the entire round. I would say one of the coolest things that I learned today was how underrated Scottie Scheffler's short game is.

"To see it in person and just to look at kind of the trajectory and the spin, and just the control that he has with his wedges and short game. Obviously his putting is insane too. It was really cool to watch. So I'm definitely going to go work on that."

The boy from Nashville had just completed his eighth consecutive day of playing competitive golf after competing in the Korn Ferry Tour's Bahamas Great Abaco Classic from Sunday to Wednesday before flying to California for the AmEx.

"Eight rounds I know sounds like a lot, but I was having a lot of fun. You're telling me I get to play in a PGA Tour event and to play with Scottie Scheffler and see him win it, that was insane," he said.

"I got some things I got to sharpen up, and hopefully we see if we can do what Scottie's doing."

Brown then joked he could write a book on what he has learned from his weekend in contention.

"I mean, shoot, I could probably write a book about what I've learned these past couple of days," he said with a laugh following rounds of 67, 60, 68 and 74.

"Just knowing that I can compete out here. It was so cool watching Scottie win in person and getting to play with him.

"He's such an unbelievable guy. He talked to me numerous times throughout the round and was giving me a lot of encouragement, so it was awesome."

Brown will play primarily on the Korn Ferry Tour this season, where he will be hoping to finish inside the top-20 at the end of the season to earn full PGA Tour status for 2027.

Scottie Scheffler has had a much better start to the year than 2025, when he was sidelined with a hand injury following an accident in the kitchen when trying to make ravioli.

This time around, the World No.1 is fully fit and has had a healthy off-season to practice, and it showed with a flawless 63 (-9) to open the American Express.

He did so with his old trusty TaylorMade Qi10 driver, which has been in the bag since early 2024 including his two Major triumphs last year. It marks a change for the Texan, who put in TaylorMade's new Qi4D driver in his last start at the Hero World Challenge.

"Yeah, for me so far this driver's been a really good fit for my eye and that's always the first test for me," he said of the Qi4D last month.

"So far the performance has been good, my spin numbers have been really consistent, ball flight's been consistent and looking forward to getting it in competition.

"So last year I had a little bit of trouble getting into the Qi35 and I feel like we learned a lot throughout that process of what I like to see in a driver, the way it needs to perform for me specifically.

"Going into this year I feel like Adrian [Rietveld, his fitter] and the whole team at TaylorMade had a really good kind of idea of what my eyes needed to see in order for the driver to be able to work.

"We went through a lot of different kind of options for what the face needed to be specifically for me and felt like we're in a good spot, and then the testing was a lot simpler this time around for sure."

He found just 35.71% (5/14) fairways with his trusty Qi10 core dot model in his first round of 2026 to rank 148th in the field, although he did hit 17/18 greens and went on to make nine birdies and nine pars.

"Felt I could have hit a few more fairways on the back nine, give myself some more opportunities," he said after his 63.

"Even the fairways I was missing, I was missing on the correct side. The out of bounds can sneak up on you a little bit on this golf course.

"And it was nice, to, even though I wasn't hitting it my best on the back, but to keep it in play and give myself some opportunities."

Scheffler's Qi10 is a 'dot' head, which is tour-only and lower spinning than the standard driver, and comes in 8° of loft, set at 7.5°.

His clubface is a brighter blue than standard as he "likes the face to pop" according to his Rietveld. He also does not have the standard white banner strip at the top of the face either.

When he put the Qi4D in play last month, he kept the blue face in play - so it's clearly something he is very comfortable with. He ranked 2nd in Strokes Gained: Off the tee on the PGA Tour last season and 1st in SG: Tee to green, as well as many other categories.

The Qi4D line has had an impressive take-up by pros on tour since it was first spotted late last year. Rory McIlroy immediately put it in the bag, as did Tommy Fleetwood, Nelly Korda, Charley Hull and Collin Morikawa.

Jayden Schaper also used it to win back-to-back tournaments on the DP World Tour.

The second PGA Tour event season following the Sony Open in Hawaii comes from La Quinta in California, where three courses – PGA West Stadium Course, the Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club – host the action.

There, the largest field of the PGA Tour season, 156, will compete, the only event to maintain that number following the decision to reduce the maximum in other full-field tournaments to 144.

Among the players confirmed for the tournament are the defending champion, other former winners of The American Express and Major winners, including the current World No.1, Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler’s most recent world ranking event came in December’s Hero World Challenge, where he finished T4, while you need to go back to September’s Procore Championship for his last appearance in an official PGA Tour event, when he edged out Ben Griffin in what was a warm-up for the Ryder Cup.

The American is back in PGA Tour action earlier than in 2025. Back then, he had to wait until February’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am after injuring his hand the previous Christmas Day.

Despite taking some time to get up to speed, ultimately, he dominated men’s golf for the second successive season, with six wins including Majors the PGA Championship and The Open.

Thanks to his brilliance in recent years, Scheffler will head to California in the world number one spot for the 140th successive week - a run not seen since Tiger Woods’ 281-week record between 2005 and 2010.

This will be Scheffler’s sixth appearance at the event, although he is yet to win it. Is 2026 the year that changes?

While that remains to be seen, he seems certain to face stiff competition, not least from defending champion Sepp Straka, who beat Justin Thomas by two a year ago.

Other former winners of the tournament in the field include Nick Dunlap, who created headlines in 2024 when he became the first player to win a PGA Tour event as an amateur since Phil Mickelson in 1991. Si Woo Kim, who won five years ago, is also in the field.

Other big names who will be determined to ensure Scheffler doesn’t begin the year with a win include fellow Major winners Wyndham Clark, who won the US Open in 2023, and 2022 US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick.

Brian Harman is another Major winner in the field, with the 2023 Open champion looking for his first win since last April’s Valero Texas Open.

They’re far from the only big names set to compete at the event, with Scheffler’s fellow 2025 US Ryder Cup stars Griffin, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns and Harris English also involved.

Aside from Straka, there is also plenty of representation from the European team who won at Bethpage Black in the form of Ludvig Aberg, Rasmus Hojgaard, Robert Macintyre and Justin Rose.

Other notable names heading to La Quinta include Billy Horschel, Rickie Fowler and 2023 PGA Championship hero Michael Block, who has recently signed to Malbon as an ambassador.

Fans of one recent high-profile addition to the PGA Tour roster, former LIV Golfer Brooks Koepka, will need to wait another week to catch a glimpse of the five-time Major winner in action, with the American set to tee it up at the Farmers Insurance Open.

However, while there is no shortage of top talent among the 156 players at the tournament, there is no doubt that most attention will be on Scheffler as he continues his quest for greatness with another dominant PGA Tour season.

While plenty changed (or remained frustratingly stagnant) in the world of golf during 2025, there continued to be an extraordinary amount of money on offer to those fighting it out at the top of the professional game.

The PGA Tour shared out over half a billion dollars in prize money while the LIV Golf League put up more than $260 million across its much shorter season.

Meanwhile, the LPGA Tour offered a record amount of prize money last year at more than $132 million. And yet, according to data from Sportico, not only did no female golfers make the top-100 highest-paid athletes last year, no female from any sport earned enough to be included.

The top-100 highest-paid athletes in the world during 2025 earned an estimated $6 billion in income and competed in just eight different sports - golf being one of them.

World soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo led the way with an incredible $260 million while the 100th-ranked athlete - British NBA talent OG Anunoby of the New York Knicks - banked a healthy $37.9 million in 2025. In between were six golfers, three fewer than in 2024.

Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton and Collin Morikawa all scooped between $55m-$43m last year, but their income dipped considerably over the following 12 months and they were no longer on the list.

Of the remaining six, a couple of golfers have swapped in terms of the order while most have changed positions in terms of the top-100.

Leading the way for golf in 2025 was Jon Rahm. Per Sportico, the Spaniard earned an eye-watering $84.7 million before adding $16 million in endorsements to reach a grand total of $100.7 million.

According to the sports business title, many of the top LIV golfers received around half of their bonus payment for signing up front and another portion when they played their first event.

The remaining part of the signing bonus is reportedly paid out during the life of the contract, hence the significant boost in Rahm's earnings after the total prize money he claimed in 2025.

The Legion XIII captain - who failed to win a tournament during this time but still claimed LIV Golf's individual championship - earned around $4 million less than in 2024 but stayed in 10th position, just as he was last year.

Then came Rory McIlroy with a total income of $91.2 million, helped considerably by his win at The Masters, his victory at The Players Championship and his success on the DP World Tour as well.

Despite collecting just over $36 million in prize money, the five-time Major winner was one of two golfers in the top-100 list to secure more through endorsements with a total of $55 million leaving him 14th in terms of highest-paid athletes.

Just two spots behind McIlroy was Scottie Scheffler. The World No.1 earned $50.9 million in 2025 and banked $32 million through endorsements to enjoy a total income of $82.9 million.

Bryson DeChambeau was the fourth and final golfer to fall inside the top-25, proving just how lucrative the sport is in the modern era.

The Crushers GC captain scooped $42.7 million via salary and winnings while adding on a further $20 million and sitting 23rd in the top-100.

The final two pro golfers inside the top-100 highest-paid athletes for 2025 were Joaquin Niemann and unsurprisingly, Tiger Woods.

Niemann won five LIV Golf League titles to rack up an impressive $44.2 million in earnings but only banked $3 million in endorsements. That left him 63rd.

Meanwhile, Woods picked up less than $500,000 in earnings but - thanks to his status as arguably the greatest of all time - clinched $54 million in endorsements to put him 41st.

HIGHEST PAID GOLFERS 2025

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler will get his 2026 PGA Tour season under way at The American Express in California.

Scheffler has confirmed his attendance at La Quinta for the January 22-25 event that has a stellar line-up building for officially the second tournament on the PGA Tour schedule.

Played over three courses at the Californian resort, the American Express field will see Scheffler joined by the likes of Justin Rose, Patrick Cantlay, Robert MacIntyre, Tom Kim, Adam Scott, Sam Burns, Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler.

Scheffler will again be the headline act though as he starts his 2026 campaign looking to somehow follow last year's double Major triumph at the PGA Championship and The Open.

Scheffler won a fourth consecutive PGA Tour Player of the Year last year, pipping new Grand Slam champion Rory McIlroy to the Jack Nicklaus award.

Winning the Claret Jug at Royral Portrush also gave Scheffler three of the four Major titles so he'll aim to join McIlroy in the Grand Slam club at this year's US Open.

As well as continuing at World No.1 and winning two Majors, Scheffler also claimed victories at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, the Memorial Tournament, the BMW Championship and the Procore Championship.

Again showing his consistent dominance on the PGA Tour - Scheffler won the Byron Nelson Award for the lowest Scoring Average for the third year in a row with his brilliant 68.131.

And Scheffler’s six total wins in 2025 followed on from seven in 2024 to see him join Tiger Woods as the only players to win six or more titles in multiple seasons since 1983.

One title Scheffler doesn't have to his name though is The American Express, where his best finish so far has been third in 2020.

Scheffler missed last year's American Express, won by Sepp Straka, after injuring his hand over Christmas - so this one will very much be a target for him.

Scheffler has also committed to playing at the WM Phoenix Open in February - a tournament he won in 2022 and 2023.

Scottie Scheffler has been the dominant force in men's golf since the turn of the decade, racking up four Majors wins and 19 PGA Tour titles.

Holding the World No.1 position for over three years, he has undergone multiple equipment changes throughout his career, using clubs from various manufacturers.

Now a TaylorMade staffer, he has previously wielded Nike, Titleist, Callaway and Ping clubs, with a full breakdown of his equipment changes listed below...

2014: PGA Tour Debut - HP Byron Nelson Championship

As a 17-year-old, Scheffler made his debut on the PGA Tour at the 2014 Byron Nelson Championship, where he made the cut, had a hole-in-one during round three and finished in a share of 22nd on the leaderboard.

In terms of his bag set-up, he was using a Nike VRS Covert driver, which was known for its eye-catching red colorway and used by the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Scheffler also had a set of Nike VR Pro Forged irons in-play, as well as a Nike Method Converge B1 01 putter. The full Nike set-up helped show what the American was capable of, as it remained in the bag throughout his junior career.

2017: US Open Low Amateur Honors

Having used Nike clubs for the last few years, Scheffler was forced to change at the end of 2016, due to the fact that Nike ceased golf club manufacturing that season.

Eventually, Scheffler opted to use primarily TaylorMade equipment, a brand he joined in 2022. He also had Callaway Jaws MD wedges and kept a Nike fairway wood in-play, as well as the putter.

At the US Open in 2017, he earned low amateur honors, using a TaylorMade M1 driver and Tour Preferred irons. This set-up primarily remained at the Walker Cup, where Scheffler claimed one win and one loss in USA's 19-7 domination at Los Angeles Country Club.

2018/19: Turning Pro And Korn Ferry Tour Player Of The Year Title

Turning professional after graduating from the University of Texas in 2018, Scheffler appeared in a few PGA Tour events and then stamped his mark on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019, claiming two wins and the circuit's Final Points List, Player of the Year honors and its Rookie of the Year title.

It was during 2019 where we started to see the traditional Scheffler set-up we see now, with the Srixon ZU85 utility iron appearing in the bag, a club he still uses to this day.

Being an equipment free agent, he had a Ping G400 LST driver and continued to use Nike fairway woods. TaylorMade irons were also in the bag, specifically the P730s, which were popular among the TaylorMade staffers at the time.

Swapping his wedges, primarily using the Callaway MD Jaws, Scheffler briefly had a TaylorMade Spider Tour Red putter in-play, but reverted to a Scotty Cameron blade, specifically the Scotty Cameron Special Select Tour Type GSS.

2020: PGA Tour Rookie Of The Year And A 59

After his successful Korn Ferry Tour stint, Scheffler became a PGA Tour member and, although he didn't win during his maiden season, he recorded a number of excellent results, highlighted by a 59 at The Northern Trust.

Once again, the American used a mix bag of golf clubs, opting for a Ping G400 LST driver, but occasionally swapping it out for a TaylorMade Stealth, which he used at that year's US Open.

The Nike VR Pro 3-wood and Srixon ZU85 utility irons remained, as did the TaylorMade P730 irons from 5-PW.

Again, Callaway MD wedges were present, as was an Artisan 60° lob wedge.

A Scotty Cameron Circle T Newport was the putter of choice for Scheffler, who remained in a blade-style flatstick.

2021/22: Ryder Cup Debut And Rise To World No.1

Selected as a US Ryder Cup captain's pick by Steve Stricker, Scheffler went on to earn two wins and a tie at the event. He also changed his caddie to Ted Scott, which has proved to be a hugely successful appointment, as Scheffler ascended to the World No.1 spot in 2022.

It wasn't the only change made by Scheffler, who claimed victory after victory that year. He also changed the majority of his bag, opting for a more TaylorMade-based set-up.

He did have a Ping G425 LST driver momentarily, but then moved to the TaylorMade Stealth Plus, with the driver shaft also being swapped to the Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X.

As well as the driver, his Nike VR Pro 3-wood was retired, having been in the bag for nearly a decade. Like the driver, the TaylorMade Stealth Plus 3-wood was introduced.

Another TaylorMade influence came in the irons, as Scheffler started using the P7TW, a model that has remained in his bag ever-since.

Inspired by Tiger Woods, Scheffler kept the True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts and the 5-PW set-up. He also introduced Titleist Vokey SM8 wedges which, like the irons, have remained ever-since.

Putter-wise, the American had a Scotty Cameron Special Select Timeless Tourtype GSS Prototype in the bag. His performance on the greens was, statistically, the worst part of his game but, despite this, Scheffler continued to dominate.

March 2024: A New Putter In The Bag

Aside from updating his driver and fairway woods to the more recent TaylorMade models - Stealth 2 Plus and Qi10 - the most influential change came in the flatstick and it came after a fellow competitor made a suggestion while on broadcast.

Rory McIlroy, who turned pundit at the 2024 Genesis Invitational, offered some thoughts on what Scheffler could do to solve his putting problems, suggesting a change to a mallet-design putter.

At that year's Arnold Palmer Invitational, the World No.1 rocked up with a TaylorMade Spider Tour X and, as they say, the rest is history, with Scheffler going on to dominate the golf world and raise his putting stats.

Along with the change to the mallet, Scheffler also added half an inch in length to the putter, which led to a season that included a second Masters title, an Olympic gold medal and a first FedEx Cup win.

Stats-wise, he ranked 162nd in Strokes Gained: Putting for 2023. For 2024, that number was 77th and, for this season, it was 22nd, showcasing the impact a change to the mallet putter had on his short game.

2025: Minimal Changes Needed

After changing his putter, Scheffler didn't make any more equipment adjustments, keeping his set-up as consistent as possible.

He briefly trialed the TaylorMade Qi35 driver, but kept with the Qi10. Being the World No.1, it did have some differences to the standard models, such as a brighter blue clubface, heavier weighting in the sole and no hot melt.

Keeping it in the bag for the 2024 and 2025 season, Scheffler did change the Qi10 for the Qi4D, which hit the USGA's Conforming List in mid-November.

Like his Qi10, Scheffler kept the bright blue face on the Qi4D, with the 29-year-old first spotted using it at the Hero World Challenge.

He also put the Qi4D fairway wood in his bag, but the Srixon ZU85 utility iron, TaylorMade P7TW irons, Titleist Vokey SM8 and TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter have remained in his set-up for nearly two years.

One other aspect is the golf ball but, like the clubs in his bag, Scheffler has remained with the Titleist Pro V1 for a significant amount of time.

Interestingly, he only uses high-numbered golf balls (5, 6, 7 and 8), with the man himself claiming it's "because it's easier to identify."

I'm not sure if you've heard, but there's good money in professional golf these days - allow Scottie Scheffler's career to prove it.

Although he wasn't able to cash in yet, the New Jersey-born golfer experienced his first taste of the PGA Tour as early as 2014, finishing T22nd as an amateur at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. A month or so later, Scheffler missed the cut at the FedEx St Jude Classic.

He qualified for his first US Open in 2016 and teed it up a handful more times on the PGA Tour before eventually turning professional in 2018 and joining the Korn Ferry Tour via Q-School in 2019. Now he could start earning some money.

However, it wasn't plain sailing for Scheffler right away. In his first year as a pro, he secured a modest $31,642.50 thanks to a T43rd at the FedEx St Jude Classic and a T34th result in Web.com Tour Q-School.

Scheffler's fortunes quickly took a turn for the better, though, and he banked over $700,000 in 2019 via a couple of wins and two more runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour's feeder circuit. That helped Scheffler end the term third in the points list and achieve promotion to the PGA Tour for 2020.

The following season saw the man who would go on to become World No.1 surpass the seven-figure mark in terms of earnings for the first time. It would not be the last. Scheffler didn't actually win in the 2019-20 season, but seven top-10s helped him collect over $5.3 million, all told.

It was a similar story in 2021 as well with no wins but a couple of strong results - namely the runner-up finish at the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play and a third-place at the Memorial Tournament. That led to earnings of just under $5 million.

Scheffler's earning power reached stratospheric levels in 2022 and they've never really looked back since. A first Masters triumph was one of four wins that season with four more runner-up finishes and another 11 top-10s.

Now one of the best players in the world, Scheffler almost reached the $30 million mark via the help of $9.5 million in bonus money as well.

2023 featured a level of consistency that has come to define Scheffler. Three more wins and a trio of runner-up finishes highlighted 17 top-10 results from 25 events, with almost $33.4 million the financial reward for his quality.

Having reached the summit of men's professional golf and apparently in no mood to come down any time soon, Scheffler's 2024 saw another Masters title become the crowning jewel in a year for the history books.

He won a remarkable nine times from just 21 starts and racked up a mammoth $76 million in total prize money.

Meanwhile, even though the most recent full season was delayed slightly by an accidental hand injury (you know the story by now), Scheffler still managed to earn over $27 million in prize money and $23 million in bonus cash which took his annual sum to over $50 million.

All of the aforementioned figures include official money, unofficial money and bonus money, it should be said. But, due to the lack of available information regarding endorsements and other sponsorship deals, those numbers have not been included.

In total, through just over seven years as a professional golfer, Scheffler has earned a little more than $201 million.

However, if even the two years of endorsements reported by Sportico are taken into account (2023 and 2024), Scheffler's earnings would have sky rocketed by around $47 million.

Below is a complete breakdown of the World No.1's earnings by year, split by on-course money and bonuses.

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER CAREER EARNINGS: YEAR BY YEAR

Scottie Scheffler has been drawing Tiger Woods comparisons over the past two seasons, with the World No.1 dominating the men's game to levels not seen since Woods' injuries took their toll in the late 2000s.

Scheffler has won three Majors since the start of 2024 and ten other PGA Tour titles as well as Olympic Gold. The Texan has now spent over 165 weeks as World No.1 and is far and away the best player in the sport right now.

His statistics are quite remarkable, as you'll find him top of many, many tables on the PGA Tour including Strokes Gained total, tee-to-green and approach-the-green as well as scoring average, money won, proximity to the hole, bounce back, bogey avoidance and many others.

But how does he compare to the average PGA Tour pro? The circuit records average numbers for many categories, and it's remarkable how many Scheffler is far ahead of the average.

Having looked at many of them, we noticed he was below average for combined distance of putts made per round, which is likely due to many tap-ins from close wedge shots and chips, as well as 'Smash Factor', which measures how efficient you are at transferring energy from the club head into the ball, calculated by dividing ball speed by clubhead speed.

But apart from those two statistics, it is quite difficult to find any area Scheffler isn't better than PGA Tour average in. Let's take a category-by-category look...

Scoring

Scheffler leads the PGA Tour in scoring average with 68.131, which is almost three strokes better than the average of 71.079 and a total only ever beaten by Tiger Woods.

This gulf vs tour average equates to almost 12 strokes over the course of four rounds!

He does this by making 4.7 birdies per round, 0.9 more than the average PGA Tour player, and just 1.73 bogeys per round - 0.86 fewer than the average. Scheffler made bogey just 10.56% of the time on the PGA Tour this season compared to the average of 16.22%.

What make these numbers more impressive is the fact Scheffler's stats include his performances in the Majors, too, which tend to be on more demanding courses. The average PGA Tour pro likely does not play in all four Majors.

Driving

Scheffler is not necessarily known for his driving prowess, but he should be.

He is 5.5 yards longer than PGA Tour average, with a ball speed of more than 2.5mph faster than average and clubhead speed of more than 3.5mph ahead.

His carry distance is almost eight yards ahead of average and he finds more fairways, too.

He might not hit it as far as Rory McIlroy or Bryson DeChambeau, but off the tee he is undoubtedly one of the world's best.

Iron play

Scheffler is famous for his incredible iron play, having led the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Approach for the last three years.

His 71.39% greens in regulation total is far better than the average pro and he is well clear in every single category, including proximity, GIR both under and over 100 yards and from fairway bunkers.

He managed 19 hole-outs in the 2025 season, which is up from 12 last year and 11 ahead of the average PGA Tour pro.

Around the greens

The World No.1's short game is another of his strengths.

Scheffler leads the tour in scrambling, getting up-and-down 68.89% of the time, and gets it down in two from greenside bunkers with a success rate of more than 57%.

Putting

Putting has been somewhat of an achilles heel throughout his short career so far but he has seriously turned it around over the past couple of years, likely thanks to his work with putting guru Phil Kenyon and his switch to the TaylorMade Spider X mallet model. He also moved to the claw grip late last year.

The four-time Major champion can now be considered as a very good putter, ranking 16th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season.

Scheffler averages over a shot fewer per round on the greens than the average PGA Tour pro and three-putts just 2.08% of the time.

Money

All of these impressive stats are the reason why we see Scheffler win a lot of tournaments and challenge for the title almost every time he tees it up.

He has six victories in 2025 and has finished inside the top-10 on 17 occasions, a whopping 14 more times than the average PGA Tour pro.

That all adds up to a remarkable amount of money, especially with the finances in the men's game these days. His $27.66m total in official earnings this year is a huge $25.32m more than the average pro's earnings.

He has won over 40% of the maximum amount of money he could have earned this year, with an average of $1.38m per tournament compared to $100,000 for the average pro - meaning he earns 14 times the average pro in each event.

He also picks up 10 times the amount of FedEx Cup points vs the average pro, too.

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy have enjoyed a stellar year between them courtesy of three Major championship victories and seven tour wins.

McIlroy wrapped up an early success at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am before famously completing the career Grand Slam at The Masters.

In addition, the World No.2 triumphed in an enthralling playoff at The Players Championship before later going on to help Team Europe win the Ryder Cup once more.

On the other hand, Scheffler took a few weeks to find his groove following a ravioli-induced hand injury. But, once he did, the World No.1 consistently blew PGA Tour fields away and further cemented his status as the outright best player in the world.

Four PGA Tour wins and two Majors were landed among a sequence of 15 starts where Scheffler finished no worse than T8th.

But while Scheffler undoubtedly earned more titles than McIlroy, the magnitude of the five-time Major winner's achievements - which ticked off two of his three remaining career aims - raised questions over who had actually enjoyed the best year.

Below, three Golf Monthly writers share their thoughts and try to pick a side...

I've gone back and forth several times before typing this, which shows just how close a call it is. It's almost unfathomable to choose anyone other than the person who's won two Majors, but I think McIlroy just edges it.

The Northern Irishman's victory at The Masters wasn't just a huge personal accomplishment; it was also historically significant. He became just the sixth golfer of all time to win the Career Grand Slam, which, as far as I'm concerned, means it carries additional weight.

I'd suggest a Career Grand Slam-winning Major almost equates to two of golf's big four in terms of gravitas. In addition to that, he played a starring role as Europe won the Ryder Cup on away soil for the first time since the Miracle at Medinah in 2012.

Ahead of the season, McIlroy listed winning the Grand Slam and notching an away Ryder Cup as two of his remaining three career goals, alongside earning an Olympic Medal. While personal goals shouldn't necessarily factor into an objective decision, it means a great deal when arguably the greatest European golfer ever completes two-thirds of his remaining career wish-list in one year.

In addition to everything else, he won a Signature Event at Pebble Beach, reigned supreme in a play-off at TPC Sawgrass and overcame Joakim Lagergren in extra holes at the Irish Open. Scheffler, who won two Major titles and four other PGA Tour events, enjoyed a season for the ages, but I think McIlroy just pips him to the post.

Scottie Scheffler has undoubtedly been the best golfer in the world, but has he had the best year? Many will point to Rory McIlroy edging that debate… and I would probably agree.

Scheffler edged out Xander Schauffele for the POTY title last year despite Schauffele winning more Majors than him, and this year he is the two-Major man and he again isn’t conclusively winning the POTY chat.

Rory McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam, won four meaningful individual titles and was part of an away Ryder Cup victory so I would have to say that he has had the better year.

Scheffler won more times and also captured two Majors, and his play has undoubtedly been better this year.

Without taking anything away from another vintage Scheffler display, the PGA Championship at a soft Quail Hollow was essentially a blown up PGA Tour event, so if he won The Open and a US Open then I would view his season very differently. Sadly I believe the PGA Championship is falling in stature - which again I mean in no slight to Scottie.

I am happy to call it a tie in an argument - but Rory McIlroy just edges it for me with the more historic and memorable season overall. The Ryder Cup seemingly does not carry the weight that it should. It is everything for three days but always appears to be remembered far less than individual honors.

McIlroy’s sixth Ryder Cup trophy and second away victory should go down as a monumental achievement, especially as he suffered disgusting abuse from the home crowd along the way.

And that was while Scheffler only took one point from five matches on home soil, which arrived against McIlroy in what the Northern Irishman described as a ‘pillow fight’ when both men were fatigued.

Let’s not forget McIlroy’s amazing performance at Bethpage, and also remember he won at Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass, Augusta National and at home in Ireland.

He will likely win a seventh Race to Dubai trophy and has a chance to win in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Australia, still. He was not the BEST golfer this year, but I will say that Rory McIlroy did have the best year. Sorry Scottie.

I would say the beauty of a question like this is that it's genuinely debatable - there are two very strong arguments for either player.

On the one hand, Scheffler claimed two Majors and four other PGA Tour events while exhibiting his robotic consistency week after week. But, on the other, McIlroy enjoyed more than a few red-letter days which will ultimately define his career.

Once he clicked into gear after that famous ravioli-induced hand injury, Scheffler was never outside of the top-eight. Meanwhile, McIlroy blew so hot and cold at times - which is actually part of the reason so many fans support him. There is a fallibility to his world-class talent.

Ultimately, I think this could be a head vs heart scenario. If you're someone who prefers to take the cold hard facts, Scheffler won more times and was by far and away the dominant figure in men's pro golf.

He clinched two Majors compared to McIlroy's one and triumphed more times overall, winning far more money, too. If you lay their seasons down side by side without emotion attached, there is only one winner.

Even with the Ryder Cup disappointment and a likely Race To Dubai win for McIlroy, Scheffler will emerge from the year with a greater number of achievements.

However, McIlroy's wins and heroic moments were probably more meaningful to the wider population and featured a level of sentimentality that many of us will remember for the rest of our lives.

Your best anything doesn't always mean the most or the biggest. It can often be the first time something happened or even the last. If better means how much their years meant to them and the fans, again, there is only one winner.

I do wonder what Scheffler and McIlroy would say if you asked them the question. I'd wager that they would each nominate the other in public, but I wonder if the answer would remain consistent in private...

Let us know what you think in the comments.

It's Team USA v Europe for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, but sometimes these team contests get personal.

Not only is this a clash between the best golfers on the planet but also some of the biggest personalities, and Ryder Cups are often lit up by personal duels.

Who could forget Rory McIlroy's battle with Patrick Reed in 2016? Or the altercation between McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava just two years go?

The teams have changed slightly from Rome, the USA has anyway, but there are still some personal scores to be settled, grudges to be ironed out and just some clashes that stylistically could result in blockbuster viewing.

So let's look at the big match ups we really want to see, whether they come in singles competition or as part of a team in the foursomes and fourballs.

We just really want to see these characters come face-to-face in New York.

Rory McIlroy vs Patrick Cantlay

Who doesn't want to see Rory McIlroy take on Patrick Cantlay again at the Ryder Cup, or take on Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava should we say.

Let's face it, it's bound to happen at least once at Bethpage Black surely, but this time probably without the very public arguing and gesticulating and near punch-up in the car park afterwards.

LaCava will surely have learned his lesson and not get involved with any opposition players this time - but then again with a New York crowd behind him who knows what will happen.

This one would be tasty.

Rory McIlroy vs Bryson DeChambeau

Listen, you could probably put Rory McIlroy and almost anyone on the US team and there'd be some needle, but Bryson DeChambeau would be the next best candidate after Cantlay.

That dramatic US Open victory at Pinehurst really hurt McIlroy, but he got the best possible revenge when winning The Masters after playing with Bryson in the final group.

And DeChambeau wasn't happy that McIlroy blanked him during that Sunday at Augusta National. I can't see the conversation flowing if they're paired together at Bethpage either.

Jon Rahm vs Scottie Scheffler

These two are not only big leaders on their teams but have also seen plenty of each other at the Ryder Cup having faced off in the singles in the last two meetings.

Scheffler won the first 4&3 at Whistling Straits and then halved their match in Rome as they led their teams off at the top of the order, but they've also met three other times in foursomes and fourballs.

Rahm is unbeaten here with two halved fourball matches, one in the USA and one in Italy, and one 4&3 foursomes victory at Marco Simone alongside Tyrrell Hatton.

We'd love to see the singles trilogy.

Viktor Hovland/Ludvig Aberg vs Scottie Scheffler

Scottie Scheffler's in a league of his own these days, but he was still pretty good two years ago when he was reduced to tears after being smashed 9&7 by Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland.

The World No.1 and five-time Major champion Brooks Koepka were simply dismantled by the Scandinavian duo - which included in Aberg a rookie that hadn't even yet played in a Major championship.

Make no mistake, that result was a body blow for Scheffler, and you can bet anything you like that he'd relish the chance to even the score up if he draws one or both of this pair again.

Justin Rose vs Xander Schauffele

A bit left field this one, and there are probably more fiery personalties that could clash in a more combative contest - with the likes of Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, Bryson DeChambeau or Justin Thomas out there.

But this could be a sneaky match of the tournament if they draw each other in singles, as they both produced some stunning golf when battling it out on Sunday at the 2024 Open Championship at Troon.

Both men can raise their games under pressure, as Schauffle showed when he managed to win his singles in Rome last time out.

Rose (2-3-1 in singles) has a point to prove, or a point to win it should be, in singles matches as he's lost his last three and halved a fourth after winning his first two Ryder Cup Sunday outings - which funnily enough both came away from home and both against Phil Mickelson.

That second success against Mickelson at Medinah in 2012 was an all-timer, and you feel Schauffele could drag something similar out of him.

A frustrated Scottie Scheffler made a miraculous par on the final hole at the Procore Championship in Napa, but it was not enough to see his record streak of sub-70 rounds come to an end.

The World No.1 has shot in the 60s every time he's teed it up in competition since the final round of the Travelers Championship in June.

His 21 consecutive rounds in the 60s tied Patrick Cantlay for the longest streak in modern day PGA Tour history, but he was unable to set a new mark on his own after shooting exactly 70 on his Procore Championship debut.

"I think it was a pretty frustrating day overall," Scheffler said. "I felt like I did some things well out there, I just wasn't quite getting the reward."

Scheffler only managed to shoot 70 after an incredible escape on the last, when a hooked tee shot saw him play his second down the 16th hole before hitting back over the trees, grandstands and hospitality tents onto the 18th green.

"I was behind all those tents and a scoreboard, and I would have liked to have been able to see the pin when I was hitting my approach," Scheffler said.

"Granted, you should probably be on the correct hole while doing that, but I could have gotten relief from the whole grandstand tent area, but either one of them would have brought me into the rough so it wasn't quite worth it."

Two putts gave Scheffler a wild par five, but ultimately a disappointing two-under round of 70 that puts him in T38 at Silverado Resort.

That means he'll need a good second round to keep another impressive streak going, as Scheffler has finished in the top eight for an incredible 14 consecutive events - stretching back to a T20 at The Players Championship.

Scheffler is also currently on a run of 63 consecutive cuts made, but it not the active leader in that one as Xander Schauffele has made his last 71 cuts in a row.

Scheffler is one of 10 USA Ryder Cup players taking part in the Procore Championship at the request of captain Keegan Bradley, who feels a warm-up event together is key.

Scheffler is playing alongsider Ryder Cup teammates Russell Henley and JJ Spaun in the opening two rounds - in what could be a clue about potential partnerships at Bethpage Black.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler and No.2 Rory McIlroy teamed up to face Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in The Showdown last December, and this year they'll face off against each other in a new challenge match.

The 'Golf Channel Games' will see the world's best two players each captain a team of four in a series of golf match-ups at Trump National Jupiter in the lead up to Christmas.

The event is in association with PGA Tour Studios and will be shown live on the Golf Channel and USA Network on December 17.

The remaining six players in the Golf Channel Games has yet to be confirmed, but the unique format has been - which takes inspiration from some of the DP World Tour's viral videos seen through the years.

Golf Channel Games format

• Timed drive, chip and putt: Solo competition where players try and drive a total number of yards, chip within a certain proximity to the pin, and hole a certain number of feet of putts.
• 14-club challenge: Closest-to-the-pin competition involving one player from each team, where players take turns selecting a club from a single bag (including driver and putter). Once a club is used, it’s out of play. All eight players will participate in four total matchups, which will take place from a designated spot in the fairway.
• Timed shootout: Four-player alternate shot on three holes with players staged throughout each hole: one on the tee, one in the fairway and two around the green. Lowest score in the shortest amount of time wins.
• Captain’s challenge: McIlroy and Scheffler will hit shots from pre-determined locations, including a 100-yard wedge shot, 50-yard pitch, bunker shot, greenside shot, 50-foot putt and a 10-foot putt. The player with the lowest total proximity to the hole wins.

It will signal the end of a busy year for Rory McIlroy, who has the Irish Open, BMW PGA Championship, Ryder Cup, DP World India Championship, Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, DP World Tour Championship and Australian Open still left on his schedule.

He has won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Players Championship and The Masters this year and says a Ryder Cup victory would cement 2025 as his best ever season.

"I guess it’s the year that everything came together for me," he said ahead of the Irish Open.

"It was basically the one piece of the puzzle that was left for me to complete [winning The Masters].

"When I look at my career and my whole picture as a golfer, I basically, I’ve done everything I wanted to. I guess everything after that, it’s a bonus, but you have to reassess your goals.

"Obviously I’d love to win this week. I’d love to win next week at Wentworth. But the one thing for me this year to reassess my goals, an away Ryder Cup, after everything that’s happened this year, I would look back on 2025, and there’s no way that I would - if I did have a better year in the game, I’d love to see it.

"But if we were to win an away Ryder Cup with everything else that I’ve been through this year, 2025 would be the best year of my career."

“The Golf Channel Games will be a great mix of skill, strategy, and pressure," Scottie Scheffler said.

"This will be a brand-new way for the players and the fans to experience the game of golf. Everyone knows how competitive we are, and I think the Golf Channel Games will be an innovative competition that will engage the viewers.”

Scheffler's next appearance will be at the Procore Championship next week, where a number of Ryder Cup Team USA players will be in attendance to tune-up for Bethpage later this month.

Even without his usual trusted team around him, Scottie Scheffler proved once again why he is the undisputed World No.1 via a comeback victory in the second round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Scheffler recovered from four strokes behind Scotland's Robert MacIntyre at the start of Sunday's final round to lead after just seven holes of action at Caves Valley Golf Club, going on to wrap up his fifth PGA Tour title this year by two strokes.

In doing so, the 29-year-old collected his latest mammoth paycheck and took his on-course career earnings on the PGA Tour to over $95 million.

What made the adopted Texan's latest win even more impressive, though, is that he didn't have his usual looper alongside as Ted Scott was back home dealing with a private family matter.

In Scott's place was Chris Kirk's bagman, Michael Cromie. Kirk missed out on playing the BMW Championship by just one spot so was able to release his usual caddie to help Scheffler in Maryland.

It was a decision which likely paid out in a big way for Cromie. In professional golf, caddies are often paid 10% of what their player earns for a win with the number varying thereafter depending on final position and the agreement between golfer and looper.

Through the Travelers Championship, Scheffler's regular caddie - Ted Scott - could well have earned in excess of $1.3 million in bonus money this season.

The latest financial reward for Scheffler's continued excellence was $3.6 million from a total prize purse of $20 million at the BMW Championship. And as a thank you to one of the key men who helped him realize his latest success, Scheffler will likely have shared a significant chunk of the prize money - $360,000 - with his stand-in caddie.

The BMW Championship was the first time Scheffler had won a PGA Tour title without Scott on his bag, and the FedEx Cup leader paid tribute to the professional qualities of Cromie in helping him across the line in his post-tournament interview.

Scheffler said: "It was definitely different, for sure. But Cromie was doing a great job. He's a guy I can trust. He's one of Ted's good buddies.

"I'd just say it's pretty much as simple as that. Cromie is a guy that works hard. He does his prep work, and he was an easy guy for me to trust out there.

"I felt like we did a good job of talking through our shots and staying patient and keep doing the right things even when things were looking a little bit squirrelly there on the back nine.

"Cromie, I think, does a really good job of being really even keel. He's not a guy that's going to overreact to anything. He did a really good job of just staying even keel all week and kind of impervious to the pressure of a final round, and he did a really good job.

"We did a good job of staying focused and continuing to hit shots at the right targets. Closed the tournament out nicely."

With Scott having missed both the FedEx St Jude Championship and BMW Championship, it remains possible that Scheffler could turn back to Cromie once again for the Tour Championship this week.

Should the pair reign supreme once more, Cromie would likely end up earning $1.36 million in bonus money across a fortnight given the Tour Championship's total prize purse is $40 million and the winner earns $10 million.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler has a new caddie in place for the BMW Championship with his usual bagman Ted Scott not available.

Scott had to leave the FedEx St Jude Championship to attend to a private family matter, so Scheffler had Brad Payne - a good friend and PGA Tour chaplain - on his bag for the final round in Memphis.

With Scott also missing the BMW Championship this week, Scheffler has turned to Chris Kirk's regular caddie Mike Cromie - after his boss finished 51st and just missed out on a place in the field at Caves Valley.

Scheffler would not expand on when he expected Scott to return, saying: "I think Ted's where he needs to be right now, and I think caddieing is probably the last thing on his mind, as it should be."

And so Cromie is stepping in for the BMW and possibly also the Tour Championship - with Scheffler saying he's settling in nicely.

"It's been good. Mike's a great guy," said Scheffler. "He works really hard and does a good job. We're both learning a new golf course this week, so it's been fun.

"Basically, he's just going to try to fill in as best he can this week. Just asking little stuff. A lot of it is just more routine, like, hey, how do you like me to give you the numbers? When I say I'm hitting a hold shot, he's like, well, what does that mean?

"Just little stuff like that that we're figuring out as the week goes on. I think there's a lot of little stuff that caddies do that go kind of unnoticed throughout a round."

Scheffler thanked Kirk for allowing Cromie to step in for Scott, for what could be a lucrative couple of weeks' work.

"Ted's good buddies with him," said Scheffler. "I always liked him. He's a young guy, works hard.

"Chris was very nice to let Cromie come work with me this week. He had a good finish to the season. He was a little bit on the outside looking in, but played really good and was close at the end.

"It was really nice of him to lend his caddie for the week. That was very kind of him."

Cromie is a fine player himself who played college golf at the University of Georgia - winning the famed North & South Amateur in 2014 and being an All American.

He's now stepping into the best caddie job in the game, with Scott joining Scheffler in 2021 and being on his bag for all 17 of his PGA Tour wins including his four Majors.

Scott took home well over $5 million in 2024 thanks to Scheffler's incredible campaign, and is likely closing in on $2m this year as well.

The excitment is ramping up as the Ryder Cup closes in - but that excitement isn't shared by Scottie Scheffler who got bored of answering questions on it ahead of the BMW Championship.

The second FedEx Cup Playoffs event is taking place at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland, but that hardly got a mention in Scheffler's pre-tournament media duties.

Scheffler answered questions on the absence of his regular caddie Ted Scott before then the focus from the media was firmly on the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

So much so, in fact, that the World No.1 had enough and snapped back at the journalists for ignoring what is his main focus this week - the BMW Championship.

"I love answering questions about the Ryder Cup, but this is ridiculous," Scheffler said shaking his head at yet another Ryder Cup question.

"We're at the BMW Championship. The Ryder Cup is over a month away. If you want to talk about this week, let's talk about this week.

"If not, I've got practice to do. I'm getting ready for a golf tournament."

While he was answering Ryder Cup questions, Scheffler confirmed his plan was to play at the Procore Championship in Napa as a warm-up event as Keegan Bradley has requested - with rustiness a problem in Rome last time.

"I think now with the way the schedule is, I think there's like four weeks after the Tour Championship before the Ryder Cup, and that's plenty of time to get rest while still staying competitive," Scheffler added.

"It's important for me to get out and get some competitive reps before the Ryder Cup. I felt like last time was maybe a bit too much time off."

Scheffler impressed with captain Bradley

Scheffler has had some discussions with Bradley about possible wildcard picks, but insists the final say rests with the captain and vice-captains.

And while Rory McIlroy doesn't think that being a player-captain can work, Scheffler backed Bradley to play after he has already "exceeded my expectations" as a captain.

"I think, looking at our squad, I think we have a really good group of guys. I think Keegan can only help that," said Scheffler.

"I think if it's something that Keegan wants to be part of the team and wants to play, I think he's a guy we'd all love to have on the team.

"He's passionate about the Ryder Cup. He cares a lot about us as players. It's been a lot of fun kind of watching him develop in this role, and we're excited to get the Ryder Cup started."

And Scheffler believes that having a captain that's playing so well and has been mixing it with his team all year can be a big advantage.

"I just feel like, since Keegan is out here a lot versus some of the other captains we've had in the past - not that they've done a bad job. It's different having him here week in and week out.

"He's a guy that we know well. I loved all of our previous captains, but I think it's just different when we're showing up, like hey, you want to play a practice round this week?

"We see him in dining. He's just around a lot more, so I think there's more opportunities for him to be kind of a part of our lives out here. I think that's really important as he steps into that captain role, knowing the players as well as he does."