The 26-Year Tiger Woods Run Scottie Scheffler And Rory McIlroy Could End At The Tour Championship

Tiger Woods has become very used to sitting at the top of all-time lists through the years.

Among the records he holds either outright or shares are the highest number of PGA Tour victories, the number of consecutive cuts made, total weeks as World No.1 and consecutive weeks at the top of the world rankings.

Another list Woods sits proudly at the top of is the PGA Tour career money list, which tallies the total of money he has earned on the circuit since his first professional start at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open.

In fact, Woods has held the top spot for more than a quarter of a century - or February 13, 2000, to be precise, after he won $264,000 for his T2 finish at the Buick Invitational. However, he is in serious danger of losing that position in just a few days.

Woods’s overall PGA Tour career earnings stand at $120,999,166. His nearest rival is Scottie Scheffler, who is now just $608,505 away from Woods’s total, with career earnings of $120,390,661.

The World No.1 even had a chance to surpass the 15-time Major winner at the BMW Championship.

At the Bellerive event, Scheffler would have overtaken Woods had he finished third to collect prize money of $1,300,000.

Not that he will be too worried about eventually catching the living legend. Indeed, he has a good chance of doing that if he finishes solo 13th or better at the Tour Championship.

The reason finishing that high up the East Lake leaderboard may stop him from taking the top spot is that another player also has the chance to surpass Woods at the event.

Rory McIlroy is third on the PGA Tour career money list with overall earnings of $117,848,372.

That was boosted by $1,360,000 for his finish of third at the BMW Championship, leaving him $3,150,794 short of Woods’s total.

With a purse of $40m at the Tour Championship, it leaves plenty of scope for McIlroy to climb to the top of the money list, depending on Scheffler’s performance.

To have a chance, he’ll need to finish no worse than solo fourth, which would earn him prize money of $3,200,000.

If we assume McIlroy finishes in that position, it won’t be enough to reach the top of the career money list if Scheffler places solo 11th or better.

However, there is one way for McIlroy to guarantee becoming the first player to knock Woods off the top spot for over 26 years - winning the Tour Championship.

Should McIlroy achieve that, and claim his fourth FedExCup title in the process, he'll earn $10,000,000, meaning even if Scheffler places solo second to earn $5,000,000, it won't be enough to catch the six-time Major winner.

Whatever the permutations at East Lake, it is surely only a matter of time until both Scheffler and McIlroy overtake Woods, with the only debate over which one will reach the top first.

That’s because in recent years, Woods's PGA Tour schedule has become increasingly limited due to a succession of injuries.

Meanwhile, he hasn’t played at all in 2026 following a spell in rehab after being involved in a car accident in March.

PGA Tour Career Money List Top 10