Breakfast Ball #35: Scottie Rules the Roost

We are beginning to head into the quiet time of the golf season, but not before a fun finish on the DP World Tour. The Irish Open is next week folks!

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Scottie Scheffler Finishes Incredible Year with the Tour Championship

Scottie Scheffler capped off a record year with a win at the Tour Championship by four strokes. He pocketed a record $25M in the process, finishing the year with over $62M in earnings. It was a foregone conclusion for most of the weekend, despite a late charge from Collin Morikawa, who started the week six shots behind Scheffler due to the format of the final event as we discussed last week.

Scheffler delivered one of the most remarkable seasons in PGA Tour history, despite facing challenges both on and off the course. He battled inconsistencies with his putter, welcomed his first child, and even spent a morning in a Louisville jail cell in May. Each of these experiences, in their own way, impacted his golf game. Reflecting on his whirlwind year, Scheffler remarked, “I feel like I’ve lived almost a full lifetime in this one year. It’s been nuts.” There will be plenty of time to fully appreciate Scheffler’s achievements, but for now, I’ll leave you with one compelling stat:

From March 1st onwards, Scottie Scheffler was above average in strokes gained putting in 10 events. He won 7 of them, and finished 2nd, 2nd, and 4th in the other three.

European Results:

• The best of the Europeans were Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, who both finished in T9. This was Lowry’s first ever appearance at the Tour Championship ☘️ 

• Viktor Hovland recovered from a rough start to the year to finish the FedEx Cup in T12 🇳🇴

• Rookies 🇸🇪 Ludvig Åberg, 🇫🇷 Matthieu Pavon, and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Bob MacIntyre finished in 16th, 17th, and 17th respectively as they all had great starts to their PGA Tour careers

The Golfing Calendar Focuses on the DP World Tour… For Now

The end of the PGA Tour season is here, and it might seem surprising that the finale takes place in late August, especially with a couple more months of good weather still ahead across much of the U.S. However, the timing is strategic —next Sunday marks the start of the NFL season, which dominates the American sports landscape. To avoid competing with the NFL for viewers, the PGA Tour wisely concludes its season before football takes over.

This gives the DP World Tour a unique opportunity to be the only major golf tour on TV. While it has played second fiddle to the PGA Tour for many years, European stars such as Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Jon Rahm will play on the DP World Tour in the next few weeks, giving fans a unique opportunity to see LIV Golf and PGA Tour players play against each other outside of the majors. LIV players will play to maintain their DP World Tour membership to be eligible for selection on the European Ryder Cup team.

Events over the next couple of months include the Irish Open at Royal County Down, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. These events (especially the Irish Open next week) will all be worth watching as they will have top European players who will begin the battle for seats on the plane to New York next year for the Ryder Cup.

The PGA Tour will resume in 6 weeks for its fall season, where players outside the top 70 in the rankings will fight to maintain their status for 2025. However, all of the best events until the end of the year are on the DP World Tour. See here for a few examples:

Other News and Results:

• 🇩🇰 Niklas Norgaard won the British Masters on the DP World Tour and is officially first in the rankings for the 2025 European Ryder Cup Team

  • It was his first win on tour at the age of 32 and boosted him to 6th in the DP World Tour rankings

  • This was the first event in which players could get points for automatic Ryder Cup qualification

• 😡 Tyrell Hatton played in the same tournament and led after a 65 on Friday, but rounds of 77 and 74 during the weekend ruined his chances

Coming up this week on Tour

• The DP World Tour ramps up with improved fields after the conclusion of the PGA Tour season with the Omega European Masters

If you have any feedback for the newsletter or would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! Email [email protected] or message us on Twitter/X at @BlueHorizonGolf. Thank you for reading!