The PGA Tour’s season is officially over, and Scottie Scheffler is walking away from East Lake Golf Club with the FedEx Cup and a massive $25 million paycheck.
Scheffler capped his historic season with a win at the Tour Championship on Sunday afternoon in Atlanta. That marked his seventh victory of the year and his first ever FedEx Cup title. It also nearly doubled his total earnings in 2024, which was already a Tour record, and ended his dominant season that the PGA Tour hasn’t seen since Tiger Woods nearly two decades ago.
While the elevated prize pool this week made it significant even for the last golfer in the field, who still walked away with more than $500,000, the most notable part of the payouts at East Lake had to do with Sahith Theegala and his self-imposed two-shot penalty. With how he finished, it’s among one of the more costly penalties in recent golf history.
Sahith Theegala’s penalty costs him $2.5 million
Theegala called himself out for a penalty on Saturday afternoon after he said he grounded his club in a fairway bunker on the third hole at East Lake. But nobody, not even the cameras, noticed that Theegala had done anything wrong in the moment.
Theegala, after hitting his approach shot out of the bunker, said he noticed a small amount of sand move on his backswing. While it wasn’t noticeable to anybody but him, Theegala immediately called over playing partner Xander Schauffel and the rules official. Eventually, he was hit with a two-shot penalty and ended up making a double bogey on the hole.
Sahith Theegala self-reported a two-stroke penalty for touching the sand with his club during his backswing.
He currently moves from -13 to -11, but will have the opportunity to review the penalty with a rules official following his round. pic.twitter.com/rLAgGJGZ5c
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 31, 2024
“I wouldn’t be able to sleep [if I didn’t call the penalty],” he said after the third round.
Despite the double, Theegala made seven birdies on his back nine and five straight to close out his day. That dropped him to 17-under on the week, which moved him into solo third.
Then on Sunday, Theegala made four birdies on his front nine and finished with a 7-under 64 thanks largely to a pair of birdies to close out his day. That moved him to 24-under on the week, and gave him a solo third finish. While that earned him a $7.5 million paycheck, he would have tied with Collin Morikawa in second without his penalty. That would have sent him home with a $10 million check instead.
So in total, his self-imposed penalty cost him $2.5 million.
Theegala won for the first time on Tour last season at the Fortinet Championship. He picked up his eighth top-10 finish this season on Sunday afternoon, and he earned a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup team later this month.
While his penalty ended up costing him several million, Theegala walked away with a clean conscience — and likely plenty of new fans.
Tour Championship purse, prize money
Here’s a look at the full payouts for Scheffler, Theegala and the rest of the 30-man field this week at the Tour Championship.
1. Scottie Scheffler — $25 million
2. Collin Morikawa — $12.5 million
3. Sahith Theegala — $7.5 million
T4. Russell Henley, Adam Scott, Xander Schauffele — $4.83 million
7. Sungjae Im — $2.75 million
8. Wyndham Clark — $2.25 million
T9. Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Shane Lowry — $1.608 million
T12. Viktor Hovland, Sam Burns — $1 million
T14. Taylor Pendrith, Justin Thomas — $905,000
16. Ludvig Åberg — $795,000
T17. Matthieu Pavon, Patrick Cantlay, Robert MacIntyre — $755,000
20. Tommy Fleetwood — $715,000
T21. Keegan Bradley, Ben An — $660,000
T23. Billy Horschel, Aaron Rai, Tony Finau — $615,000
26. Akshay Bhatia — $590,000
T27. Chris Kirk, Sepp Straka — $575,000
T29. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Tom Hoge — $555,000
