Theegala picks up USD 7.5 million as third in FedExCup

Atlanta (USA), Sep 2 (PTI) Indian-American golfer Sahith Theegala picked up USD 7.5 million for his third-place finish in FedExCup after a 21-under for four rounds at the TOUR Championships here.

Theegala had called a two-shot penalty on himself on Saturday for possibly brushing a small amount of sand on a bunker shot.

He started at 3-under and his rounds of 67-66-66-64 saw him finish with a 72-hole total 263 and he was 21-under for four rounds, second best only to American Collin Morikawa. He finished with 24-under, including his 3-shot start.

Another American, Scottie Scheffler won golf’s biggest prize as he shot a 4-under 67 for a four-shot victory over Morikawa to capture the FedExCup and its USD 25 million prize, the richest in golf.

Morikawa, the No. 7 seed who started the tournament, with a 4-under start, which was also six shots behind Scheffler. With 66-63-67-66 he had the lowest 72-hole score of the TOUR Championship at 22-under 262. He was 26-under including his 4-under start.

As Scheffler took USD 25 million, Morikawa took USD 12.5 million for finishing second and Theegala earned USD 7.5m in the FedExCup.

In terms of only the 72-hole total, Theegala’s was 21-under, the second best to Morikawa’s 22-under. Scheffler, who started at 10-under, was 20-under for his four rounds and his total was 30-under.

The other Indian American, Akshay Bhatia, who started the event at 2-under, carded 70-69-71-71 for a overall total of 5-under and was 26th, while Indo-British Aaron Rai, who started at even, shot 66-70-72-70 to be 6-under and T-23.

Scheffler’s 2024 season was the biggest year in golf in almost two decades, since Tiger Woods set his amazing standards by winning eight times in 2006, including six wins in a row and two majors, all while dealing with the death of his father.

Scheffler's eight wins included the Masters, THE PLAYERS Championship, an Olympic gold medal and the TOUR Championship that enabled him to finally claim the FedExCup. Scheffler’s seven PGA TOUR titles are the most since Woods in 2007.

This week’s success pushed Scheffler’s season earnings, including bonuses, to just under USD 62.3 million, though the USD 25 million FedExCup prize is unofficial, as is the USD 8 million he received from the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 for leading the regular season.

“This is a challenging week,” Scheffler said at the trophy ceremony.

“I'm exhausted right now.” Scheffler led by at least five shots after each round. But there was a moment when he made two straight bogeys, the second one on a pure shank from a bunker on the reachable par-4 eighth hole.

Morikawa made birdie, and the seven-shot deficit he faced after two holes was down to a mere two shots with 10 holes to play.

Then Scheffler took over. A 4-iron to 5 feet on the par-3 ninth for birdie; a wedge to three feet on No. 10 for birdie, and then a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 11th. Then he holed a 15-foot eagle putt on the 14th hole. It was all over by that time.

Scheffler only finished out of the top 10 three times in his 19 starts this season. He had a pair of runner-up finishes to go along with seven PGA TOUR titles. PTI Corr PDS PDS PDS