The PGA Tour’s single-season money list doesn’t carry the historic importance it once did—it’s not used to determine who keeps their tour cards any more and purse increases over the years have made apples-to-apples comparisons between decades tricky. Still, it captures an interesting snapshot of the “big picture” success players have in a given season. In that way, the significance of what Scottie Scheffler is currently doing during the 2021-2022 season takes on clearer meaning.
Entering this week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, Scheffler has played 16 PGA Tour events, won four times (all coming in his last nine starts) and accumulated $10,299,587 in earnings. In so doing, he is only the fourth golfer to crack the $10 million in a given year, joining Vijay Singh (2004), Tiger Woods (2005, 2007, 2009) and Jordan Spieth (2015) to accomplish the feat. Here’s a breakdown of the Fab Four:
2004: Vijay Singh, $10,905,166 (29 starts, 9 wins)
2005: Tiger Woods, $10,628,024 (21/6)
2007: Tiger Woods, $10,867,052 (16/7)
2009: Tiger Woods, $10, 508,163 (17/6)
2015: Jordan Spieth, $12,030,465 (25/5)
2022: Scottie Scheffler, $10,299,587 (16/4)
With Scheffler entering Sunday’s final round at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth with two shot lead on Brendon Todd and Scott Stallings, he is in line for a fifth win on the season and a $1.512 million first-place prize money payout. That wouldn’t jump him past Spieth’s all-time $12 million mark, but would bring Scheffler to $11.8 million. And with Scheffler a lock to play in all three FedEx Cup playoff events, there’s no doubt he eventually passes Spieth’s record this summer. The question is just by how much.
Beyond the $1.512 million first place winnings (a bump from $1.35 million a year ago), the overall purse at Colonial has jumped from $7.5 million to $8.4 million this year. Here’s the prize money payouts for each golfer who made the cut at Colonial. We’ll update the list shortly after the end of the tournament with individual names and prize money earned.