Signature Scroll: Scottie Scheffler stuns, Jordan Spieth sputters as FedExCup top 50 finalizes in Memphis

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It never felt right that the world No. 1 may end the year with only one win ...

Scheffler leaves no doubt

Nearly seven months ago, I sat beside the 18th green at The American Express and wondered whether Scottie Scheffler might win eight times this season.

At that moment, watching Scheffler close out win No. 1 by a comfortable margin in Palm Springs, California, it felt entirely plausible. He had lost to only five golfers in six months, winning four of his last six tournaments.

With the benefit of hindsight, I don’t regret it. Even if it took seven months before win No. 2 arrived.

Scheffler began this past week first in the FedExCup and atop the money list. He was No. 1 in scoring average, Strokes Gained: Total and top 10s. The only thing he lacked was the wins to validate what our eyes were telling us. Now we see it clearly.

Scheffler has been the best golfer on the PGA TOUR this season. It was true before his eight-stroke victory Sunday at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and it is resounding after it. Why did it take so long to come around?

The truth is, Scheffler has spoiled us. The highs of his previous seasons colored his current one, and the heightened expectations kept us from appreciating what was in front of us. He hasn’t matched the level that earned him four straight Player of the Year awards. That’s inarguable. Against those lofty expectations, his 2026 season looks underwhelming. But against the rest of his competition, it’s still elite. When we have some distance between us and the 2026 PGA TOUR season, that will crystallize.

Will that lead to a fifth straight Player of the Year? It’s hard to say. Wins matter above all, and Scheffler would be the first to say that he hasn’t won enough. He has two wins and five runners-up. He didn’t win a major or THE PLAYERS Championship, and he trails Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup in overall victories (both have three).

Yet, it’s hard to say any wins have felt as convincing as Scheffler’s on Sunday. The eight-stroke margin is the biggest of the season. Only four tournaments have been decided by a margin of four or more this year. Scheffler owns two of them. Up to 21 career victories, Scheffler has won six tournaments by five or more strokes. Only Tiger Woods has done that more in the last 30 years.

Scheffler is finding his name next to Woods more often in statistics like that. He’s also finding himself bearing an outsized share of our expectations, as was the case for so many years of Woods’ career.

I know there are only two more tournaments left in Scheffler’s FedExCup season. It’s not mathematically possible, yet somehow, I’m still expecting Scheffler to reach eight wins.

Playing through

• 📺 Catch up on the Sunday highlights here …
• ✍️ Scheffler combined his typically elite ball-striking with the best Strokes Gained: Putting performance of his career, picking up nearly nine shots against the field on the greens alone. Colleague Will Gray takes a closer look ...
• 😦 Rory McIlroy is “far away from where I need to be” after struggling in Memphis …

When close isn’t good enough

Keith Mitchell bottom lined the consequence of making or missing the top 50 and the BMW Championship.

“It’s a different life,” he said.

That’s what was at stake Sunday. The fight to reach the top 50 of the FedExCup is the most consequential of the season. Make it, and you’re almost assured multiple more years on the PGA TOUR because of the advantage of playing Signature Events. Miss it, and everything gets harder.

Mitchell knows. He spent the year floating just outside the periphery of it, sitting on alternate lists at Signature Events, unable to craft a consistent schedule after missing the top 50 a year ago. He had the opportunity to change that this week.

He fell one spot short.

“If you’re in at the start of the season, it’s a different life, literally, as a PGA TOUR player. It felt like that out there today,” Mitchell said.

That pressure defined the final round at TPC Southwind. As Scheffler’s lead grew, the only drama left was who would make it through to next week. Mitchell was one of the central characters. He needed to birdie the 18th, but nearly hit his drive in the water and, standing with his feet in the pond while hitting his approach, rinsed his second shot to effectively end his season.

The other character was Jordan Spieth. His season can be epitomized in one word: close. If you followed Spieth for any part of the season, you probably heard him utter that word half a dozen times. It has been the theme of his year. He believes he is close. Close to returning to a top player in the world. Close to contending again in majors. He has preached it in a positive light.

This week, close felt cruel. He needed to finish inside the top 10 to have a chance of advancing. Except he hadn’t done that all season. Instead, close earned him a month off. Spieth melted on the back nine, shooting 2-over 37 when even par would have been enough to survive. He finished 52nd in the FedExCup and will narrowly miss the top 50 for the third straight season.

“I'm very, very confident in what's coming,” Spieth said. “I just ran out of steam and maybe made a couple bad decisions over about a six-week stretch on what I was working on, and I just didn't quite have enough time to make up for it.”

Ultimately, only one golfer moved inside the top 50 this week. Sungjae Im vaulted from 53rd to 40th and knocked out Mitchell. Im has never missed the TOUR Championship in seven-plus seasons on the PGA TOUR.

Meanwhile, who is in for a rude awakening – good and bad – next season? Here are the golfers who will experience new environs next year.

First time in top 50:Kristoffer Reitan, Alex Fitzpatrick, Alex Smalley, Gary Woodland, Nicolai Hojgaard, Michael Thorbjornsen, Jake Knapp, Nico Echavarria, Ryo Hisatsune, Michael Brennan, Matt McCarty

First time out of top 50:Brian Harman, Corey Conners, Keegan Bradley,Jason Day, Denny McCarthy

Parting shots

• 👎 McIlroy lost strokes off the tee for the first time in more than a year. He ranked 62nd in the field and was particularly poor on Sunday. It was the first time he failed to break par in any round since the 2025 RBC Canadian Open.
• 👏 This week marked just the second time in Scheffler's career that he finished a tournament ranked No. 1 in putting. The other was the 2021 U.S. Open. Scheffler gained 8.9 strokes on the greens, by far the best mark of his career.
• 😬 Bad golf at the wrong time for Akshay Bhatia and Aldrich Potgieter, who are right on the Presidents Cup bubble with just over two weeks until captain’s picks are named. Bhatia finished last in the field, and Potgieter wasn’t far behind. Both are at risk of getting passed by.
• 🇺🇲 One of the best stories of the early season was Knapp, who finished 11th or better in seven of his first eight starts. He was derailed by injury after that and hasn’t looked the same until this week. He finished seventh, his best result since the Masters.
• 🌐 A really positive week for the Presidents Cup International Team. If they hope to win next month, they need their best players firing on all cylinders. Im, Hideki Matsuyama and Si Woo Kim all finished seventh or better at TPC Southwind. Two others finished in the top 15.
• 🇯🇵 More on Matsuyama, who just carded his fourth straight top 10: It's the first time he’s done that since January 2017. He runs hot. Earlier this year, he amassed seven straight top 15s, and he can tie that streak with a top 15 at the BMW Championship next week.