Tiger Woods’ 26-Year Record Falls as Scheffler Makes History

Scottie Scheffler has officially taken a record away from Tiger Woods, ending a run that lasted nearly 26 years at the top of golf’s career money list.

Scheffler became the PGA Tour’s all-time leader in career earnings Sunday after winning the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, where the 30-year-old Texan erased a three-shot deficit with a final-round 4-under 66.

The victory delivered Scheffler his second FedEx Cup title and another $10 million in official prize money. With the Tour Championship’s $40 million purse now counting toward official earnings, Scheffler’s career total jumped to $130,390,661, enough to move past Woods.

The numbers come with important context. Woods spent the prime of his career playing for considerably smaller purses. From 1997 through 2008, he never competed for a purse larger than $10 million. Still, Woods had occupied the No. 1 position on the career money list for almost 26 years.

Scheffler’s latest victory required a comeback against Viktor Hovland, who entered Sunday with the advantage.

Scheffler immediately showed that he was ready to apply pressure. On the 211-yard second hole, he struck a 5-iron to within two inches of the cup. Two holes later, a 25-foot birdie allowed him to catch Hovland.

Scheffler finally moved ahead on the 13th and refused to give the lead back.

“This was a week I brought a lot of good energy to the course and tried to do my best,” Scheffler said during the trophy presentation. “Coming from behind and being able to win tournaments is a really cool feeling.”

The tournament offered opportunities to swing the other way.

Scheffler made two bogeys, including a costly wedge miss from the fairway at No. 7 and another after finding a difficult lie in the rough on the 14th. Yet he was still the only golfer from the final three groups to break par Sunday.

His last birdie came at the 16th, where he played from a fairway bunker to 11 feet and converted the putt.

Hovland, meanwhile, endured a frustrating stretch on the greens. Three of his putts caught the lip during a four-hole span, including two birdie attempts and one par attempt. He managed only one birdie during his final-round 72 and finished alone in second, earning $5 million.

Ryan Gerard began the round only one shot behind Hovland but made double bogey on the opening hole. He followed that mistake with 13 consecutive pars and also shot 72, leaving him alone in third.

For Scheffler, the Tour Championship completed another highly productive season.

He won three times in 2026, including twice during the final three weeks of the PGA Tour postseason. That tied him with Chris Gotterup, Matt Fitzpatrick and U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark for the most victories on Tour this season.

Scheffler began his year by winning The American Express and finished it with the 22nd PGA Tour title of his career. Thirteen of those victories have come by at least three shots. He now has 25 worldwide wins, including his Olympic gold medal from Paris.

Scheffler has won the Jack Nicklaus Award as PGA Tour player of the year in each of the last four seasons. A player vote decides the award, and a fifth consecutive victory would tie Woods for the longest streak.

While Scheffler continues adding titles and records, Woods has faced a difficult year away from competition.

Woods is scheduled to make a courtroom appearance on September 8 in connection with his latest DUI arrest following a rollover crash in Florida. The case has reportedly faced several postponements while prosecutors continued their investigation in South Florida.

Attorney Douglas Duncan will represent Woods. Woods previously waived his arraignment and requested a jury trial.

A hearing was most recently held on August 4 after a July ruling permitted prosecutors to obtain hospital records connected to the crash.

Woods has also been dealing with serious circumstances in his personal life, with girlfriend Vanessa Trump undergoing a cancer battle.

Scheffler surpassing Woods on the career earnings list does not erase the enormous differences between the financial eras in which the two golfers competed. What it does provide is another concrete milestone in Scheffler’s career: at 30 years old, with 22 PGA Tour victories and two FedEx Cup titles, he now occupies a spot on the money list that Woods held for nearly 26 years.