Scottie Scheffler may have fallen one stroke shy of a playoff with Matt Fitzpatrick at the 2022 U.S. Open, but there was a nice consolation prize waiting for him at The Country Club. For his effort coming up one stroke shy of the national championship, the 25-year-old banked $1.56 million in a shared second-place prize with Will Zalatoris. In doing so, Scheffler set the all-time record for most money earned in a single season on the PGA Tour.
Totaling nearly $13 million ($12,896,849 to be exact), Scheffler not only tops that list but has with seven weeks remaining on the PGA Tour regular-season calendar to expand his money advantage. He surpassed the previous record holder Jordan Spieth, a fellow former Texas Longhorns golfer, who held the prior record with $12,030,465 earned in 2015. Other players who have earned more than $10 million in a single season include Vijay Singh in 2004 and Tiger Woods in 2007 and 2005.
Capturing four victories in a six tournament stretch, the world No. 1 golfer's largest payday of the year came with his breakthrough major triumph at the 2022 Masters. The $2.7 million he collected at Augusta National marks Scheffler's latest winner's check as he has since finished runner-up not only this past week in Brookline, Massachusetts, but also at the Charles Schwab Challenge where he lost in a playoff to Sam Burns. These two instances add to his close calls during the season as he also came up just short at the HPE Houston Open during the fall swing.
Thus far in 2021-22, Scheffler has notched four victories and three runners-up. He has become the fourth player since 2000 to possess at least seven such finishes in a season, joining Spieth, Woods (four times) and Phil Mickelson (twice).
On paper, his results this year are eerily similar to those of Spieth in 2015 when he won the Masters, U.S. Open, Valspar Championship and John Deere Classic. Spieth added three runners-up throughout 2015 and was one stroke short of a playoff at The Open Championship at St. Andrew's. Scheffler and the rest of the world's best will be traveling to that exact course next month for the final major championship of the year.
