Just one player can bump Scottie Scheffler for FedExCup No. 1 into TOUR Championship

Scottie Scheffler described his fourth-place finish at the FedEx St. Jude Championship as a “good fight.” Xander Schauffele phrased his final-round 63 that led to a runner-up showing as a “head-down day.”

Matter-of-fact. Businesslike. Standard operating procedure for Scheffler and Schauffele, another high finish in a season full of them, at the first leg of the three-event FedExCup Playoffs.

“I felt like I could have done a few things better,” Scheffler said afterward, “but overall it was a solid week.”

The top-five finishes by the world’s top two players also solidified a FedExCup scenario: Schauffele is now the only player with a mathematical chance to pass Scottie Scheffler on the season-long race at next week’s BMW Championship, before the top 30 are seeded by Starting Strokes into the TOUR Championship.

On the strength of six PGA TOUR wins this season, Scheffler entered the FedExCup Playoffs with a 1,936-point edge on Schauffele, with Playoffs events awarding quadruple points (2,000 to the winner) compared to a Full-Field Event. Schauffele made up some ground at TPC Southwind, particularly in his closing 63 that gave him a puncher’s chance before eventual winner Hideki Matsuyama’s back-to-back closing birdies.

It’s still a substantial deficit – Schauffele trails Scheffler by 1,495 points into next week’s BMW Championship. Only a win at Castle Pines would move him atop the FedExCup into the TOUR Championship at East Lake, which utilizes a Starting Strokes format (the FedExCup leader will start at 10 under, with No. 2 starting at 8 under). But it’s a chance, which is better than any other player can say amidst Scheffler’s generational season, in which he became the first player since Arnold Palmer in 1962 with six wins before July 1.

Scheffler will clinch the No. 1 spot into the TOUR Championship with a solo fourth or better at the BMW Championship. Schauffele will assume the No. 1 spot with a win if Scheffler finishes no better than a two-way T4.

The FedEx St. Jude Championship marked Scheffler’s 14th top-10 finish in 16 starts this season, which has been a hallmark of generational ball-striking. It was more of the same in Memphis, where he ranked third in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and eighth in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, gaining more than seven strokes in the field between the two categories (against a field of the top 70 on the season-long FedExCup standings).

Schauffele was no slouch in these categories either, ranking 18th off the tee and sixth from the fairway (also ranking seventh on the greens).

“Memphis has gotten the best of me a lot of times,” Schauffele said afterwards. “I'm happy I was able to overcome some demons on this property and shoot a nice number here.”

Although neither found the winner’s circle, the sterling form of Scheffler and Schauffele this week suggested that we could be building toward a dramatic Playoffs conclusion at East Lake. Next week’s BMW Championship outside Denver, with the twist of playing roughly 7,000 feet above sea level, will justly set the table. (Scheffler was already looking forward to a prompt trip to the Rocky Mountains and using a cart in Monday’s practice round.)

The expectations will also be high for these two at Castle Pines, but they’re well equipped to meet them.