The self-imposed penalty cost Sahith Theegala $2.5 million.
Theegala finished third at the Tour Championship as the finale of the FedEx Cup playoffs at 24-under par. It was a remarkable four days of 21-under par as he entered the staggered scoring tournament with a 3-under par start. That finish was worth a $7.5 million payday.
Here’s the difficulty.
Theegala finished two strokes behind second-place finisher Collin Morikawa, who was 26-under par and takes home $12.5 million. Without the penalty, Theegala would have tied Morikawa for second. Add and split their paydays and it would have been $10 million each.
Theegala called a two-stroke penalty on himself in Saturday’s third round when he felt him moved a few grains of sand on his club takeaway from a fairway bunker on the third hole. He said he was 90 – or more – percent sure of the infraction. When video evidence couldn’t determine for sure, Theegala took the hit.
“Intuition, it felt like I moved the sand,” Theegala said Saturday. “It was sitting in my mind. If I went back after the round, looked that up and found out that it was a two-shot penalty, I would be DQ’d right now. So, I am glad I brought it up right away. I know the rules of golf a little bit better now.”
Big moves
Morikawa ended the tournament as the biggest mover. He moved from a starting position of seventh to second. That’s a gain of $9.25 million.
Theegala has the second-biggest climb, moving from 12th to third. Russell Henley, who shot a final round 9-under par 62, moved from 18th to a three-way tie for fourth and an extra $4 million. Henley’s round ended with a chip-in for eagle on the final hole. Henley’s 62 was the low round of the week.
“Hit a perfect drive,” Henley said of the final hole. “My second shot I actually hit right at the pin and it came up much shorter than we anticipated and was on the fringe. Had like 25, 30 feet and read it right and made it. Definitely you’re not going to be making birdie a lot from the front of that green, so it was fortunate.”
Big falls
Xander Schauffele entered in second place in the FedEx Cup points standings. He was two shots behind Scheffler when play began. Even though he only fell two spots, into the tie for fourth, it was a $7.7 million difference.
For Schauffele, it was his sixth consecutive top-five finish at the Tour Championship. He is the only player to finish in the top five in all six tournaments since the inception of staggered scoring system in 2019.
Hideki Matsuyama’s fall from third to a tie for ninth cost him $5.9 million. Keegan Bradley’s drop from fourth to a tie for 21st cost him $5.3 million.
Raw scores
If you took away the starting scores in the staggered system, Morikawa would have been the winner at 22-under par. Theegala’s 21 under was second best and Scheffler’s 20 under was third best.
Morikawa got as close as two strokes behind Scheffler in the final round, before the winner put the pedal down with a run of birdies.
“I needed a lot lower and I knew that,” Morikawa said. “But I fought hard, and all week, honestly, that’s kind of the golf I missed playing. Hopefully we can use this as a steppingstone.”
Tom Hoge and Christiaan Bezuidenhout had the high scores of the tournament at 3-over par.
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