Tour Championship: Viktor Hovland wins PGA Tour finale and $18 million FedEx Cup prize
By Homero De la Fuente and Charlie Webster, CNN
(CNN) — Norwegian Viktor Hovland fended off a late surge by American Xander Schauffele to finish at 27 under par and win the Tour Championship on Sunday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
With the victory, Hovland becomes the third-youngest FedEx Cup champion in history and claims the $18 million first place prize.
“It’s just pretty surreal to be standing here right now, you know, playing basically my best golf the last two weeks and couldn’t have happened at a better moment in front of all these people,” Hovland told the CBS broadcast after the end of the PGA Tour finale.
The 25-year-old Hovland entered the final round with a six-stroke lead, which tied the largest 54-hole lead in the FedEx Cup starting strokes era, after shooting a 4-under 66 in Saturday’s third round.
After a one hour and 53-minute weather delay on Sunday, play resumed at East Lake where Schauffele birdied seven of his first 12 holes to cut Hovland’s lead to three strokes.
However, after birdieing four of his first six holes, Hovland would par his next nine, before eventually regaining a five-stroke lead with birdies on the 16th and 17th holes. A birdie on the 18th hole sealed the victory.
Schauffele finished in second place after carding 22 under par, while 2023 US Open winner Wyndham Clark finished in third place at 16 under par.
Hovland entered the Tour Championship as the No. 2 seed after winning the BMW Championship last week. He joins Tiger Woods, Billy Horschel and Patrick Cantlay as the only golfers to win the BMW Championship and FedEx Cup in the same season.
Prize money distribution
There was a whopping $75 million prize pool for the tournament with the winner netting $18 million. The second and third place golfers received $6.5 million and $5 million respectively, while even the golfer finishing in 10th netted $1 million.
With no cut this weekend, all 30 players earned some prize money, with the 30th-placed golfer slated to receive $500,000.
FedExCup Playoffs
Seventy players had comprised the initial field of golfers for the FedExCup Playoffs. They had made the playoffs having accrued points across the PGA Tour season.
The 70-player FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, was the first of the playoff series, with the 50-player BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club outside Chicago then following, with quadruple points awarded to the winner of those two tournaments.
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