Scottie Scheffler only bettered by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy thanks to mega-money season

Scottie Scheffler has become the third highest earner in PGA Tour history, in more success for the 28-year-old who signed his season off in style at the Tour Championship on Sunday.

Scheffler has dominated this PGA Tour season, leading the FedEx Cup standings for most of the year before being crowned champion with a victory at the Tour Championship. This win marked his seventh on the PGA Tour this term, including victories at the Masters and Players Championship, as well as a group or Signature Events.

This success has of course come with financial prize too, with his biggest payout coming from Sunday's victory, where he pocketed a staggering $25 million for winning the season-long race.

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While these bonuses do not contribute to a player's earnings on the all-time PGA Tour Money List, Scheffler has still managed to climb to third place. Excluding his bonus payouts, the world's No. 1 golfer has earned nearly £30 million in tournament prize money this season.

This has allowed him to surpass one of the Tour's greatest players, 17-time champion and former US Open winner Jim Furyk. Scheffler's official tally is now almost $71,793,586, around $200,000 ahead of Furyk despite playing over 500 fewer PGA Tour tournaments.

Scheffler is now only sat behind two of the game's biggest names in the Money List, with Rory McIlroy in second, and the great Tiger Woods in first. His ascent on the earnings list has been inadvertently boosted by the emergence of LIV Golf.

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The PGA Tour saw some of its marquee players jump ship to the Saudi-funded league, resulting in their suspension and erasure from the Money List, which has benefited Scheffler. Despite Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, both associated with LIV Golf, having higher career earnings on the PGA Tour than Scheffler, he would rank fifth if those players were counted.

Yet, for Scheffler, it often appears that the financial incentive is not his true motivation. After clinching a lucrative victory in Atlanta, Scheffler remained the picture of composure, celebrating with his wife Meredith and son Bennett.

Reflecting on his win, he shared, "It's a lot of fun," and added, "We've put in a lot of work to get to this point, and it's been a long week. Right now I'm just pretty tired, so I don't really know how to put this into words. But it's a pretty special feeling to be finally holding the trophy."