Scottie Scheffler poses with the trophy after winning the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, last month. AP-Yonhap
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler pushed Tiger Woods off the top of the PGA Tour career earnings list with his victory at the Tour Championship, the final leg of the FedExCup Playoffs. But an analysis of how efficiently PGA Tour players convert their starts into prize money shows that while Scheffler has passed Woods in total career earnings, Woods at his peak remains far ahead on the share of purses he claimed.
A review by The Seoul Economic Daily on the 10th of the PGA Tour’s “percentage of potential money won” this season found that Scheffler collected $30,937,525, or 42.74%, of the $72,387,000 in combined winner’s purses at the events he entered. The tour average this season is just 5.64%, underscoring how dominant his rate of collection has been.
Comparing Scheffler and Woods on cumulative earnings alone has limits, because total PGA Tour purses have expanded sharply in recent years alongside inflation. The percentage of potential money won — the ratio of actual earnings to the maximum a player could have won by taking every event he entered — offers a clearer picture of a player’s impact on the field.
Scheffler’s recent run stands alone. He made his PGA Tour debut in 2020 and posted his career-best figure in 2024, winning 51.02% of potential money in a season with seven wins in 19 starts, against a tour average of 5.28%. He followed that with 40.07% last year, against a tour average of 5.38%, and 42.74% this season. Taking close to half the winner’s purses available in his own starts for three straight years has established him as the strongest player in the current game.
Tiger Woods watches the college football game between the Stanford Cardinal and the Miami Hurricanes on Sept. 4 local time. AFP-Yonhap
Woods’ prime, however, produced even more striking numbers. His share of purses during the years he ruled the tour towers over Scheffler’s. In 2008, limited to six starts by a knee injury, Woods won four of them and finished second in another, leaving him with 78.25% of potential money won against a tour average of 4.60%. He also recorded 50.54% in 1999, 63.00% in 2000, 44.11% in 2002, 58.63% in 2006 and 54.23% in 2007 — data showing that Woods’ mere presence in the field sharply cut the prize money available to everyone else.
Scheffler has surpassed Woods in career earnings, but Woods retains a commanding lead on percentage of potential money won, the measure of dominance over the field. Scheffler rules the current tour with figures in the 40% to 50% range; Woods commanded it with a peak of 78%. Still, at 30 and having only just reached No. 1 in career earnings, Scheffler is squarely in his prime, leaving open the question of how close he can get to the records of the man they called the emperor of golf.
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