The world No.1 starts his season with a four-shot win at The American Express to take his career earnings over nine figures on the PGA Tour
Open champion Scottie Scheffler has started 2026 with another win(Image: Getty Images)
Scottie Scheffler joined Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in the $100m club after starting his season with another dominant win at The American Express.
And the world No.1 served early notice to the reigning Masters champion that he will be the man to beat in the Majors this season.
The American was out in January last year after injuring his hand when a wine glass he was using to shape ravioli shattered in his hand at Christmas.
But he has started 2026 cooking on gas with a closing six-under 66 to finish on 27-under par in California for a four-shot victory.
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It was his 20th win on the PGA Tour – all in the past four years — to earn a lifetime membership. Nine of those 20 have been won by four shots or more.
His $1.656m took his on-course earning to $101,109,136 to join Woods, 50, and McIlroy, 36, in banking over nine figures on the PGA Tour.
Scheffler, 29, also joined Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to have 20 PGA Tour titles and four majors before turning 30.
Scottie Scheffler has now won seven times in his last 13 strokeplay events(Image: )
“Pretty wild,” said The Open champion. ““Any time you can get mentioned with those guys it means you’re doing some stuff right.
“It’s been a great start to my career. It’s been special. I try not to think about that stuff too much. I was just trying to do the things I needed to do to be prepared.”
Since Scheffler recorded his first win at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, he has 11 more wins than than McIlroy (nine). This was the American’s seventh in his last 13 stroke-play events.
And since his T-20 at The Players last March, Scheffler hasn’t finished lower than T-8.
Former world No.1 Jason Day has compared Scottie Scheffler to Tiger Woods(Image: Getty)
Joint runner-up and former world No.1 Jason Day said: “It’s not like we’re looking at Tiger, but he’s putting up Tiger-ish numbers, even though Tiger was obviously the GOAT. But every time he tees it up he’s right around the lead. And that is one of the most difficult things to do, to always stay hungry to the point of not being satisfied. Because it’s very easy to get satisfied out here.”
What is scary for the rest of golf is that Scheffler reckons he can get even better after his slow start last season where he did not win till May. The Masters starts on April 9.
Scottie Scheffler presented Rory McIlroy with his Green Jacket as defending Masters champion in 2025(Image: )
“You look at last year, it is different just because I had made what I felt was so much progress in the offseason and then to have that basically taken away by four to six weeks of inactivity from golf, that has an effect,” he warned.
The other star of the week was teenager Blades Brown who played in the final group after starting the final day tied with Scheffler and a shot behind leader Si Woo Kim.
Brown, 18, shot a closing 74 to finish tied 18th but said: “To play with Scottie Scheffler and see him win it, that was insane. I had to pinch myself a couple of times just to make sure this was real.”