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As world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler fights to hold onto his lead in the back half of the final day of the 2022 TOUR Championship, we take a look at the biggest collapses in TOUR Championship history.
Scheffler began the weekend at 10 under par with the starting strokes format that the FexExCup playoff uses, and had a six-shot lead going into Sunday after finishing his third round in the morning thanks to weather delays.
Rory McIlroy, who started at four-under on Thursday, has now pulled into first place at 21-under with Scheffler at 20-under through the 16th hole at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. They’re playing for $18 million, and Scheffler has the chance to break the record for most prize money won in a single season in PGA TOUR history, but it’s slipping out of his grasp before our very eyes.
Brooks Koepka had a less-epic fall off in 2019, which was the first year that the TOUR Championship employed its current starting strokes format. Brooksie entered the final round with a one-shot lead, but a 72 on Sunday on what’s usually a birdie-friendly East Lake cost him the Cup. Rory McIlroy fired a 66, and picked up the title for the second time.
Before that, when the FedExCup was determined by a points system, Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia choked in the final round of the TOUR Championship in 2008 before losing in a sudden-death playoff. Camilo Villegas shot a 66 on Sunday to force the overtime, while Garcia’s 71 saw him come up short in stroke play and match play on the same day.
But as far as pressure-packed rounds of golf in Georgia go, none of these are the 1996 Masters. It could always be worse — you could always be Greg Norman blowing a six-shot lead going into Sunday at Augusta, shooting 78 while your playing partner Nick Faldo cruises with a 67 and walks away with the green jacket.