Collin Morikawa reflects on topping the ‘fake leaderboard’ at Tour Championship, says Scottie Scheffler’s third-place finish ‘didn’t help’

Scottie Scheffler won the FedExCup title on Sunday and bagged the whopping $25 million bonus. Meanwhile, Collin Morikawa finished second on the final table and won $12.5 million for his efforts.

While Morikawa officially lost to Scheffler by four shots in the contest, he actually beat the World champion by two strokes at the 2024 Tour Championship. Notably, the 2021 Open Championship winner only lost based on the unique staggered strokes format. According to the playoffs format, Scheffler started the finale with at 10 under par with a two-shot lead.

Addressing the same, Morikawa noted that his aim this weekend was to come out on top of the Tour Championship. The two-time major winner took a sly jibe at the format by dubbing it “kind of fake leaderboard.” He further added that the FedExCup champion only managed a third-place finish behind him and Sahith Theegala.

Talking about the ‘silver lining’ of winning the Tour Championship excluding ‘starting strokes,’ Collin Morikawa said at East Lake, as quoted by ASAP Sports:

“Yeah, it's nice. I knew that was kind of the goal for the week, right, to come out on top on this kind of fake leaderboard and see how things played out… Ultimately, Scottie (Scheffler) was second or third on that leaderboard, so it didn't really help my case.

Look, that was the goal. I knew six shots was a lot to catch up, but I know I've made it up before. It was just nice to put together four good rounds throughout a week.”

It is pertinent to note that Morikawa started his Tour Championship campaign at four under. Having had a strong season, the PGA Tour star was eyeing a big finish this weekend. Despite managing to win the East Lake outing on gross scores, he saw Scheffler lift the playoffs trophy.

2024 Tour Championship leaderboard

Listed below is the complete Tour Championship leaderboard without starting strokes added (Official scores to par):

1. Collin Morikawa, -22 (-26)
2. Sahith Theegala, -21 (-24)
3. Scottie Scheffler, -20 (-30)
4. Russell Henley, -17 (-19)
5. Adam Scott, -16 (-19)
6. Sungjae Im, -15 (-18)
7. Justin Thomas, -14 (-14)
T8. Wyndham Clark, -13 (-17), Shane Lowry (-16),Viktor Hovland (-15), Taylor Pendrith (-14)
12. Rory McIlroy, -12 (-16)
T13. Xander Schauffele, -11 (-19), Sam Burns (-15)
15. Matthieu Pavon, -10 (-11)
T16. Hideki Matsuyama, -9 (-16), Robert MacIntyre (-11), Tommy Fleetwood (-10)
T19. Ludvig Aberg, -7 (-12), Patrick Cantlay (-11)
T21. Byeong Hun An, -6 (-8), Aaron Rai (-6)
23. Billy Horschel, -5 (-6)
T24. Tony Finau, -3 (-6), Akshay Bhatia (-5), Chris Kirk (-3)
T27. Keegan Bradley, -2 (-8), Sepp Straka (-3)
T29. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, +3 (+3), Tom Hoge (+3)

As mentioned above, Scottie Scheffler won the $25 million FedExCup bonus, while Morikawa bagged $12.5 million. Theegala banked $7.5 million for solo third.

Xander Schauffele, the closest competitor to the champion on the playoffs leaderboard, finished T13 in the Tour Championship. He settled for a three-way T4 in the FedExCup list and bagged $4.83 million for his efforts.