FedEx Cup Winners: What Most People Get Wrong About Golf's Richest Prize

The silver trophy is heavy, but the check is heavier. Honestly, when you look at the list of FedEx Cup winners, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of zeroes at the end of their bank balances. We're talking about a payout that makes "normal" tournament purses look like pocket change. But for the guys standing on the 18th green at East Lake, it has never been just about the money. Well, okay, it's mostly about the money, but there’s a massive legacy play here that most casual fans totally miss.

Golf is weird.

In most sports, the playoffs are a bracket. You win, you move on. In golf, for a long time, the FedEx Cup was this bizarre math experiment involving points, "reset" values, and—more recently—a staggered start that felt more like a local handicap tournament than the pinnacle of professional sport.

If you followed the 2025 season, you saw the biggest shift yet. The PGA Tour finally ditched the "Starting Strokes" format. They went back to basics: even par for everyone. No more Scottie Scheffler starting at 10-under before he even ties his shoes.

The Hall of Fame Roll Call: Who Actually Won?

When you look at the history of FedEx Cup winners, the list is essentially a "Who's Who" of the modern era. But it started with a bang that almost broke the system. Tiger Woods won the inaugural cup in 2007. Obviously. He was so dominant that year he basically made the points system look broken from day one.

Tiger is one of only two players to win the thing multiple times. The other? Rory McIlroy.

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Rory is basically the King of East Lake. He’s bagged three of these titles (2016, 2019, 2022). His 2022 win was particularly insane because he started the tournament by hitting his very first tee shot out of bounds. He was six shots back with a round to play and still hunted down Scottie Scheffler. That’s the kind of drama the Tour prays for every August.

Then you have the "one-hit wonders" who aren't really wonders at all—guys like Jordan Spieth (2015), Justin Thomas (2017), and Viktor Hovland (2023).

Hovland's 2023 run was terrifying. He played the final two weeks of the season in 36-under par. He didn't just win; he demoralized the best players in the world. He was a ball-striking machine that simply refused to miss a fairway.

A Quick Look at Recent Champions

• 2025: Tommy Fleetwood. Finally. The man who had everything but a PGA Tour win grabbed the biggest one of all. He shot 18-under to beat the field after the Tour removed the handicap system.
• 2024: Scottie Scheffler. This was the year of Scottie. He finished at 30-under (with the help of starting strokes) and capped off a season where he won seven times and an Olympic Gold.
• 2023: Viktor Hovland. The Norwegian sensation went back-to-back at the BMW and Tour Championship to claim the $18 million bonus.
• 2022: Rory McIlroy. The historic third title.

The Scottie Scheffler Problem and the 2025 Format Flip

For a few years there, the Tour had a problem. Scottie Scheffler was too good.

In 2022 and 2023, Scottie entered the finale as the Number 1 seed. Under the "Starting Strokes" rules, he began at 10-under par. But he didn't win either of those years. It felt... off. Then in 2024, he finally closed the door, finishing at a staggering 30-under par to take home a $25 million bonus.

But fans hated the math.

You’d have one guy winning the "Tour Championship" (lowest 72-hole score) and another guy winning the "FedEx Cup" (the points/handicap winner). It was confusing. It was clunky.

So, in 2025, they blew it up.

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The PGA Tour announced that everyone would start at even par at East Lake. To reward the guys who played great all year, they moved the "guaranteed" big money to a bonus pool paid out before the finale. This meant the Tour Championship became a straight-up shootout again.

Tommy Fleetwood was the first beneficiary of this "new-old" style. He wasn't the top seed coming in, but he played the best golf that week. In the old system, he might have started too far back to ever catch a guy like Scheffler. In 2025, he just had to beat him over 72 holes. And he did.

What Most People Get Wrong About the Money

$100 million.

That’s the total bonus pool we’re talking about now. When people see FedEx Cup winners holding that trophy, they see the $10 million or $25 million check.

But here’s the nuance: that money is technically a "bonus," not "official earnings." It’s a distinction that only matters to golf nerds and tax accountants, but it’s why you’ll see different numbers on the career money lists.

Also, the "wealth gap" in the playoffs is staggering. If you make it to the Top 30 and get to East Lake, you're guaranteed a massive payday even if you finish last. In 2025, the 30th-place finisher still cleared over $350,000. For four days of work where you can't even be cut. That’s the best "bad" week in sports.

The "Fall" Factor: Why the Race Doesn't End in August

A common misconception is that once the FedEx Cup is hoisted, the season is over.

Nope.

The "FedEx Cup Fall" is where the real drama happens for the "other" 100 guys. While the FedEx Cup winners are off vacationing in the Bahamas, the guys ranked 51st to 125th are fighting for their lives.

If you finish outside the top 125 in the Fall, you lose your job. Period. It’s a brutal, high-stakes sprint that determines who gets to play in the big-money "Signature Events" the following year.

Actionable Insights for Following the FedEx Cup

If you want to actually understand the race instead of just waking up for the final round on Sunday, you’ve got to track the "Bubble."

1. Watch the Top 50: The real cutoff isn't the final 30; it's the 50. Making the Top 50 in points guarantees you entry into all the $20 million Signature Events for the next season. That’s where the generational wealth is made.
2. Ignore the "Projected" Standings until Sunday: The TV networks love showing "Projected FedEx Cup Standings" on Thursday. Ignore them. A single double-bogey on the 15th hole can move a player 15 spots in the projections. It’s noise until the back nine on Sunday.
3. Check the Course Changes: East Lake underwent a massive renovation recently. It’s no longer the "bomb and gouge" course it used to be. It rewards precision and scrambling, which is why we’re seeing guys like Fleetwood and Morikawa contend more often than the pure long hitters.

The FedEx Cup has evolved from a confusing points race into a legitimate, high-pressure season finale. Whether you love the massive payouts or think they're obscene, there’s no denying that the pressure of playing for $10 million+ changes how these guys swing the club.

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To stay ahead of the next season, start tracking the standings right after the West Coast Swing in February. That’s when the "separation" begins and you can see which dark horses might actually have a shot at joining the elite list of champions.

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