The DP World Tour marked the anniversary on X on August 28, 2026, noting that Rory McIlroy became the first and only player in PGA Tour history to win the FedExCup three times.
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Scottie Scheffler had a six-shot lead heading into the final round at East Lake. By the back nine, it was gone. He’d been the runaway favorite all week, the top seed everyone expected to close it out. McIlroy chipped away at the lead all afternoon and shot a closing 66 to reach 21-under. Scheffler shot 73, well off the pace he’d set to open the week. When the scores settled at East Lake, McIlroy had the trophy by one stroke.
That win made McIlroy the only player in PGA Tour history to lift the FedExCup three times. Tiger Woods won it twice, in 2007 and 2009, and no one else has managed more than that. Scheffler has one FedExCup, from 2024, despite five wins in the 2025 season alone. Justin Thomas, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland, and Tommy Fleetwood each have exactly one. McIlroy’s total is three, won in 2016, 2019, and 2022, and it still stands as the highest number on the list.
Two of McIlroy’s three FedExCups were won under a format that no longer exists, and the third came under a format that’s also gone now. Before 2019, the points leader going into the TOUR Championship had an edge, not a lock, since anyone in the field could technically outplay them over four rounds and take the actual FedExCup. The Tour fixed that starting in 2019 by handing out strokes instead of just points: 10-under to the top seed, scaling down to even par for whoever squeaked into 30th. Under those rules, low score at East Lake won everything, and that’s the system McIlroy beat in both 2019 and 2022. Then the Tour tore it up again. Since 2025 there’s no head start at all, just 30 players and 72 holes. The playoff field shrank too, down to 70 golfers from 125 as of 2023, so fewer players are even getting the chance to chase it. Woods never had to deal with any of that. His two FedExCups, 2007 and 2009, came under the same points system, no rule changes in between.
The Comeback That Set the Record
The 2022 win is the one that separates McIlroy from the pack, and the manner of it explains why. Trailing by ten shots at one stage during the week, he produced the largest final-round comeback in Tour Championship history to catch a player at the peak of his powers. Scheffler’s collapse tied a PGA Tour record: the largest 54-hole lead ever lost, matching Dustin Johnson’s meltdown at the 2017 HSBC Champions. McIlroy took home the trophy and an $18 million check. Scheffler shot 73 in the final round and finished tied for second.
Scheffler’s Own Chase Falls Short
Scheffler got his first FedExCup two years later, in 2024, winning by four shots with the help of a starting-strokes format the Tour has since scrapped. He opened the 2025 Tour Championship at plus-150, the shortest odds in the field, after five wins that season and a BMW Championship title the week before. Tommy Fleetwood shot 18-under and beat him. Scheffler finished tied for fourth. A second FedExCup, back-to-back, is still something no one on Tour has done. McIlroy, in that same field, finished well back at six-under. By then his name was already secure at the top of the record book, untouched by either man’s pursuit.
CBS Sports framed it plainly in its preview of that finale: McIlroy already had three FedExCups, and Scheffler was still chasing his second, hoping to become the first player to win the title in consecutive years.
Scheffler was chasing back-to-back in 2025, not a third title, a much smaller ask than McIlroy’s record. He still finished tied for fourth, four shots behind Tommy Fleetwood. Back-to-back is the easier target: one repeat win, in the same format, in the same year Scheffler was already the best player in the world by every measure. He had five wins and the top world ranking, and still couldn’t get it done. McIlroy’s three titles took six years, spanned two different scoring formats, and came against three different fields at East Lake.
Where this goes next depends on whether Scheffler, still in his prime and already the most efficient winner of his generation, can add a second FedExCup and then chase a third of his own. The 2026 TOUR Championship will show whether Scheffler can close that gap. Until then, three is the number to beat, and only McIlroy has reached it.