Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy primed to break huge Tiger Woods record that has stood for decades

Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest golfer we have ever seen, with this being measured across several incredible records.

The 50-year-old has won 82 official PGA Tour events, along with Sam Snead, to make them the most successful golfers across this metric.

He has won 15 majors, which is the second-most any golfer has claimed across all time, with only Jack Nicklaus winning more with his 18.

Meanwhile, he has amassed the most career earnings of any player in PGA Tour history; however, this could be about to change this weekend at the Tour Championship.

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy could both surpass Woods’ accumulation of $120,999,166 in official PGA Tour earnings across his 82 victories during his career.

Scheffler has been incredible across the past five years, which has put him within striking distance of achieving this record.

The world No. 1 won the Masters in 2022 and 2024 before capturing the PGA Championship and Open Championship in 2025, earning him some incredible prize money.

Scheffler currently sits at $120,390,661 despite having only 21 victories, while McIlroy has earned $117,848,372 throughout his PGA Tour career.

Tiger Woods (L) of the United States celebrates on the 18th green after winning the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 14, 2019 in Augusta, Georgia. Getty Images

The positional finish Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy require at the Tour Championship to surpass Tiger Woods’ PGA career winnings record

Scheffler is within $600,000 of Woods’ record, while McIlroy is within $3.1 million, so the pair need to achieve certain results to surpass the 50-year-old’s career winnings.

The Tour Championship began on Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, and the pair will be aware that they could make history at the competition, with the competition featuring a total purse of $40 million, with $10 million going to the winner.

All Scheffler needs is a 13th-place finish or better to officially surpass Woods; the reason for this is that the prize money for this placement would be $625,000.

Meanwhile, the task for McIlroy is much harder to break Woods’ record, as he requires a fourth-place finish.

The Northern Irishman would earn a prize pot of $3.2 million for achieving this solo fourth-place position; however, it must be noted that he would receive the same money by finishing in a three-way tie for third, or a five-way tie for second.

While it will be an incredible feat for the pair to surpass Woods, it must be noted that PGA Tour purses were significantly smaller during his iconic era, something that Scheffler admitted to the media.

The world No 1 said: “You're kind of comparing apples and oranges.

“But I think a lot of success we've had out here, especially when you look at it from a financial perspective, Tiger has a lot to do with that. Like I said, it's apples and oranges. The reason our purses are so large today is because of the influence and impact that Tiger had on the game.”