Justin Thomas wins 2017 FedExCup, Xander Schauffele takes TOUR Championship

The 2016-2017 PGA Tour season has come to an end, and because the golf media loves a nice and tidy narrative, you’re going to read and hear plenty about how appropriate the ending was at the TOUR Championship. That’s because two more high school class of 2011 stars took the two biggest prizes, capping a year in which 25-and-under players made the most competitive tour in the world their own. You’ll get headlines about “youth being served” and that tacky phrase “youth movement” will be machine-gunned onto the page and airwaves.

While it might be facile and tired, it’s not wrong. Pro golf is changing and Sunday was the latest reminder, as 24-year-old Justin Thomas finished off what is sure to be a Player-of-the-Year season by taking the FedExCup. The Playoffs win secures that enormous $10 million grand prize payout and push his season earnings close to $20 million. A major, five wins, a FedExCup, $20 million, and the PoY award is a nice way to breakout for a player that’s been hailed as a top prospect since his junior and college golf days.

Alongside Thomas was Xander Schauffele, a 23-year-old who had a lot less hype but just capped a Rookie-of-the-Year season with a $3-plus million payout and a Tour Championship title. It was Schaueffele’s second win of the year, backing up his victory at the Greenbrier in the middle of the summer. Schauffele maybe came on your radar at the U.S. Open, where he contended deep into the weekend at Erin Hills. Or maybe you knew about him as he came up through the Web.com Tour last year, where he thrived in a setting that’s just as cutthroat and almost as competitive as the big leagues. Or maybe you still hadn’t heard of him until late Sunday night at East Lake, where he put in an around-the-world putt on the 18th to win the last event of the PGA Tour season.

Maybe you’re just hearing about him for the first time right now. It doesn’t matter — he’s got an incredible backstory (read my colleague Kyle Robbins’ debrief on him from the U.S. Open), a badass name, and now he’s rookie of the year. This may be the hottest stretch he experiences in his career, and that would be fine. But we’re betting we’ll hear more from him again next season (which starts in 10 days!).

So yes, JT and the X-Man side-by-side seemed like an appropriate way to end this particular season.

(As J-Ray supplemented in a later tweet, that previous record came in 2000, when Tiger bagged NINE of those 10 wins).

It was the first time since 2009 that the winner of the Tour Championship was also not the winner of the overall FedExCup. The machinations of FedExCup points can get complicated like that, but we’ve been on a great run of the winners in Atlanta also taking the entire FedExCup, including titles by Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy the last two years. The split in that 2009 event at East Lake? Two pretty good players:

Thomas will now head north to New Jersey for the Presidents Cup, where the American squad is the overwhelming favorite against the International team. Thomas is a centerpiece of a roster that is one of the strongest in recent memory at these U.S. team events. And so much of the talent is ... keeping the theme here ... young. It’s a powerhouse core that should lead these teams for the next decade or so.

Schauffele will not be a part of that team, but after this season, it’s a realistic goal to start shooting at going forward. Here’s your final leaderboard from the Tour Championship:

And here are your final FedExCup standings for the season. As I mentioned above, the points will start being put up on the board in about 10 days as the new season begins in California.