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The National Football League season kicked off this week, which means the PGA Tour schedule has once again worked out perfectly. Most of the PGA Tour ends before the NFL season, meaning the PGA Tour’s biggest events won’t be crushed by football in terms of TV ratings.
But as the golf season winds down – with tournaments still to be played for golfers battling to crack the top 125 and earn an exemption for 2025 – it’s interesting to look back at 2024. It was a year that saw PGA Tour history in several areas, including a massive year for the game’s current dominant player and an amateur who emerged as one of the game’s best players with four magical days at La Quinta.
Here are five things to remember about the 2024 PGA Tour season:
Scottie Scheffler’s Historic Year
Some would argue that the most exciting thing Scottie Scheffler did all year was get pulled over while trying to drive into the PGA Championship in Louisville in May. But the truth is that Scheffler’s 2024 season is one of the best in the last 50 years, and if you exclude all the Tiger Woods years, Scheffler’s season is at or near the top of any season this century. Seven PGA Tour victories, including the Masters, Players Championship and Tour Championship, are reminiscent of some of Woods’ best years. Scheffler has 13 victories in three years, including two majors. What does 2025 have in store for him?
The stars came out to play
If the PGA Tour thrives on stars, then the 2024 season has been exactly what it would have wanted. Scheffler, the world No. 1, has won seven times and added an Olympic gold medal for good measure. Xander Schauffele broke through with two majors to cement the status people expected him to have. Rory McIlroy, still one of the most popular players in the world, won twice on the PGA Tour and suffered a tough loss at the U.S. Open. Even Bryson DeChambeau, who is not on the PGA Tour but on the LIV Tour, had a big year with a one-shot victory at the U.S. Open and a runner-up finish to Schauffele at the PGA Championship.
Nick Dunlap’s Surprise
Among the many surprises of 2024, none matched Nick Dunlap’s victory at The American Express. Still an amateur and the reigning U.S. Amateur champion at the time, Dunlap played at La Quinta on a sponsor’s exemption. The result was a stunning victory for Dunlap, who shot a 60 in the third round at La Quinta Country Club. Dunlap became the first golfer to win as an amateur on the PGA Tour in 33 years, since Phil Mickelson won the 1991 Northern Telecom Open in Tucson. Dunlap later won the Barracuda Championship, becoming the first golfer to win on the tour as an amateur and a pro in the same season.
Grayson Murray
In 2024, Murray’s story went from euphoria to tragedy in just four months. Murray won his first PGA Tour event in seven years at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January, a victory that came after years of struggling with alcohol abuse and mental health issues. That beautiful story turned tragic in May, when Murray, 30, withdrew from the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas one day and was found dead by suicide the next day at his Florida home. It was the worst kind of reminder that the struggles with addiction and mental health issues never really end.
Not yet agreed
The 2024 PGA Tour season began with talks between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund over a possible merger between the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour. There was also talk of billions of dollars being invested in the PGA Tour by Strategic Sports Group, a group of sports event owners looking to help the PGA Tour manage its finances while hoping to make money from the deal. As the 2024 season winds down, there is still no deal between the PGA Tour and the PIF, although SSG money has helped the PGA Tour so far. It now appears that any deal between the two golf leagues may not come into effect until the 2026 season.
Larry Bohannan is the golf reporter for The Desert Sun, part of the USA Today Network. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support local journalism.
This article was originally published on Golfweek: As football takes over, we look back at the 5 biggest stories from the 2024 PGA Tour (so far)
