Scottie Scheffler produced a clinical performance at TPC Southwind on his way to sealing an eight-shot victory at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Scheffler took a two-shot lead heading into Sunday's final round, but as his challengers faltered in the boiling Memphis heat, the 30-year-old four-time major winner held his cool as he surgically dismantled the course to post a final-round score of 66 to finish on 17 under.
Scheffler is now the third-youngest player to reach 21 PGA Tour wins, behind Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, but the American could have reached that milestone much earlier, having placed as a runner-up on five occasions on the PGA Tour this season.
"It's not easy to win out here," Scheffler said. "I felt like the year that I've had kind of shows how difficult it is.
"We have a lot of talented guys, and I played some really solid golf over the course of this year, but I hadn't played much great golf.
"I have had my close calls and lost a couple play-offs. It was nice coming into a day during which I had the lead and was able to hold that lead and really kind of build on it as the round went on.
"I felt like a week like this was coming. I felt like I was on repeat all year just being like: 'Hey, I'm playing solid. I'm close'.
"It feels good to be answering some different questions at the end of this week."
Scheffler's only blemish during his final round came on the third hole, where the American chipped out of a bunker but struck a sprinkler head. Much to his dismay, his ball ricochetted into a water hazard, with Scheffler going on to post a bogey.
Unperturbed by the incident, he hit back two holes later, making birdies on holes five and six, before adding three more on his back nine to finish at four under for the day.
"Going into today I just wanted to do my best and try and execute," Scheffler said. "Third hole I hit a good shot out of the bunker and it hit a sprinkler head and went into the water. I'm like: 'When is this going to stop happening?' But I did a good job of staying in it and bouncing back from that and I got to relax coming down the stretch."
Si Woo Kim finished as the solo runner-up at nine under par, while a bogey on the 18th would see Sam Burns drop back to tied-third with Alex Noren.
"I knew he was going to put a solid round together," Burns said on Scheffler. "Honestly it was going to be really difficult, what did Scottie finish, at 17 under?
"I would have had to play pretty much a perfect round of golf to have a chance today, and I didn't come close to that. He played exactly how I expected him to."
Defending FedExCup champion Tommy Fleetwood toiled, mixing two bogeys with two birdies to go level par through his front nine. The Englishman would ultimately fall back to six-under and tied for seventh on the leaderboard after making four bogeys on his back nine.
Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, endured a difficult return to PGA Tour action, with the Northern Irishman, who has been on holiday for the past four weeks, posting a final round .
Justin Rose was the only player to shoot lower than Scheffler on Sunday, posting a final round score of 64, however, he would end his week at level par and tied-39th on the leaderboard, after shooting rounds of 73, 70, and 73 in his opening three days.
The FedExCup Playoffs continue next week at the BMW Championship, live on Your Site, but several big names will not be in attendance, including Jordan Spieth.
The top 50 players in the FedExCup standings will qualify for the second FedExCup Playoff next week, and Spieth had been hovering around that marker, even advancing to 45th in the standings after going two under through his front nine.
But the 2015 Masters champion faltered late on, slumping to tied-19th on the leaderboard, after wrapping up his final round at level par.
"It was a tall task coming in," Spieth said. "I was going to need to finish essentially in the top 10 this week and fell just shy of it.
"It's funny, I just feel like I'm kind of getting back to playing really good golf, like it's close to kicking off, and I'm not going to play a tournament for a long time.
"In some ways I feel like I'm leaving some out there, and in some ways it's a good thing because like I mentioned after the first round, this will be the last time I finish like this for a while."
Harry Hall was another who was just on the edge of qualifying for the BMW Championship, but a three under par final score was not enough to propel him into the top 50, with the Englishman ranking No 56 in the FedExCup standings.
His compatriot Jordan Smith ended his season 66th in the FedExCup standings and was unable to move up the rankings after he finished with a final score of four over par.
Watch all four rounds of the BMW Championship live on Your Site. Early coverage of the first round commences at 5pm on Thursday, with full-round coverage of the event due to begin at 8pm live on Your Site Golf. or
