PGA TOUR; Points and Payouts: Stephan Jaeger wins $1.64 million, 500 FedExCup points in Houston
As so often happens, it all came down to the penultimate putt of the Texas Junior Tournament in Houston. Scheffler took a shot from about 5 feet out and could have made the playoffs, but the shot went left. As a result, Jaeger became the champion and Scheffler’s winning streak ended at two.
For Yeager, this is his first PGA Tour win in 135 career starts. He is entering his fifth season as a contestant. Despite that and some hesitation in arriving at his Memorial Park Golf course, the 34-year-old won his pre-tournament at BetMGM with +5000 points. I was 12th out of 144 people.
Returning to the core of what you generally already know, Scheffler was the clear favorite to win at just +275, but in the end he was one of the five finalists. I’ll explain the rest a little later.
Scheffler has won four times on the PGA Tour since winning the WM Phoenix Open in February 2023. It is therefore clear that he is currently the best talent in the world, but contrary to understandable belief, he does not win every time he succeeds, but Jaeger is only the third to break through in the field, sandwiching Scheffler .
Yeager was by far the smallest of his three players on the BetMGM board. Kurt Kitayama was +20,000 when he won the 2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational sponsored by Mastercard, and then-amateur Nick Dunlap was +40,000 after winning the American Express two months earlier.
Defending champion Tony Finau shot an 8-under 62 in the second round in Houston, tying the course record he already shared with Scheffler. Finau fell behind with a 72 in the third round, but returned to a 66 on Sunday. He will join the quintet in T2. It was the fifth biggest gainer at +2200.
Last week’s Valspar Champion, Taylor Moore, also placed second in Houston last week. Before the tournament it was +5500. Two of his other T2 players will remain undefeated on his PGA Tour for at least one more week: Thomas Detry (+6600) and Alejandro Tosti (+30000). Windham-Clark finished second in his past two starts, losing to Scheffler. At +1200 to victory, Clark’s points at Memorial Park placed him second and he finished T31.
