Viktor Hovland made the most of his eight-under headstart and held off an impressive rally from Xander Schauffele to take the Tour Championship and with it, the FedEx Cup title, earning $18 million dollars in the process.

Schauffele — who started six in arrears — came out swinging, putting up a front-nine 30, yet hardly made a dent as Hovland countered with a 31, starting with a 15-footer for birdie at the first. A dart from 172 yards at the fourth ignited a stretch of three in a row.

The Norwegian used a strong tee-to-green game at East Lake. As he did at the BMW Championship, he led the field in driving accuracy with his 9-degree Ping G425 LST driver with a 45.75-inch Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX shaft. Hovland also used the club to rank first in strokes gained/off-the-tee.

Into the greens, Hovland ranked second in greens in regulation with his Ping i210 irons with KBS Tour-V 120X shafts and Golf Pride MCC grips with one extra wrap of tape underneath.

As Hovland stalled out with a string of nine pars starting at the seventh, Schauffele made inroads with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 to cut the deficit to three. Hovland, however, rolled in a 23-footer for par after a scratchy chip shot at the 14th and then knocked in a 10-footer for birdie at the next to effectively end things. He added a 12-footer for birdie on 17 for good measure then capped it off with another on the 18th hole.

On the greens Hovland uses a Ping PLD DS72 prototype that has a stepless 36-inch shaft and 2.5 degrees of loft. In addition to ranking fifth in strokes gained/putting, he went a perfect 50 for 50 on putts from five feet and in for the week, resulting in a tournament-low two bogeys.

And a season-high pay cheque.

The clubs Viktor Hovland used to win the 2023 Tour Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G425 LST (Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX), 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth Plus, 15 degrees
Irons (3): Titleist U505; (4-PW): Ping i210
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 56 degrees); Ping Glide 2.0 (60 degrees)
Putter: Ping PLD DS72 prototype