The Highest-Earning Golfer of All Time.

Scottie Scheffler wins the Tour Championship, Cale Makar changes hockey forever, and the Los Angeles Rams defence might be unstoppable.

Whiskey’s Garage

Sports Talk 

Volume 15

01/09/2026

The Highest-Earning Golfer of All Time. 

PGA 

Scottie Scheffler has won the Tour Championship in a dominating finish. Scheffler’s third win of the year comes with the largest single-event payday available on the PGA Tour. The 1st-place prize of $10,000,000 skyrockets Scottie Scheffler into the highest-earning PGA Tour player of all time, surpassing the great Tiger Woods by about $9.3 million. Scheffler has now earned a total of $130,390,661 through 6 seasons on the PGA Tour, making 150 cuts out of 170 events, and winning 22 of them. This is Scheffler’s second time winning the Tour Championship, with his other victory coming in 2024. Scottie opened the weekend up with a bogey-free R1 of 65 (-5), followed it up with a R2 of 67 (-3), then a R3 of 66 (-4), and finally, a Sunday round 4 of 66 (-4). Finishing at -16 for the weekend, this would be enough to beat out Viktor Hovland, who finished at -13, and solo 2nd place. A 3-stroke victory at the final event of the season for the World Number One. Viktor Hovland had the lead at -15 heading into Sunday, 3 strokes ahead of Scheffler, who was at -12. Unfortunately for Hovland, he would have a tough final round, shooting a 72 (+2). Hovland got off to a rocky start on Sunday, bogeying the first hole. He would go on to have 1 birdie and 2 more bogeys throughout the round. Hovland’s first 3 rounds of 64 (-6), 66 (-4), and 65 (-5) set him up in a good position for Sunday, but ultimately he couldn’t hold off Scheffler, who would take the lead from him on the 13th hole. At just 30 years old, Scottie Scheffler already has one of the best resúmés in golf history, holding multiple records, winning 4 Majors (2x Masters, The Open Championship, PGA Championship), and only a U.S Open off the Career Grand Slam (winning all 4 major events), with many years to go. Scheffler is cementing himself as one of the greatest athletes of all time and should be appreciated as such around the world.

NHL

8 years, $163,200,000 total, $20,400,000 AAV (Average Annual Value), full no-movement clause (NMC). The Stanley Cup Champion, Conn Smythe winner (MVP of the Playoffs), 2x Norris Trophy winner (best defenceman in the league), and 2020 Calder Memorial winner (Rookie of the Year), Cale Makar has just agreed to a record-breaking, game-changing contract with the Colorado Avalanche. Cale Makar now has the highest-paying contract in NHL history, dethroning 20-year-old Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks, who briefly held that record at $18,800,000 AAV. Makar is now not only by far the highest-paid defenceman of all time, but the highest-paid player of all time. When the contract begins in the 2027-2028 season, Makar will be taking up roughly 17.8% of the team's cap space, just 2.2% shy of the 20% max a player can take up. Bowen Byram, who just signed a massive contract with the Chicago Blackhawks on July 1st, held the spot as the highest-paid defenceman in the league with a 6-year, $12,500,000 AAV, $75,000,000 total. Makar just overtook that spot by $7.9 million. Typically, forwards have always had larger contracts than defencemen in the NHL. Most teams were unwilling to give top-tier center money to a defenceman. Makar has just changed that. GMs around the league are now going to have to start paying number-one money to their top defenceman. Teams such as the Minnesota Wild are going to have serious trouble agreeing on a deal with Quinn Hughes after this, and the Columbus Blue Jackets are going to have to fork out a large sum of cap space next season to keep Zach Werenski. Makar has set the bar for what a defenceman of that caliber should be getting paid. Hughes and Werenski, who are easily the other top defencemen in the league, are going to be expecting a contract around that number. Not only does this raise the bar for top-tier players, but 2nd and even 3rd line D-pairings are going to expect larger contracts that are more on par with forwards from now on. 

In other NHL news, after being drafted and spending 12 years with the Winnipeg Jets, Connor Hellebuyck has requested a trade. Hellebuyck, who recently won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA, joins the likes of American teammates Brady Tkachuk and Quinn Hughes, who recently requested trades out of the Canadian market. Tkachuk from Ottawa, and Hughes from Vancouver. Players who both captained their former teams. It seems that most of the American players are looking to team up on 1 of the 4 following franchises: the Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, and, of course, the Florida Panthers. Dylan Larkin, another American player, gave his trade requests earlier this year, including exactly those 4 teams as landing spots he’d be willing to go to. Although Hellebuyck’s list of teams hasn’t been publicly released, it is reported to be more expansive than just those 4 locations, thankfully.

NFL 

Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett are officially teammates. The 3x Defensive Player of the Year, Super Bowl Champion, 10x Pro-Bowler, and 2014 Defensive Rookie of the Year (Donald) has officially unretired to join the 2x Defensive Player of the Year, 7x Pro-Bowler, and the record-holder for most sacks in a single season (Garrett) on the Los Angeles Rams. A nightmare scenario for any quarterback they face. Donald retired as a Ram back in 2024, but this only lasted 2 seasons, missing the 2024 and 2025 seasons, and now returning for the 2026 season. It’s been reported by head coach Sean McVay that Aaron Donald won’t be returning to a full workload this season and may even sit out week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers if he’s not fully ready. McVay reiterated that a lot of his playing time is “contingent upon how he does feel.”  Donald is returning to the Rams on a one-year, $20 million contract, with up to $10 million in playoff and performance incentives. The Rams are heavy favourites to win Super Bowl LXI this season (+500), and it just so happens to be on their home turf in Inglewood, California, at SoFi Stadium. The Buffalo Bills are 2nd (+1000), with the Baltimore Ravens and Seattle Seahawks (last year's champions) at 3rd (+1100).

The NFL kicks off Wednesday, September 9th, at 5:20 PM with the Seahawks taking on the Patriots.