After all of the discussion, the suggestions and the models, it turns out the format for the Tour Championship is going back to where it started.
No more staggered scoring system to start, putting the FedEx Cup points leader at 10-under par before he sets foot at steamy East Lake in late August.
Just a straight up, 72-hole stroke-play event with the FedEx Cup pot of gold as the prize.
It’s the PGA Tour doing what it does best and what it’s most comfortable doing.
Does it transform the season finale into something more than it was?
Not entirely but it helps.
The previous format, weighting the scoreboard at the start with half of the 30-player field starting at least eight strokes behind, was gimmicky. It still produced deserving champions, though Scottie Scheffler, who took home the $25 million prize last year, called the format “silly.”
The idea was to reward the top players through the season but it looked and felt strange. It began in 2019 and the winners since then included Scheffler, Rory McIlroy twice, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland.
Xander Schauffele twice had the lowest 72-hole score at East Lake but because he started from behind, he never won the FedEx Cup.
The challenge for the tour and its finale is twofold: It wants to reward a deserving champion, which it tends to do, and it wants to make the event resonate with the public. That’s the bigger challenge.
“I think the Tour Championship’s going to be difficult to qualify for. Making the Tour Championship is truly going to be the results from a great body of work over the course of a season, and then you have an opportunity to win the Tour Championship and the FedExCup.” – Scottie Scheffler
“I didn’t love the previous format of starting strokes, and I really like the direction where we’re going,” Scheffler said Wednesday at the Memorial Tournament.
“I think the Tour Championship’s going to be difficult to qualify for. Making the Tour Championship is truly going to be the results from a great body of work over the course of a season, and then you have an opportunity to win the Tour Championship and the FedExCup.”
The tour is on a nice roll with ratings across the consumption board, whether on traditional television or the various streaming platforms. The angst of a year ago has subsided but the push to grow viewership remains.
The FedEx Cup playoffs are good in concept but they don’t resonate the way the biggest events – the majors and the Players Championship specifically – do. It used to be about the money, but there’s so much cash in pro golf these days, the notion of a $25-million winner’s prize may produce more eyerolls than gasps.
Restructuring how the bonus is paid remains a work in progress but it figures to change next year so that it is not all lumped into one weekend.
“I think the way the finances are going to shake out, which I really don’t like talking about because I think it’s silly, but I think the way the finances are going to be is more leaning towards the reward for a great regular season and some payouts that way, versus just your performance at the Tour Championship,” Scheffler said.
What matters to players is qualifying for the Tour Championship. Ask almost any player what their goals are and getting to East Lake is at or near the top because it means they’ve had a successful year, not just with money won but by qualifying for the biggest events the following year. Making a spot in the finale more precious and difficult to achieve can be a good enhancement.
“It’s always been a big deal, but I think players are starting to just realize how much harder it is to get to the Tour Championship than maybe any of us realized, to where I think we’re fully understanding and grasping that, if you’re at the Tour Championship and you’re at that final event, then you have all the right in the world to walk away with the FedExCup,” Justin Thomas said.
Because of where the playoffs fall on the calendar – after the majors, at the end of summer vacations, on the edge of football season – it’s a tough time of year to generate a big bang. It doesn’t mean winning the FedEx Cup isn’t important. It will be a highlighted line on any player’s résumé but it is at best the sixth-most important trophy of the year, perhaps seventh in Olympic years.
Various ideas for reimagining the finale were kicked around, including blending in a match-play format, one idea being to cut the 30 qualifiers to 16 or eight players on the weekend and let them play for the big prize.
In making the announcement, the tour cited its fan initiative as helping shape the change, saying fans want “the most competitive golf in the world, played for the highest stakes, in the most straightforward and engaging format.”
Television doesn’t love match play and, based on the decision that was made, neither did enough others. So 30 players will go to Atlanta in August and each of them will have the same chance to win the $25-million big prize.
The champion isn’t always the best player of the year. Bill Haas and Brandt Snedeker will vouch for that but they were the best when it mattered. That’s where the playoff concept comes into play and the new format suggests more potential volatility.
In making the announcement, the tour cited its fan initiative as helping shape the change, saying fans want “the most competitive golf in the world, played for the highest stakes, in the most straightforward and engaging format.”
East Lake, the longtime Tour Championship site, is a wonderful golf course but it lacks the risk-reward elements that make places such as TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course and TPC Scottsdale dramatic. The nines were flipped several years ago to end on a par-5 rather than a long par-3 but more changes are being promised to create more risk-reward scenarios.
It’s also possible the venue could change as early as 2027, sending the finale to other courses while keeping East Lake in the rotation.