ATLANTA, GEORGIA | Perhaps the greatest indicator of the identity dilemma facing the Tour Championship is that, with rare exception, the conversation when the PGA Tour rolls into East Lake is about one of two things – the fixed location of the season finale, which is long on classic stylings and short on risk/reward drama, and the format, which has changed again this year.
After those two things, the subject generally turns to who might win, suggesting a reordering of priorities is in order which, it turns out, is contingent on the first two matters being resolved.
As for who is expected to win this year, Scottie Scheffler is in the 30-player field so there’s your answer.
What’s different this time is, unlike the previous two years, Scheffler starts at even par like the rest of the field. The starting strokes format – which had Scheffler at 10-under par and two clear of his nearest pursuer before hitting his first shot – has been abandoned in favor of a traditional 72-hole tournament with an untraditional $40 million on the line.
For those who want a true playoff system, something that doesn’t fit naturally in golf’s paradigm, this format provides that. All that matters is the 72 holes on the docket.
It doesn’t matter that Scheffler dominated the FedEx Cup points race to this point, though leading at the end of the regular season and again after the BMW Championship that he won last week earned Scheffler an additional $15 million from the points pool.
The points don’t matter anymore. Akshay Bhatia and Chris Gotterup, who were 30th and 29th in points, respectively, have the same chance of winning this week as Scheffler does, assuming they can beat the man who has won five times this year and not finished outside the top eight since March.
Under the old format, Bhatia and Gotterup would start 10 strokes behind.
It’s possible the event will move away from East Lake, perhaps rotating among sites like the BMW Championship does, and there has been talk about cutting the 30-player field after two rounds of stroke play to conclude with a match play bracket.
Prior to the starting strokes format, the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup were independent competitions which occasionally led to two players holding two different trophies on Sunday evening, leading to the timeless photo of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson smiling together in 2009 with their respective trophies.
At times, it has had all the clarity of muddy water. Even last year, Scheffler won the tournament but it was Collin Morikawa who shot the lowest 72-hole score.
Understand the confusion?
While the old format would benefit Scheffler the most, he was among the most vocal proponents for eliminating the contrivance.
“I was not a huge fan of the starting strokes format. I was a fan of the points format, but I understand why people wanted to move away from that with FedEx being a huge sponsor and having to give out two trophies at the end of the week and explaining the season-long race. This to me is a much simpler format to end the year,” Scheffler said.
“When it comes to this week, we all start even par, and it’s time to go chase what you want. In order to win tournaments, you have to play good golf at the right time, and if you want to win our season-long race, you have to play really good golf at the end of the season … and if you want to win the FedExCup, you’ve got to go win this week.”
Rory McIlroy is the only three-time FedEx Cup champion and he overcame a six-stroke deficit – his starting deficit in the first round – on Sunday to beat Scheffler in 2022.
“I didn’t hate the starting strokes. I thought that the player that played the best during the course of the season should have had an advantage coming in here. But the majority of people just didn’t like the starting strokes,” McIlroy said.
As part of his sweeping evaluation of the PGA Tour, new CEO Brian Rolapp will look at the playoff structure with a goal of better blending it with the regular season while simplifying it so that all sports fans, not just golf fans, have a clear understanding of what’s happening.
It’s possible the event will move away from East Lake, perhaps rotating among sites like the BMW Championship does, and there has been talk about cutting the 30-player field after two rounds of stroke play to conclude with a match-play bracket. The table, it seems, is full of ideas though the three-event playoff is set for next year.
“I don’t think I’m going to commit to a specific time. I think the right answer to that is we will take as much time to get it right, at least the initial time out, but we’re going to aggressively move. So I would like to put in the right competitive model as soon as we can,” Rolapp said when asked if the structure will change in 2027.
For this week anyway, it’s simple – 30 players, 72 holes, low score wins the FedEx Cup.
All of which raises an interesting scenario. What if this is finally Tommy Fleetwood’s week?
“I think it would be pretty funny if I won this week and then got the FedExCup as well,” Fleetwood said. “I think that would be funny.”