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Scottie Scheffler Extends Lead He Was Handed at the Start of the Tour Championship

• Author: Gary Van Sickle

Bill Streicher/USA Today

After one round, the FedEx Cup points leader and world No. 1 has a five-shot lead thanks to solid play plus the staggered-start format of the finale.

ATLANTA—Normally, right now you’d be reading about a rip-snorting first round Thursday at East Lake Golf Club and how Joaquin Niemann and U.S. Open champ Matthew Fitzpatrick fired 64s to share the lead.

Of course, no self-respecting golf writer would leave that sentence uncluttered without a few sexy adjectives such as “sizzling,” which would be lifted directly from Roget’s Thesaurus to display the writer’s total command of Inglesh . (Who needs spellcheck when you’re a professional golf writer?)

The Tour Championship isn’t your normal PGA Tour stop, however. It holds the distinction as being the only tournament where the player who shoots the lowest score in Round 1 may not be the leader. Thank the FedEx Cup’s Head Start Program for that. The FedEx Cup season-long points race results in a unique—and uniquely uncomfortable—staggered start this week, the better to reflect which players have had better seasons. Funny, that idea that seems less relevant now that there’s no longer a need to rig things to ensure that Tiger Woods (semi-retired) and Phil Mickelson (fully banished) are in contention going into the weekend for the tour’s season-ending, lollapalooza grand finale.

Meritocracy, the PGA Tour’s greatest asset, died earlier this week when commissioner Jay Monahan announced changes that will enable the game’s richest players to get even richer and force the not-so-rich to work twice as hard to keep up. Love ‘em or hate ‘em—bigger purses for smaller fields, mainly, and double the money-for-nothing Player Impact Program—the changes were necessary to stick a hot fork in rival LIV Golf’s direct-deposit program.

So Niemann and Fitzpatrick are not your exciting first-round leaders, one stroke ahead of Scottie Scheffler , J.T. Poston, and Aaron Wise.

Instead, Fitzpatrick’s 64 left him six strokes behind Scheffler. Niemann is seven back. Xander Schauffele , who shot 66, trails by four shots at 10 under par. What could have been a sizzling start—oops, the writer’s handbook says never use the same adjective twice, dang it!—turned into a drizzling start. Especially when a torrential monsoon hammered the course for 15 minutes before the leaders teed off.

The flaw or the beauty in the staggered start rides with Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world. He birdied his last three holes to shoot 65 and prevent anyone from substantially gaining on him. Do we have a good old-fashioned horse race in progress? No, because Scheffler is the biggest horse in the field and so far he looks like the love child of Secretariat and Seabiscuit. All he did was pile up four birdies and an eagle.

Nobody would sweat that quick start if it was posted by a middle-of-the-pack guy who had a good day. But in this case, the world’s best player is on a roll and he already has only four players within seven shots thanks to his automatic 10-under-par starting point. If this format feels like you’re fast-forwarding to watch the end of the movie before you get to the middle, you’re not wrong. (Spoiler alert: The old lady throws the rare gem back into the ocean—oh, come on!—and then meets the defrosted Leonardo DiCaprio in the afterlife on a sunken ship’s staircase.)

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The PGA Tour has long tried to find a way to finish its season with a big bang. The only good solution would be to close with a major championship. That doesn’t work because the PGA Tour doesn’t run any of the four major championships. The Tour Championship, back when it was a little 30-man outing with just another paltry $1 million first prize, didn’t fill the bill, either, especially when Tiger and Phil took turns skipping it in November.

So we’ve got this FedEx Cup extravaganza. For all its faults, the handicapped start is the best version so far, enabling viewers to quit caring about esoteric point totals and understand who’s leading and by how much. It’s different and that’s not all bad. Plus, it works. The big dog still has the lead. Scheffler is -15 and trying to ignore his position.

“It’s a bit strange, so that’s why I talk about not looking at the leaderboards,” Scheffler said. “If I go out and do my best and pretend I’m trying to win a regular stroke-play event for our days, I think I’m going to be in a good position come Sunday afternoon. So that’s going to be my plan.”

Scheffler is back to feeling like he’s on top of his game after an unglamorous injury that hampered him at the British Open on the weekend. He had a pilonidal infection, an ailment not uncommon for men in their 20s. He bluntly described it: “It’s an infection at the top of your butt crack. It was really hard for me to bend down. It was really hard for me to make a swing on Sunday. Walking was extremely difficult.”

Left unattended, the infection can often require surgery but Scheffler got help from European doctors to “flush” the infection and start him back to health. “It was brutal,” he said. “It’s one of those things that just happens.”

Another thing that just happens in a small event featuring pre-emptive strokes is that only 13 players in the 29-man field are still within 10 shots of Scheffler, a position rarely seen after a first round in a regular tournament.

One of those players was Rory McIlroy , whose round was alternately sizzling—rats, Roget says to change that to thermogenic !—and fizzling. McIlroy began the day six shots behind Scheffler. He hit his drive out of bounds on the first hole, then bogeyed the second and was quickly 10 shots back. The most pertinent stat was that McIlroy had only five pars. He salvaged a 67 thanks to a back-nine 31 and needed seven birdies and an eagle to post a round of 3 under.

“I was 4 over through three holes in Boston and won the Deutsche Bank a few years ago,” McIlroy said. “It’s not like I haven’t done it before. But it’s different when you are giving strokes back. I’m just really proud of how I fought back today.”

McIlroy also drew inspiration from Tom Kim, a first-time winner a few weeks ago at the Wyndham Championship . Kim made a quadruple bogey on the tournament’s opening hole en route to victory.

The Tour Championship’s staggered start staggers some players’ (and fans’) brains. It adds a level of strategy to the second round that isn’t normally there.

“If I go out and shoot a good score tomorrow and Scottie and a lackluster day, he brings a lot of guys back in and anything can happen over 36 holes,” McIlroy said. “Tomorrow is a pretty pivotal day for the rest of the field to try to get a little closer to Scottie.”

The Tour Championship remains the only tournament that can look like a runaway after just one round—at least, one that doesn’t have a young Tiger Woods leading by five after the first day.

“It’s a weird event for us,” said Schauffele, an Olympic golf gold-medal winner. “We do this once a year. It’s one of the bigger events for us and because of that, you have to try your best to stay present and not get ahead of yourself.”

Schauffele doesn’t have to worry about getting ahead of himself. Scheffler and the format have already taken care of that.

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Tour Championship starting positions, tee times: Where will golfers open on the leaderboard at East Lake?

The top 30 golfers in the fedex cup standings will head to east lake to wrap up the pga tour season this week.

With two playoffs events in the books, the PGA Tour will land in East Lake this week for the season-ending Tour Championship to conclude the race for the FedEx Cup.

The leaderboard, at least on Thursday, will look a bit strange.

The Tour Championship uses a staggered start on the leaderboard, which will give top-ranked Scottie Scheffler a significant advantage in Atlanta. Scheffler, who has won six times on Tour this season, will start the week at 10-under par.

"I'm trying not to treat it any differently. Like I said, the starting strokes format is a bit different. It's not a traditional golf tournament," Scheffler said Tuesday.

"But at the end of the day, the format is what it is. I'm going to try to approach it the same way I approach other tournaments, and that's stepping up on the first tee and doing my best to execute, just like I would at the Masters, at the RBC Heritage, at Palm Springs. Every tournament I am stepping up on the first tee seeing my shot and trying to hit that shot, and then going from there."

Xander Schauffele, who finished in second in the standings, will start at 8-under on the week. Hideki Matsuyama will start at 7-under, and Keegan Bradley — who held on to win at the BMW Championship on Sunday to earn a spot in the field at East Lake — will start at 6-under. That system works down until the final five players in the 30-man field, who will start at even par.

From there, whoever wins the tournament will win the FedEx Cup. That comes with a $25 million bonus and a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour.

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Here’s a look at the starting leaderboard and initial tee times for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Tour Championship starting positions

1. Scottie Scheffler -10

2. Xander Schauffele -8

3. Hideki Matsuyama -7

4. Keegan Bradley -6

5. Ludvig Åberg -5

6. Rory McIlroy -4

7. Collin Morikawa

8. Wyndham Clark

9. Sam Burns

10. Patrick Cantlay

11. Sungjae Im -3

12. Sahith Theegala

13. Shane Lowry

14. Adam Scott

15. Tony Finau

16. Ben An -2

17. Viktor Hovland

18. Russell Henley

19. Akshay Bhatia

20. Robert MacIntyre

21. Billy Horschel -1

22. Tommy Fleetwood

23. Sepp Straka

24.Matthieu Pavon

25. Taylor Pendrith

26. Chris Kirk E

27. Tom Hoge

28. Aaron Rai

29. Christiaan Bezuidenhout

30. Justin Thomas

Tour Championship Round 1 Tee Times

All times ET

11:16 a.m. — Christiaan Bezuitenhout, Justin Thomas

11:27 a.m. — Tom Hoge, Aaron Rai

11:38 a.m. — Taylor Pendrith, Chris Kirk

11:49 a.m. — Sepp Straka, Matthieu Pavon

12:00 p.m. — Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood

12:16 p.m. — Akshay Bhatia, Robert MacIntyre

12:27 p.m. — Viktor Hovland, Russell Henley

12:38 p.m. — Tony Finau, Ben An

12:49 p.m. — Shane Lowry, Adam Scott

1:00 p.m. — Sungjae Im, Sahith Theegala

1:16 p.m. — Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay

1:27 p.m. — Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark

1:38 p.m. — Ludvig Åberg, Rory McIlroy

1:49 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley

2:00 p.m. — Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele

Tour Championship

East Lake Golf Club

HOW SCOTTIE GOT SO GOOD

Even players who have won the FedEx Cup say the playoffs probably need some tweaking

Rory McIlroy reacts as he picks up the FedExCup trophy following his victory in the final round of the 2019 Tour Championship.

Keyur Khamar

ATLANTA — It’s not quite there yet. That’s the consensus from the players at East Lake who are taking part in the fourth year of the Tour Championship’s staggered-start format.

In 2019, the PGA Tour introduced a handicapping system to structure the leaderboard for the 30 players who qualified for the FedEx Cup finale in Atlanta. To quickly remind you, the FedEx Cup leader, Scottie Scheffler, will start Thursday’s first round at 10 under par, with Patrick Cantlay, at eight under, and Xander Schauffele at six under. The scores then regress down to the final five in the standings, who start at even par.

MORE: Tiger Woods, Rory Mcilroy combine to lead news sports and entertainment venture

The goal of the current version is to have one winner for both the Tour Championship and the season-long FedEx Cup. From that perspective, it’s a job well done. The broadcast is certainly easier for fans to follow.

But there are still flaws in the system. Just ask defending champion Cantlay. “I’m not a fan,” last week’s BMW winner said. “I think there’s got to be a better system.”

The most glaring issue is the fact three players have shot the lowest 72-hole score and not won the Tour Championship. In 2020, Xander Schauffele posted the lowest score (265) but Dustin Johnson won everything. Last year, Cantlay swept the tournament and FedEx Cup, but Jon Rahm and Kevin Na’s scores of 14-under 266 were the best of the week.

Then there’s the entertainment aspect. World No. 1 Scheffler running away with the title is not exactly box-office viewing. With a two-shot lead to start, there's the potential that could be the storyline come Sunday.

MORE: Cam Smith isn't talking LIV Golf, but likes the idea of being a spoiler at East Lake

Even Rory McIlroy, who did shoot the lowest score at East Lake in 2019 to win his second FedEx Cup title, wonders if a more compelling product exists.

“It’s a simple format that fans and viewers can understand,” McIlroy said on Tuesday. “Is it the best? I’m sure there is probably something that might work better.”

Pressed for what that was, the four-time major winner suggested match play, and it’s hard to argue. Watching the last two golfers battling for the $18 million FedEx Cup winner’s prize would be must-watch television.

“I think that would be unbelievably exciting,” said McIlroy, who at seventh in the standings, will start at four under par.

U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick agreed with McIlroy, but went as far as suggesting match play for the entire FedEx Cup Playoffs. The Englishman thinks that would bring the PGA Tour in line with postseasons in America’s most popular pro leagues. “I did have a thought that, somehow, the playoffs could be match play, where it’s a bit more realistic to every other sport,” said Fitzpatrick, who will start seven shots behind Scheffler.

Adam Scott swings during the final round of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Icon Sportswire

The staggered scoring method is the third iteration of the Tour Championship since the FedEx Cup began in 2007. At first, it was total FedEx Cup points that determined the winner. Then, it was tweaked so that if any player among the top five on the standings entering East Lake won the Tour Championship, he automatically claimed the FedEx Cup.

Adam Scott has seen every version. He is one of only two players to qualify for the playoffs in each of the FedEx Cup’s 16 seasons. The Australian, 29th in the standings, will start at even par in his ninth Tour Championship appearance. He will be joined by K.H. Lee, J.T. Poston, Sahith Theegala and Aaron Wise in starting 10 shots behind Scheffler, who has won four times on the PGA Tour this year, including the Masters.

“Nobody has [won from even par] and they haven’t even come close,” Scott said. “But I think it is doable. There’s nothing to lose, so for the first three days you have to be on attack mode.”

Asked if there was a better system, Scott was lost for words.

“I’ve given up caring to be honest,” Scott said with a laugh. “I just get here and play under whatever format.”

Race to the finish

A look at the scores that the 29 players in the Tour Championship will start with when the tournament begins on Thursday. ( No. 3 Will Zalatoris, who withdrew on Tuesday due to injury, would have started at -7.)

• Scottie Scheffler -10
• Patrick Cantlay -8
• Xander Schauffele -6
• Sam Burns -5
• Cameron Smith -4
• Rory McIlroy -4
• TonyFinau -4
• Sepp Straka -4
• Sungjae Im -4
• Jon Rahm -3
• Scott Stallings -3
• Justin Thomas -3
• Cameron Young -3
• Matt Fitzpatrick -3
• Max Homa -2
• Hideki Matsuyama -2
• Jordan Spieth -2
• Joaquin Niemann -2
• Viktor Hovland -2
• Collin Morikawa -1
• Billy Horschel -1
• Tom Hoge -1
• Corey Conners -1
• Brian Harman -1
• J.T. Poston E
• Sahith Theegala E
• Adam Scott E
• Aaron Wise E

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FedEx Cup Playoffs: Tour Championship starting positions for all 30 golfers

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The Tour Championship, the finale of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, begins this week in Atlanta. Here are the starting positions for all 30 players.

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The PGA Tour season, at long last, is coming to a close. All that’s left is the FedEx Cup Playoffs finale in the Tour Championship, where (wait for it) $75 million will be up for grabs.

So, how does it all work? We’re glad you asked. We could all use a refresher.

The Tour Championship uses a stroke-based bonus system based on the current FedEx Cup standings , meaning not everyone enters the tournament on the same playing field.

This has been the formula for the past four years, as the Tour changed the format beginning in 2019. The old format crowned a Tour Championship winner and a FedEx Cup Playoffs champion (although sometimes it was the same person), and keeping track of essentially two different tournaments — for players and fans — was, well, confusing.

So now there’s just one champion, who, along with winning the Tour Championship, will also be the FedEx Cup Playoffs champ.

The leader of the FedEx Cup points race starts the Tour Championship, held at East Lake in Atlanta, at 10 under. The top five in the standings is staggered (2nd at eight under, 3rd at seven under, 4th at six under and 5th at five under), and the last 25 players in the field are more bunched (i.e. places 6-10 start at four under, and so on).

Here’s where everyone will start for the playoffs.

Tour Championship starting scores

10 under: Scottie Scheffler Eight under: Viktor Hovland Seven under: Rory McIlroy Six under: Jon Rahm Five under: Lucas Glover Four under: Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick Three under: Tommy Fleetwood, Russell Henley, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele Two under: Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Corey Conners, Si Woo Kim One under: Taylor Moore, Nick Taylor, Adam Schenk, Collin Morikawa, Jason Day Even: Sam Burns, Emiliano Grillo, Tyrrell Hatton, Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka

Max Homa’s heckler incident illustrated risky future for PGA Tour, gambling

But just because Scheffler has a two-stroke lead over second place — and a much larger lead over others — doesn’t mean he’s bound to run away with this.

Take last year, for example, when Scheffler held the same spot on the leaderboard but was eventually beaten by Rory McIlroy, who started the tournament six shots back and even rebounded from a triple bogey on his first hole of the week to win the whole thing.

You can follow the action from 1-6 p.m. ET on Golf Channel on Thursday and Friday. Saturday’s broadcast is 1-3 p.m. on Golf Channel and 3-7 p.m. on CBS, and Sunday’s final round is 12-1:30 p.m. on Golf Channel and 1:30-6 p.m. on CBS.

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As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing , editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at [email protected].

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How the final 2024 Tour Championship leaderboard looks without starting strokes

S cottie Scheffler walks away from East Lake this week with the FedEx Cup title and a cool $25 million bonus , but it will be Collin Morikawa, who officially lost to Scheffler by four shots, who gets the most Official World Golf Ranking points from this week.

That's because Morikawa actually beat Scottie Scheffler by two strokes this week. In fact, he wasn't the only one as Sahith Theegala also beat the FedEx Cup winner this week.

This was the sixth edition of the Tour Championship played under a unique staggered strokes format which saw Scheffler, the FedEx Cup leader for the the better part of the last six months, start the week at 10 under par with a two-shot lead.

Morikawa and Theegala, meanwhile started this week at four and three under, respectively, after strong seasons, but ones where both failed to win. The format was developed to help eliminate the confusion with following the points during the final event and remove the possibility of one player winning the Tour Championship and another winning the FedEx Cup title.

One could have made the argument Scheffler, after a historic regular season where he won the Masters, Players Championship and four other titles, could have deserved a greater head start. Ironically, Scheffler himself made an argument against the format just a few weeks ago at the first playoff event in Memphis.

"I talked about it the last few years, I think it's silly," he said ahead of the FedEx St. Jude Championship. "You can't call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament.

"Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn't heal the way it did at the Players. I finish 30th in the FedEx Cup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No, it is what it is."

He ended up winning by four over Morikawa anyway.

But take away the starting strokes and the final leaderboard looks much different.

The top three players in the final standings, Scheffler, Morikawa and Theegala, still separated themselves from the rest of the field with Scheffler still three better than anyone else, but the order changes. Morikawa takes the "gross" title if you will and Theegala comes in second.

Of course, had Scheffler been looking at a leaderboard without strokes, he may have played several shots, including his conservative par on the par-5 18th, differently. But it's interesting to isolate who actually played well this week.

For example, Justin Thomas had the 7th best week of anyone at East Lake, going 14 under, but he started the week at even par and thus finished at 14 under, which was tied for 14th.

Keep reading below for the final Tour Championship leaderboard without starting strokes.

Tour Championship leaderboard without strokes

(Official scores to par)

1. Collin Morikawa,  -22   (-26)

2. Sahith Theegala,  -21  (-24)

3. Scottie Scheffler,  -20   (-30)

4. Russell Henley, -17 (-19)

5. Adam Scott, -16 (-19)

6. Sungjae Im, -15 (-18)

7. Justin Thomas, -14 (-14)

T8. Wyndham Clark, -13 (-17)

Shane Lowry (-16)

Viktor Hovland (-15)

Taylor Pendrith (-14)

12. Rory McIlroy, -12 (-16)

T13. Xander Schauffele, -11 (-19)

Sam Burns (-15)

15. Matthieu Pavon, -10 (-11)

T16. Hideki Matsuyama, -9 (-16)

Robert MacIntyre (-11)

Tommy Fleetwood (-10)

T19. Ludvig Aberg, -7 (-12)

Patrick Cantlay (-11)

T21. Byeong Hun An, -6 (-8)

Aaron Rai (-6)

23. Billy Horschel, -5 (-6)

T24. Tony Finau, -3 (-6)

Akshay Bhatia (-5)

Chris Kirk (-3)

T27. Keegan Bradley, -2 (-8)

Sepp Straka (-3)

T29. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, +3 (+3)

Tom Hoge (+3)

The post How the final 2024 Tour Championship leaderboard looks without starting strokes appeared first on Golf .

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Staggered scoring and bonus payout for playoff finale at tour championship.

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The FedExCup Playoffs will conclude at the Tour Championship, but not everyone will start from scratch. With the staggered scoring system in place, Scottie Scheffler will take a two-stroke advantage into the opening round at East Lake.

Starting scores are based on where players stand in FedExCup points. Here’s how the 30 players in the field will begin the finale (Note: Will Zalatoris withdrew on Tuesday. No one else’s starting strokes will be affected and Zalatoris will receive 30th-place money if everyone else finishes the tournament.)

10 under: Scottie Scheffler

8 under: Patrick Cantlay

7 under: Will Zalatoris (WD)

6 under: Xander Schauffele

5 under: Sam Burns

4 under: Cameron Smith, Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Sepp Straka, Sungjae Im

3 under: Jon Rahm, Scott Stallings, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, Matthew Fitzpatrick

2 under: Max Homa, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Joaquin Niemann, Viktor Hovland

1 under: Collin Morikawa, Billy Horschel, Tom Hoge, Corey Conners, Brian Harman

Even par: K.H. Lee, J.T. Poston, Sahith Theegala, Adam Scott, Aaron Wise

And here’s a look at the eventual payout:

1. $18,000,000 2. $6,500,000 3. $5,000,000 4. $4,000,000 5. $3,000,000 6. $2,500,000 7. $2,000,000 8. $1,500,000 9. $1,250,000 10. $1,000,000 11. $950,000 12. $900,000 13. $850,000 14. $800,000 15. $760,000 16. $720,000 17. $700,000 18. $680,000 19. $660,000 20. $640,000 21. $620,000 22. $600,000 23. $580,000 24. $565,000 25. $550,000 26. $540,000 27. $530,000 28. $520,000 29. $510,000 30. $500,000

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2024 Tour Championship tee times, pairings: Complete schedule, TV coverage, groups for Round 1 at East Lake

The final event of the pga tour season gets underway thursday in atlanta.

The 2024 Tour Championship is set to kick off Thursday at East Lake Golf Club with the top 30 players from the PGA Tour season vying for the FedEx Cup crown. Many of those major names will be paired together in the first round as tee times are based on the staggered start on the leaderboard, and CBS Sports has taken an extended look at the field with our Tour Championship predictions and expert picks as play begins Thursday.

For the third straight tournament, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele will be by one another's side in the first round. Coming into the week respectively ranked first and second in the FedEx Cup standings, the top two players in the world will duke it out across four days for the season-long race. They will be the last of 15 tee times and get underway at 2 p.m. ET.

The Americans follow the two playoff victors thus far: Keegan Bradley (BMW Championship) and Hideki Matsuyama (FedEx St. Jude Championship). Ahead of them, a pair of European Ryder Cup teammates, Ludvig Åberg and Rory McIlroy, share a spot on the tee sheet. McIlroy is looking for his record fourth FedEx Cup trophy, starting at 4, under while Åberg is making his Tour Championship debut from one stroke closer to the lead.

There are plenty of good pairings in the early stages of the first round as well. Billy Horschel draws Tommy Fleetwood at noon with the all-lefty pairing of Akshay Bhatia and Robert MacIntyre following at 12:16 p.m. Reigning FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland will need a big week to successfully defend his title and starts at 12:27 p.m. with Russell Henley.

All times Eastern

2024 Tour Championship tee times, Thursday pairings

• 11:16 a.m. — Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Justin Thomas
• 11:27 a.m. — Tom Hoge, Aaron Rai
• 11:38 a.m. — Taylor Pendrith, Chris Kirk
• 11:49 a.m. — Sepp Straka, Matthieu Pavon
• 12:00 p.m. — Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood
• 12:16 p.m. — Akshay Bhatia, Robert MacIntyre
• 12:27 p.m. — Viktor Hovland, Russell Henley
• 12:38 p.m. — Tony Finau, Byeong Hun An
• 12:49 p.m. — Shane Lowry, Adam Scott
• 1:00 p.m. — Sungjae Im, Sahith Theegala
• 1:16 p.m. — Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay
• 1:27 p.m. — Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark
• 1:38 p.m. — Ludvig Åberg, Rory McIlroy
• 1:49 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley
• 2:00 p.m. — Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele

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How it works: TOUR Championship, FedExCup Starting Strokes, FedExCup bonuses

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 28: FedExCup signage is displayed during the final round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club on August 28, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

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Here’s everything you need to know for the TOUR Championship, the grand finale of the FedExCup Playoffs where the winner will earn $18 million.

FedExCup Starting Strokes

The top 30 in the FedExCup standings following the BMW Championship will advance to the TOUR Championship, where the final leaderboard will represent the final FedExCup standings for the top 30 players. Stroke play will be used to determine the champion of the PGA TOUR’s season-long points race. To recognize players for their Regular Season performance, there will be a staggered start to the TOUR Championship utilizing FedExCup Starting Strokes.

The FedExCup leaders will begin the event with a head start on the competition. The player who finishes the four rounds at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club with the lowest score in relation to par will win the FedExCup.

“As soon as the TOUR Championship begins, any fan – no matter if they’ve followed the PGA TOUR all season or are just tuning in for the final event – can immediately understand what’s going on and what’s at stake for every single player in the field," PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said when the changes were announced in 2018. "And, of course, players will know exactly where they stand at all times while in play, which will ratchet up the drama, consequence and volatility of the competition down the stretch."

Here’s how the leaderboard will look like going into Round 1 at East Lake.

First place in the FedExCup is $18 million. The total bonus pool for the FedExCup Playoffs is $75 million. $18 million for first place, $6.5 million for second, $5 million for third, $4 million for fourth and $3 million for fifth.

The FedExCup bonus money is the only money given for a player’s finish at East Lake. There is no longer a purse for the TOUR Championship. FedExCup bonus money is not considered part of a player’s official earnings for the season.

The total bonus pool for the FedExCup Playoffs is $75 million, with the FedExCup Champion earning $18 million

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Tour Championship: Scottie Scheffler - I have best opportunity to win FedExCup title

Scottie Scheffler will start the tournament at 10 under par while his nearest pursuer Xander Schauffele begins at eight under; watch the FedExCup Playoffs Tour Championship live on Sky Sports+ on Thursday August 29 from 4:15pm and on Sky Sports Golf from 6pm

Tuesday 27 August 2024 23:55, UK

Scottie Scheffler is aiming to claim his first FedExCup title this week in Atlanta where he begins the Tour Championship with a two-stroke advantage on the field, giving him his "best opportunity" to win.

The Tour Championship's staggered structure means Scheffler, the leader in the FedExCup points standings, will start the tournament at 10 under par, while his nearest pursuer Xander Schauffele begins at eight under at East Lake Golf Club. It is the third consecutive year Scheffler has entered the Tour Championship at No 1.

The world No 1 has won six tournaments on the PGA Tour this year, including The Masters and Players Championship, as well as adding an Olympic gold medal for good measure.

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The field (and leaderboard) is set for @TOURChamp . pic.twitter.com/8i77LoQJq3 — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 26, 2024

"Yeah, it's good to be back. In a nice position going into the week," Scheffler said.

"It's obviously everybody's goal at the beginning of the year to have a chance, and going in the first spot, no better opportunity than where I'm sitting. Looking forward to the week."

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Since the format changed in 2019, no player who has started the Tour Championship at the top the leaderboard has gone on to win it, but Scheffler believes the staggered format provides volatility to the game.

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"If you want to just have a player that's playing the best at the end of the year, I think the Playoffs will definitely identify that player. In terms of the season-long race, it's maybe not always going to be the guy that plays the best the whole season; it's going to be the guy that plays the best in these Playoff events," Scheffler added.

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"That's really what you're identifying is the guy that plays the best in these last three events. It's a format that's changed a bunch or a few times over the past few years.

"In terms of when it first got started you had a year where I think it was Padraig Harrington won two majors and maybe didn't make the BMW, and I know he didn't make this tournament. So arguably it wasn't really a great set-up then.

"I think it provides a little bit of volatility, which is good for the fans, and I think it's also good for some players that didn't have their best years leading up to get into the Playoffs, and all of a sudden turn a year that's not their best into somewhat of a career year in terms of winning the FedExCup.

"A lot of volatility, but at the end of the day, golf is golf. The easiest way to solve an issue that you don't like in the game of golf is to play better. That's really all it comes down to in our game. At the end of the day, if you play good enough golf, it will take care of itself."

Plenty of changes at East Lake

The 30-man field will be playing on a dramatically different course at East Lake after it underwent an extensive renovation by architect Andrew Green, who most notably refurbished Oak Hill for the PGA Championship last year.

Green used 1949 aerials of East Lake in restoring the course that dates to 1904 with every tee, fairway, green and bunker being rebuilt.

The bunkers around the 18th green are deep. The bunker left of the peninsula green on the par-three 15th has been removed. The eighth hole has been shortened and the 14th hole has been lengthened and now plays as a par-five.

The changes also include replacing the circular putting surfaces with unique slopes and shapes and there is also more movement in the fairways as well as added humps and hollows.

"The renovation is definitely interesting," added Scheffler.

"It's basically a new golf course from what it was before. It's not really at all the same. The greens, since they're new, are extremely firm, which I think makes it more challenging.

"It'll be tough to access some of the hole locations. I think we'll have a bit to learn in terms of golf course set-up.

"But overall we'll see how it plays. It's so new right now that it's really hard to tell exactly how - all I know is it's way different.

"This was a golf course I always really liked. I felt like I hadn't played my best golf here. So coming here this year, seeing a fresh golf course that I think is going to be really challenging I think will suit me pretty well out there."

Schauffele: New course will bring different challenges

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Schauffele already has two majors in the bag this year after winning The Open and PGA Championship and has a good record at East Lake, but he admits the new course will bring challenges.

"I mean, it's just a new golf course. Kind of a glass half full guy, so I've played a lot of new courses this year that I've done okay at, and this is a brand new property," Schauffele said.

"Literally the bunkers are new, the grasses are new in the fairways, the greens are new, the grass on the greens are new, the runouts are different, the slopes are different. I think the only thing that's the same are the directions of the hole.

"Whatever record I had is the past. I have no memory or anything really on any hole to go off of, not even a tree I could aim at that I used to aim at. It's just that different.

"It's new. It's firm. It's fast. Needs to settle in. It's a very brand new - I'm not huge in agronomy, but I've played some new courses before, and they're a little bouncy.

"However it was designed to be played, it's going to be a little bit different for the first two years just because it hasn't settled in."

Watch the FedExCup Playoffs Tour Championship live on Sky Sports+ on Thursday August 29 at 4:15pm and on Sky Sports Golf at 6pm.

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Scottie Scheffler gesture after winning £19m Tour Championship sums him up

Scottie Scheffler finally got his hands on the £19 million FedEx Cup prize at the Tour Championship on Sunday, seeing off Collin Morikawa by four shots at East Lake

• 06:00, 2 Sep 2024

Scottie Scheffler couldn't contain his joy as he scooped up $25million (£19m) alongside the FedEx Cup.

The golf sensation immediately celebrated the incredible triumph with his baby son Bennett in heartwarming scenes. Scheffler had narrowly missed out on the season-long title in both 2022 and 2023, but this time his persistence paid off as he ended the tournament an incredible 30-under-par . This was in part thanks to the staggered stroke event which had given him a head-start of 10-under at the beginning of the week.

With a commanding five-shot lead going into the final round, Scheffler was the man to beat. Despite a valiant effort from Ryder Cup and Olympic teammate Collin Morikawa, who attempted to overthrow Scheffler's lead, the American held firm and delivered a cool, collected four-under 67 on the final day to seal the Tour Championship by a comfortable margin of four shots.

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As world No. 1 Scheffler walked off the 18th green, emotional scenes unfolded as he was joined by his young son Bennett and wife Meredith, who together soaked up the applause from an enraptured Atlanta crowd. The arrival of their first child earlier this year added another layer of joy for Scheffler, coming just weeks after his Masters victory.

Reflecting on a whirlwind year marked by seven PGA Tour victories, an Olympic gold, a major championship and fatherhood, Scheffler expressed his amazement post-victory: "I feel like I've lived almost a full lifetime in this one year. It's been nuts. I don't know, I think it just always comes back to my faith. I think that's the thing that just keeps me grounded, keeps me in the right frame of mind."

Scheffler added: "Yeah, I think the gold medal is pretty cool. I think when you hear people chanting 'U-S-A' - even though it's been over a month now since it happened, you still hear people talking about it, chanting. It's pretty cool. Like I said, I take a lot of pride in being an American, so pretty fun to bring home that gold medal. As far as the year goes, I really don't know how to put it into words."

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Meanwhile, Scheffler had been openly dubious about the staggered stroke system based on FedEx Cup standings before the Tour Championship.

Despite his scepticism and only receiving a nominal two-shot lead this week due to his 25-week reign at the top, Scheffler fully exploited his advantage, overcoming what he previously labeled a 'silly' format. After missing out to Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland in prior years, there's speculation that previous disappointments fueled his candid critique.

But that period of waiting has blissfully concluded for Scheffler. When probed on clinching victory at East Lake, the number one golfer expressed: "It's a lot of fun. We've put in a lot of work to get to this point, and it's been a long week. Right now I'm just pretty tired, so I don't really know how to put this into words. But it's a pretty special feeling to be finally holding the trophy."

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