After almost four decades of a tournament running within a tournament, the PGA Tour has simplified the Tour Championship.
This week’s season finale at East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia will be a straight shootout between the top 30 players of the year across four rounds of stroke play for the eye-watering US$10 million winner’s prize, while A$155m in total will be split between the field.
The controversial starting strokes format, which had been used from 2019 until Scottie Scheffler’s triumph last year, has been abandoned.
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But the Tour has not returned to the original format where the winner of the Tour Championship and the winner of the FedEx Cup, or the old money list that ran from 1987 to 2006, could be two different golfers.
The equation is now simple: win this week and you win the FedEx Cup.
It could lead to an odd scenario where one of Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Shane Lowry, Colin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay or any of the other seven other players who qualified without boasting a win all year, could take home the top gong.
But the format change makes the season-ending event more like a major, where there is no leniency afforded just because someone has played well previously.
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler would have benefited more than anyone from the old system.
The reigning FedEx Cup champion’s five wins as well as boasting 15 top tens in 18 starts this year meant he accumulated more than double the points of second-placed Rory McIlroy.
Scheffler’s incredible lead would have made him just about uncatchable under the old rules.
Now, the current Open and PGA champion faces the pressure of needing to bring his best golf at a rain-soaked East Lake, with more thunderstorms expected across the four rounds, to cap off an incredible year that will no doubt yield Player of the Year honours even if he is not crowned the FedEx Cup champion.
“At the end of the day you have to perform when it matters the most,” Scheffler said.
“I think now with the format we have, we have a great format of a 72-hole golf tournament.
“If I want to win the FedExCup, I have to play well at the last week of the season, and it’s just simple as that.”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 20: Scottie Scheffler of the United States speaks to the media prior to the TOUR Championship 2025 at East Lake Golf Club on August 20, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
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That attitude is exactly why Tommy Fleetwood told reporters at East Lake that the buzz among the players was arguably greater this week than ever before.
“It’s probably more exciting for the players to come here, everybody on a level field, knowing it’s an unbelievable opportunity to have a great week, win the tournament and leave here unbelievably happy,” Fleetwood said.
The Englishman has been the heartbreak story of the season, having not won a title on the PGA Tour despite tens wins around the world and twice leading after 54 holes in recent months.
But he sees the funny side in the prospect of him breaking his duck this 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.”
OWINGS MILLS, MARYLAND – AUGUST 17: Tommy Fleetwood of England plays his shot from the eighth tee during the final round of the BMW Championship 2025 at Caves Valley Golf Club on August 17, 2025 in Owings Mills, Maryland. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Meanwhile, Fleetwood’s European Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy has the chance to end his PGA Tour commitments for the year in fairytale fashion by winning the Tour Championship for a record fourth time, eclipsing Tiger Woods.
The Masters champion believes it would “rubber stamp” a year that also included victories at The Players Championship and the Pebble Beach Pro-Am as well as claiming his maiden green jacket, and clinching the career grand slam.
“It has a different feel,” McIlroy said.
“Any one of the 30 has a chance to win the FedExCup this year, which is obviously a lot different than it’s been in previous years.
“It’s a clean slate for everyone, and it’s a great opportunity for one of the guys that maybe wasn’t a huge part of the season to put their hand up and have a chance to win the big prize at the end of the year.
“It’s also a great opportunity for some of the guys that have had great years to sort of rubber stamp the season a little bit and end on a really, really positive note. I think there’s still a lot to play for this week.”
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 20: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks the second green during a practice round prior to the TOUR Championship 2025 at East Lake Golf Club on August 20, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
McIlroy shared that he was one of the few who “didn’t hate” the discarded starting strokes format.
“I thought that the player that played the best during the course of the season should have had an advantage coming in here,” he said.
“But the majority of people just didn’t like the starting strokes.”
An annual debate is staged about what the best format for the Tour Championship would be.
Off the back of the success of the Ryder Cup, in particular, match play is often touted as a riveting solution, but McIlroy explained why most players were against the idea of head-to-head contests.
“Match play was on the table, and that got canned for this year,” he said.
“I think it’s just hard for the players to reconcile that we play stroke play for every week of the year but then the season-ending tournament is going to be decided by match play.”
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Scheffler made it clear that he is one of those players who are against the idea of match-play in the Tour Championship.
“People have tossed around a lot of different formats for this tournament, and I think a lot of talk — there’s a lot of talk about match play and stuff like that,” he said.
“The reality is we’ve had a match play tournament for a number of years. We had a match play tournament for four or five years in one of the biggest growing markets in the country, and that tournament still didn’t succeed.
“I don’t think match play is the best way to crown a season-long champion, and I think changing the format for your last tournament is kind of quite silly.
“People love the comparisons to other sports, but golf is simply not like other sports. I’m just going to leave it at that.”
This week’s tournament will also made unwanted history for Australia with no Australian qualifying for the event for the time since 1998.
Jason Day was the lone Australian to make it to the top 50, but was unable to play his way in the final 30 at last week’s BMW Championship.
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BROADCAST SCHEDULE (AEST)
Friday morning
Featured Groups 1.15am-3am
Round 1 3am – 8am
Saturday morning
Featured Groups 1am-3am
Round 2 3am – 8am
Sunday morning
Featured Groups 2am-3am
Round 3 3am – 9am
Monday morning
Featured Groups 1am-2am
Final Round 2am – 8am
TEE TIMES (AEST)
Round 1 – Friday morning
1.16am Chris Gotterup, Akshay Bhatia
1.27am Jacob Bridgeman, Sungjae Im
1.38am Nick Taylor, Harry Hall
1.49am Hideki Matsuyama, Shane Lowry
2am Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland
2.16am Corey Conners, Patrick Cantlay
2.27am Sam Burns, Brian Harman
2.38am Andrew Novak, Keegan Bradley
2.49am Cameron Young, Ludvig Aberg
3am Harris English, Justin Thomas
3.16am Robert MacIntyre, Maverick McNealy
3.27am Russell Henley, Sepp Straka
3.38am Tommy Fleetwood, Ben Griffin
3.49am J.J. Spaun, Justin Rose
4am Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy
PRIZE MONEY BREAKDOWN (USD)
Win: $10,000,000
2: $5,000,000
3: $3,705,000
4: $3,200,000
5: $2,750,000
6: $1,900,000
7: $1,400,000
8: $1,065,000
9: $900,000
10: $735,000
11: $695,000
12: $660,000
13: $625,000
14: $590,000
15: $560,000
16: $505,000
17: $490,000
18: $475,000
19: $460,000
20: $445,000
21: $430,000
22: $415,000
23: $400,000
24: $390,000
25: $380,000
26: $375,000
27: $370,000
28: $365,000
29: $360,000
30: $355,000
