Who’s made the Tour Championship? And how does the format work?
The Tour Championship takes place at East Lake Golf Club as the PGA Tour season comes to a close. But who is in, and how does it work?
The Tour Championship takes place at East Lake Golf Club as the PGA Tour season comes to a close.
The season-finale brings together the 30 best golfers from the past nine months, with the winner taking home the FedEx Cup.
The Tour Championship is the last of three FedEx Cup Playoffs events, with the FedEx St Jude Championship and the BMW Championship already providing plenty of drama.
East Lake has been the permanent home of the Tour Championship since 2004 and has seen some incredible moments.
Rory McIlroy is the defending champion, having become the first man to win the FedEx Cup on three occasions. He came from six shots back at the start of the week to take victory in 2022.
With it being the season-finale, the Tour Championship is a little bit different to other PGA Tour tournaments. So how does it work?
How does the Tour Championship work?
Those featuring at East Lake have finished inside the top 30 on the season-long FedEx Cup standings.
The event is like any other stroke play tournament on the PGA Tour, but starts with a difference.
The man who topped the FedEx Cup standings coming into the season-finale begins the opening round at 10-under-par – two shots clear of the field.
The rest of the top five then start the week at eight-under, seven-under, six-under and five-under, respectively.
From there, the other 25 golfers are split info five-man groups. Positions 6-10 on the FedEx Cup standings start at four-under, 11-15 at three-under, 16-20 at two-under, 21-25 at one-under and, finally, those in the last five places begin the week at level par.
There is no cut. The winner lifts the FedEx Cup and the Tour Championship trophies, as well as taking home $18 million.
How they line up at East Lake…
-10: Scottie Scheffler
-8: Viktor Hovland
-7: Rory McIlroy
-6: Jon Rahm
-5: Lucas Glover
-4: Max Homa
-4: Patrick Cantlay
-4: Brian Harman
-4: Wyndham Clark
-4: Matt Fitzpatrick
-3: Tommy Fleetwood
-3: Russell Henley
-3: Keegan Bradley
-3: Rickie Fowler
-3: Xander Schauffele
-2: Tom Kim
-2: Sungjae Im
-2: Tony Finau
-2: Corey Conners
-2: Si Woo Kim
-1: Taylor Moore
-1: Nick Taylor
-1: Adam Schenk
-1: Collin Morikawa
-1: Jason Day
E: Sam Burns
E: Emiliano Grillo
E: Tyrrell Hatton
E: Jordan Spieth
E: Sepp Straka
Who do you think will win this week at East Lake? What do you think of how does the Tour Championship work? Who takes home the event and the FedEx Cup? Let us know with a Tweet!
Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
