DUBLIN, Ohio – While consensus is a victim of today’s polarized world, the PGA Tour’s much-anticipated overhaul of the Tour Championship was met with near-unanimous approval from players this week at the Memorial.
Starting in August at this year’s season finale at East Lake in Atlanta, the circuit has scraped the starting-strokes format that began in 2019 for a more-traditional 72 holes of stroke play with everyone starting at even par.
The starting-strokes format was envisioned as a way to reward season-long performance while also maintaining the shell and volatility of a playoff, with the top-ranked player at the Tour Championship starting the week at 10 under followed by No. 2 on the points list at 8 under and down to No. 30 who began the finale at even par.
“The best way to identify the best player over the course of a tournament is 72-hole stroke play on a really good golf course. I think when you look at a good test of golf and you got to compete over four days, I think that’s the best way to crown the best winner for that week,” said world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. “Looking at the Tour Championship, I didn’t love the previous format of starting strokes, and I really like the direction where we’re going. I think the Tour Championship’s going to be difficult to qualify for.
“Making the Tour Championship is truly going to be the result 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.”
Scheffler had been an outspoken critic of the starting-strokes format, dubbing it “silly” on multiple occasions, and he appears to have been a leading proponent of moving away from the staggered start, which was confusing to fans and largely panned by players.
There is some irony that Scheffler was so outspoken against the starting-strokes format given that he won last year’s Tour Championship, and the $25 million FedExCup bonus, because of his built-in advantage. Collin Morikawa actually shot the week’s lowest score last year at East Lake without starting strokes but finished second to Scheffler because of the handicapped start.
Scheffler’s buy-in was likely key for other players to get on board with the changes since he would have the most to lose under the new format.
“It’s obviously something different and something new, which I think a lot of us players felt was needed. And we want to, all of us want to have the excitement. We want you guys to have the excitement, and the fans, and us players to have the opportunity to go to the Tour Championship and win the FedExCup,” Justin Thomas said. “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.”
Tuesday’s announcement did come with a clear caveat that the 2025 Tour Championship is a bridge year to what the Tour plans to do with the finale.
In a memo sent to players, the Tour said the Player Advisory Council will continue to study the qualification to “raise the stakes on the entire FedExCup season and reinforce the Tour Championship as the hardest tournament to qualify for.” Many believed this to be a sign that field size for East Lake would likely be adjusted after this year and commissioner Jay Monahan didn’t dismiss that idea.
Monahan: ‘Months of work’ led to Tour Champ change
Jay Monahan tells Rex Hoggard about the “exhaustive process” that led to the Tour Championship format changes, defending the mid-season timing of the announcement and emphasizing the increased playoff competitiveness.
“If you look at the future of the Tour Championship I would say that everything is on the table when you’re trying to create the best version of the PGA Tour, when you’re trying to create the best conclusion to the season,” Monahan said. “At this point we’re playing with 30 players [at East Lake]. I wouldn’t expect us to stand still.”
Monahan also conceded that there “will be changes” to the season-long bonus structure as well. Scheffler’s $25 million haul for winning the FedExCup last year was far from the $8 million awarded for the Comcast Business Top 10, which was given to the top performer during the regular season (also Scheffler). That split will likely be adjusted now that the Tour has gone to, essentially, a winner-take-all mentality for the finale with less influence from a player’s season-long performance.
“That’s how it needs to be done [equally splitting the total bonus funds between the regular season and playoffs],” Lucas Glover said. “That’s how it should be. You reward Scottie [Scheffler] for the season he had last year — it’s 34 weeks, or whatever we had [in the regular season] and then three weeks for the playoffs. The regular season is more of a test and it should be rewarded more.”
The Tour is not finished tinkering with the Tour Championship or the playoffs. Whether these changes, which follow nearly two decades of nips and tucks, are the correct path remains to be seen.
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