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Many players do not like the FedEx Cup Tour Championship layout, including world number one Scottie Scheffler.
ATLANTA — World number one Scottie Scheffler does not appreciate the setup of the Tour Championship.
“It’s a bit of a strange format,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I’ve joked a decent amount about being number one, you don’t get any extra strokes, and then I show up this week, I do get some extra strokes. So it’s a bit strange, but it should be a fun week.”
Since he was number one in FedEx Cup points after the BMW Championship, he will start the tournament at 10-under par.
But for the first time under this new format, which debuted in 2019, Scheffler will begin the championship at 10-under for the second consecutive year.
Yet, the two-shot lead he had to start the tournament did not help in the end. Rory McIlroy chased him down in the final round of the 2022 Tour Championship to win his third FedEx Cup title.
Interestingly, since the debut of this format, only two players who started at 10-under with the two-shot advantage went on to win: Dustin Johnson in 2020 and Patrick Cantlay in 2021.
In 2019, Justin Thomas entered the week ranked first, but McIlroy raced by him to win his second FedEx Cup title.
Prior to 2019, the winner of the Tour Championship could have been different than the FedEx Cup champion. This instance happened in 2018, as Tiger Woods won the tournament, but Justin Rose was crowned FedEx Cup champion. The statistics involved in calculating the FedEx Cup champion complicated matters, hence the change to the new format.
But the newly adopted starting strokes format does not necessarily crown the best golfer of the year.
Scheffler won the Jack Nicklaus PGA Tour Player of the Year award in 2022 and very well could again this year, but that does not mean he will win the FedEx Cup.
Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images
Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler played alongside each other during the first round of the 2023 BMW Championship.
Sure, the format rewards strokes to players who have done well all season, but it also seems to punish them if they do not win.
Rahm—who could also win the Nicklaus Award this year—does not like this format too.
“I don’t think it’s the best,” Rahm said Tuesday before the Tour Championship. “I think we can come up with something better.”
Scheffler would get on board with that plan too. Whether the Tour adopts changes in 2024 for the Tour Championship remains to be seen.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
