After all of the discussion, the suggestions and the models, it turns out the format for the Tour Championship is going back to where it started.
No more staggered scoring system to start, putting the FedEx Cup points leader at 10-under par before he sets foot at steamy East Lake in late August.
Just a straight up, 72-hole stroke-play event with the FedEx Cup pot of gold as the prize.
It’s the PGA Tour doing what it does best and what it’s most comfortable doing.
Does it transform the season finale into something more than it was?
Not entirely but it helps.
The previous format, weighting the scoreboard at the start with half of the 30-player field starting at least eight strokes behind, was gimmicky. It still produced deserving champions, though Scottie Scheffler, who took home the $25 million prize last year, called the format “silly.”
The idea was to reward the top players through the season but it looked and felt strange. It began in 2019 and the winners since then included Scheffler, Rory McIlroy twice, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland.
Xander Schauffele twice had the lowest 72-hole score at East Lake but because he started from behind, he never won the FedEx Cup.
The challenge for the tour and its finale is twofold: It wants to reward a deserving champion, which it tends to do, and it wants to make the event resonate with the public. That’s the bigger challenge.
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