2021 Tour Championship tee times: First round pairings for Thursday

Patrick Cantlay

Patrick Cantlay is the man to beat at the 2021 Tour Championship.

Ben Jared/PGA TOUR via Getty Images

The 2021 Tour Championship, the finale of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, kicks off Thursday at East Lake. You can find full Round 1 tee times for the tournament at the bottom of this post.

Notable pairings for Tour Championship Round 1

As players get ready to start the first round of the season’s final tournament, Patrick Cantlay is the man to beat. The 29-year-old rose to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings, following his dramatic playoff victory over Bryson DeChambeau at last week’s BMW Championship.

Thanks to his top ranking, Cantlay will begin the Tour Championship at 10 under with a two-shot advantage over Tony Finau in the No. 2 position. Players will tee off based on their FedEx Cup position at East Lake. Cantlay and Finau will tee off in the final pairing at 2 p.m. ET Thursday.

The penultimate pairing might draw the most interest from golf fans. No. 3 DeChambeau, who will start at seven under, and No. 4 Jon Rahm, who starts at six under, will play together on Thursday, teeing off at 1:50 p.m.

Other notable pairings for the opening round include Cameron Smith and Justin Thomas (1:40 p.m.); Jordan Spieth and Sam Burns (1:20 p.m.); Collin Morikawa and Sungjae Im (1:10 p.m.); and Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy (12:50 p.m.).

Check out complete first-round tee times for the 2021 Tour Championship below.

2021 Tour Championship Round 1 tee times (All times ET)

Tee No. 1

11:40 a.m. – Billy Horschel, Patrick Reed
11:50 a.m. – Erik van Rooyen, Sergio Garcia
12 p.m. – Scottie Scheffler, Daniel Berger
12:10 p.m. – Stewart Cink, Joaquin Niemann
12:20 p.m. – Corey Conners, Hideki Matsuyama
12:30 p.m. – Kevin Na, Brooks Koepka
12:40 p.m. – Xander Schauffele, Jason Kokrak
12:50 p.m. – Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy
1 p.m. – Viktor Hovland, Louis Oosthuizen
1:10 p.m. – Collin Morikawa, Sungjae Im
1:20 p.m. – Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns
1:30 p.m. – Harris English, Abraham Ancer
1:40 p.m. – Cameron Smith, Justin Thomas
1:50 p.m. – Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm
2 p.m. – Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau

How to bet on the Tour Championship

Looking to make a (legal!) wager yourself? We teamed with BetMGM, and the online sportsbook is offering a “Bet $20 Win $100” promotion regardless of your wager’s outcome, as well as a “Risk-Free Bet” up to $1000.

Kevin Cunningham

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.