New year, same result. After a full season of PGA Tour golf (and slightly shorter since the PGA Tour returned to a calendar-based schedule), Scottie Scheffler once again finds himself at the top of the FedEx Cup standings heading into the final event, the Tour Championship at East Lake.
Scheffler has dominated this year, winning six times on the PGA Tour, including his second Masters title, plus he won the gold medal at the Olympics earlier this month in Paris.
He leads second-ranked Xander Schauffele by more nearly 1,200 FedEx Cup points, and third-ranked Hideki Matsuyama by more than 2,700 points, which is about the same margin Matsuyama has on the No. 50 player in the standings, Eric Cole.
2024 Tour Championship: How to watch, TV coverage, streaming info, tee times
But, even after a historic season, Scheffler will begin the Tour Championship in the same position he has for the previous two editions: with a two-shot lead at 10 under.
This is year six of the Tour Championship’s handicapped format where players are given starting scores based on their position in the FedEx Cup standings entering the week. Scheffler will start this week at East Lake with a two-stroke lead on Schauffele and a 10-stroke lead on Justin Thomas, the last man in the field at No. 30 in the standings.
The change was made because under the old format, a player could win the Tour Championship and not win the FedEx Cup. It was also difficult to calculate points and keep track for the viewer at home.
This way, there is no more worrying about points and whoever wins the Tour Championship, starting strokes included, wins the FedEx Cup and the $25 million first-place prize.
Here’s what the starting strokes look like this year.
2024 Tour Championship starting scores
10 under: Scottie Scheffler
Eight under: Xander Schauffele
Seven under: Hideki Matusyama
Six under: Keegan Bradley
Five under: Ludvig Aberg
Four under: Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay
Three under: Sungjae Im, Sahith Theegala, Shane Lowry, Adam Scott, Tony Finau
Two under: Byeong Hun An, Viktor Hovland, Russell Henley, Akshay Bhatia, Robert MacIntyre
One under: Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Matthieu Pavon, Taylor Pendrith
Even: Chris Kirk, Tom Hoge, Aaron Rai, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Justin Thomas
Now you might think the player at the top might have a significant advantage, but in fact, the top seed has only won the Tour Championship twice in the previous five editions of this format. Scheffler himself has yet to prevail when being sported a two-stroke lead the past two seasons.
In his two most recent FedEx Cup victories, Rory McIlroy came back from five and six shots back at the start of the week to hoist the trophy (and massive first-place payday) by Sunday evening. Last year, Viktor Hovland was two strokes back of Scheffler when he lapped everyone at East Lake to win his first FedEx Cup.
You can follow the action from 1-6 p.m. ET on Golf Channel on Thursday and Friday. Saturday’s broadcast is 1-2:30 p.m. on Golf Channel and 2:30-7 p.m. on NBC, and Sunday’s final round is 12-1:30 p.m. on Golf Channel and 1:30-6 p.m. on NBC.
