Pros tease ‘surprise’ changes to controversial Tour Championship format

You probably wouldn’t change the Super Bowl’s rules in the middle of the NFL’s regular season. You wouldn’t tweak the World Series at the All-Star Break. But the PGA Tour still feels it hasn’t quite nailed the recipe for its big-money, season-ending Tour Championship — so it’s planning to tweak the format. Those changes could happen in the next few weeks. And they could take effect as soon as this season.

On the one hand, that seems like a wild move considering the stakes; the FedEx Cup awards $25 million to its winner and $100 million in total. On the other hand it makes all the sense in the world — if you’re dishing out that big a prize, you’d like to make sure you’ve got it right.

CURRENT FORMAT

The current format for the Tour Championship takes the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup and staggers their starting strokes based on previously accrued points; the leader begins the final 72-hole tournament at 10 under par, two strokes ahead of his nearest competitor. The rest of the field is spread out accordingly all the way back to even par.

But it hasn’t always been this way. The staggered-start current format only took effect in 2019, with the goal of producing a single champion rather than one Tour Championship winner and another FedEx Cup champ crowned simultaneously. (You may recall that Tiger Woods won the Tour Championship in 2018; you may not remember that Justin Rose won the FedEx Cup beside him.)

Plenty of people have dogged on the format, including last year’s winner, Scottie Scheffler, who has called it “silly” on several occasions.

So now what?

NEW FORMAT CLUES

The short answer is that we don’t know — but we have some clues. We first got wind of potential changes at the beginning of the 2025 season, and PGA Tour leadership confirmed they were looking at a Tour Championship revamp as part of several initiatives aimed at improving the product.

But if there were a simple, perfect answer that would satisfy players, fans and TV partners, they likely would have already arrived at it. Hence the ongoing discussions.

“There’s a few different formats that I think we’re looking at right now. Some of ’em good, some of ’em were bad. I’m not really going to go into details of those formats because we’re still ironing them out,” Scheffler said last month in Orlando.

Adam Schupak of Golfweek spoke with Adam Scott and gathered the opinions of several player leaders. Scott in particular spoke to the importance of revamping the format and elevating the cup. That, more than any geopolitical or inter-tour drama, was what inspired him to get involved in governance in the first place.

“I thought it needed improving. That was my thing,” Scott said. “I thought I could give good perspective and help make it more straightforward, easy, and more respected throughout all sports. I’ve been sidetracked a lot.”

WHAT WE DO KNOW

Starting strokes are likely to be eliminated, per Scott, who said that he thought “everybody involved” wanted to ditch the confusing staggered-start format.

But match play, which was likely the flashiest potential addition to the format, seems unlikely to get incorporated, either.

“It’s hard to wrap your head around you play one style all season and then your final event is an entirely different format,” Scott said.

It seems like they have reached consensus; Sam Burns told Schupak that the Player Advisory Council met at last week’s RBC Heritage and reached a preferred format. Now it’s a matter of getting other stakeholders — broadcasters NBC and CBS, plus sponsors like FedEx, Coca Cola and Southern Company — on board.

Kevin Kisner, who wears multiple hats as a Tour pro and NBC analyst, teased out one TV-approved potential format where they’d cut the field down to 16, then to eight, then to four to ramp up drama. But that seems unlikely to be the final answer.

“I think it will be a more traditional tournament with more consequence,” Kisner told Schupak. “I don’t want to spoil the surprise too much.”

“It’s going to be a better tournament for the players, a better tournament for the sponsors and really everyone involved,” Burns said.

Change is coming. Players seem excited. The new format will likely be greeted with some skepticism. But one thing will measure its success: whether there’s an immediate push to change it again.