DUBLIN, Ohio — The PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council met on Tuesday night at the Memorial Tournament to approve several big-time changes to its season-ending Tour Championship and its big-money FedEx Cup payouts.
What does that mean? Let’s dive in, Q&A-style.
Q: What’s the biggest change to the Tour Championship?
A: Let’s start here: the Tour has eliminated its controversial “Starting Strokes” format, which essentially rewarded season-long success by giving the top-ranked player (Scottie Scheffler, the last few years) a starting score of 10 under par and a two-stroke lead over the rest of the field.
Q: Why’d they do that?
A: Because the staggered start format was confusing and a lot of people thought it was dumb — including Scottie Scheffler, who won the event last year. It was difficult to explain to a casual viewer, it spread out the field and it took away from the week’s inherent drama.
Q: Whoa, that seems like a big change. Wait, so it’s just a free-for-all?
A: Kinda, yeah. As in previous years, the top 30 players will make the Tour Championship. Now whoever shoots the lowest score will emerge the winner of the FedEx Cup. And of the Tour Championship, I suppose. It is a big change, especially to make in the middle of the season. You don’t see the Super Bowl’s format getting tweaked Week 9, for instance.
Players react to Tour Championship enhancements
As part of its ongoing commitment to accelerate innovation on behalf of fans, the PGA Tour announced updates to its Tour Championship format. Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay and Min Woo Lee discuss the changes, including eliminating Starting Strokes from the season-ending event.
Q: Hang on, the FedEx Cup is big-time money. Does that mean the winner gets $25 mil? For one good week?!
A: Not quite. We didn’t get dollar figures, so I’m guessing the specifics haven’t been finalized just yet, but reading between the lines, the payouts won’t be quite as steep as they were before. From the release:
“…the FedExCup bonus distributions for the top 30 positions through the TOUR Championship will be balanced for 2025 to account for the increased volatility, reward season-long performance and recognize the significance of the FedExCup.”
In other words, you’ll still get some reward for year-long success. I’m still curious what that’ll look like, though.
Q: Okay, cool. No staggered start. Simpler format. What else is different?
A: The course setup is changing. The Tour’s data showed that fans wanted to see winning scores closer to par. A lot of top players agreed with that sentiment. And so the Tour will adjust its setup to “encourage more risk/reward moments” which I think means a bit more U.S. Open with some drivable par-4 drama mixed in. In theory the players will like this, too — but in reality this could turn into a bit of a suffer-fest. The fact that everybody starts at even par should make the scores seem much higher than Scottie Scheffler starting at 10 under, too.
Q: Interesting. Is that a repudiation of East Lake Golf Club?
A: I’ll let you be the judge. I think it’s a good golf course but I’m not sure it’s beloved. It will be this year’s host and the next two years, too. The Tour Championship will be held at East Lake for through 2027, but there are two basic issues with the place: it’s not a particularly memorable golf course for television and it’s so hot in Atlanta in August that the life can get sucked right out of the event, even with massive money on the line. We could be a few years away from the introduction of a rotational system, where East Lake would be one of several hosts.
Q: Who made these decisions?
A: The Tour says it’s gathered data from more than 50,000 fans, which helped inform the changes. The Tour also says that players were the ones who led the process itself; they’re keen for this to be a player- and fan-led initiative. In fairness, I think that’s accurate. But they do want golf fans to know they’re listening.
Q: Any strange trickle-down effects from this decision?
A: One comes to mind immediately: If you come into the FedEx Cup Playoffs guaranteed of a spot in the Tour Championship (if you’re inside the top eight or 10, say) would you have any obligation to play the first two events? On its face, this removes any advantage of being No. 1 vs. No. 10 vs. No 30 — unless those finishing spots are made whole in some other way.
Q: What else should I know?
A: I think we’ve mostly covered it. Scottie Scheffler offered a quote for the release, calling for a “tougher course setup” and a “more straight-up format”. Tour commissioner Jay Monahan gave a quote, too, citing the Fan Forward initiative. I’m not sure why they capitalize all this stuff, but they’re borderline addicted to it. Anyway, both Scheffler and I believe Monahan will be on site at Memorial tomorrow, so we’ll hear more from them then.
Q: So, good change?
A: I think so? I understand the calls for match play, which would definitely be exciting. I also understand why starting strokes were more “fair” in the context of a year-long competition. But it’s never going to be make everybody happy and it’s a difficult problem to solve. This seems like a small step in the right direction, although the randomness feels like it’s been turned up to 11. I’d expect further changes in the coming years; if we can change up the venues and keep getting creative, there’s no reason the FedEx Cup’s finale can’t get a little juicier.
You can read the compete release here.
