Scottie Scheffler has welcomed a major change to the season-ending Tour Championship that will see the PGA Tour finale’s format simplified.
The conclusion to the FedEx Cup, the event is held annually at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta and has since 2019 seen players start in a staggered strokes set-up, with the player entering with the most FedEx Cup points start at 10-under-par.
The player with the second most points would then start at -8, and so on and so forth down through the final five players in the 30-man field at evens.
The PGA Tour has, however, confirmed that the event will be overhauled to revert to a straight strokeplay tournament contested across four rounds, with the winner after 72 holes capturing the FedEx Cup and a five-year Tour exemption.
World No 1 Scheffler – who captured his first crown last year despite Collin Morikawa bettering his tally across the event – believes that the switch should make it easier for fans to follow the Tour Championship.
“We want the Tour Championship to be the hardest tournament to qualify for and the FedEx Cup trophy the most difficult to win,” Scheffler said in a statement.
“Shifting the Tour Championship to a more straight-up format with a tougher course setup makes it easier for fans to follow and provides a more challenging test for players-which brings out the best competition.”
The PGA Tour are also thought to be considering a change of venue for the tournament, though East Lake could remain in the rotation having hosted since 2004.
From 2007 to 2018, the PGA Tour crowned two golfers at the Tour Championship, with the winner of the tournament and the leader in the season-long FedEx Cup points race both recognised.
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