McIlroy Defends Previous Tour Championship Format
Unlike many PGA Tour golfers, Masters champion Rory McIlroy was not a detractor of the starting strokes format used at the Tour Championship for the last six seasons. This format, implemented in 2019, gave the FedEx Cup points leader a 10-under-par advantage at the start of the final event of the season, with at least a two-stroke lead over the rest of the participants. The second player in points started with 8 under par, the third with 7 under par, and so on. Even Scottie Scheffler, who secured his first FedEx Cup in 2024 after starting at 10 under par, called the playoff format “silly”. This year, the 30 golfers in the field at East Lake Golf Club will start at par in a traditional 72-hole tournament.Considering Scheffler’s excellent performance this season, with five wins, including last week’s BMW Championship and his third and fourth majors at the PGA Championship and The Open, McIlroy suggested that a two-stroke lead might not have been enough. “One could also argue that, if we had tee shots this week, Scottie with a two-shot lead probably wouldn’t be enough, considering what he’s done this year and the advantage he has in the FedEx Cup entering this week,” he added. The PGA Tour reallocated its bonus fund to reward golfers who performed well in the regular season. Scheffler has already accumulated $23 million in bonuses this year, including $10 million for finishing first in the points standings before the playoffs, $8 million from the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, and $5 million for leading in points after the BMW Championship. There are an additional $40 million at stake at East Lake this week, including $10 million for the winner. Scheffler will try to become the first back-to-back FedEx Cup winner. “I’m sure everyone, apart from Scottie Scheffler, loves the fact that we’re all starting on a level playing field,” commented Tommy Fleetwood of England. “It’s probably more exciting for the players to come here, all on a level playing field, knowing that it’s an incredible opportunity to have a great week, win the tournament, and obviously leave here incredibly happy.” When the PGA Tour announced the changes in May, Scheffler said the goal was to make the Tour Championship the “toughest tournament to qualify for” and the FedEx Cup trophy “the hardest to win.” Justin Thomas, FedEx Cup champion in 2017, stated that eliminating tee shots gives more golfers on the course the opportunity to win. “You have the opportunity to have an incredible week in the sense that you could have 15, 20 guys who have a chance to win on Sunday, which is great,” Thomas said. “That’s awesome, but it’s more than just playing the tournament. I think with the tee shots, it depended a lot on where you were.” “Most of the time, aside from a handful of guys, your week was pretty much determined quickly [by] not the first nine holes, but your first day. If you start with, say, 2 or 3 under par or less, and you don’t shoot 4 or 5 under par on the first day, then you practically have no chance of winning.” The PGA Tour described this season’s Tour Championship as a “transition year,” meaning additional changes could be coming soon. The tour has explored the idea of rotating the tournament to other golf courses, as well as a match-play bracket to determine the season champion. “There were many other things on the table,” McIlroy said. “Match play was on the table, and that was canceled for this year. That could come back into the conversation for next year or the year after. I think it’s difficult for the players to reconcile that we play stroke play every week of the year, but then the season-ending tournament will be decided by match play. I think that was difficult for the players to understand.”“Maybe I’m part of the minority,” McIlroy said on Tuesday. “I didn’t hate the tee shots. I thought the player who performed the best throughout the season should have had an advantage coming in here. But most people just didn’t like the tee shots, whether they were players or fans.”
Rory McIlroy
