McIlroy Supports the Previous Tour Championship Format Despite Changes
The Masters champion, Rory McIlroy, has expressed his opinion on the changes implemented in the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship. Unlike many golfers, McIlroy was not a detractor of the previous format that used starting strokes, implemented during the last six seasons. This format, introduced in 2019, gave the FedEx Cup points leader an initial advantage of 10 under par, with at least two strokes ahead of the rest of the field. The second-place finisher started with 8 under par, the third with 7 under par, and so on.This year, the 30 golfers in the field at East Lake Golf Club will start at par in a traditional 72-hole tournament. McIlroy argued that, given Scottie Scheffler’s outstanding season, with five victories, including the BMW Championship and his third and fourth majors at the PGA Championship and The Open, a two-stroke lead probably wouldn’t have been enough. The PGA Tour reallocated its bonus pool to reward golfers who performed well in the regular season. Scheffler has already accumulated $23 million in bonuses this year. This week there are an additional 40 million dollars at stake at East Lake, including 10 million for the winner. The PGA Tour’s goal was to make the Tour Championship the “toughest tournament to qualify for” and the FedEx Cup trophy “the hardest to win.” Justin Thomas, 2017 FedEx Cup champion, stated that the removal of tee shots gives more golfers the opportunity to win. 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 a lot of other things on the table,” McIlroy said. “Match play was on the table, and that got canceled for this year. That could come back into the conversation for next year or the year after. I think it’s hard for 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 hard for the players to understand.”“Maybe I’m in the minority. I didn’t hate the tee shots. I thought the player who played the best throughout the season should have an advantage coming in here. But most people just didn’t like the tee shots, whether they were players or fans”.
Rory McIlroy
