PGA Tour eliminates starting-strokes format at Tour Championship

The PGA Tour is eliminating the controversial starting-strokes format from the Tour Championship in its latest attempt to make its season-ending tournament more compelling and climactic for golf fans, the tour announced Tuesday.

Starting with this year’s Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta from Aug. 21 to 24, all 30 players in the field will start at even par in a stroke-play tournament.

The winner after 72 holes will capture the FedEx Cup and collect a bonus and five-year PGA Tour exemption.

The PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council (PAC) and policy board approved the changes Tuesday.

“Our Fan Forward Initiative has helped us evaluate each part of the PGA Tour season and today’s announcement is an important first step in the evolution of our postseason,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement. “The Player Advisory Council led a thorough process to respond to what our fans are asking for: The most competitive golf in the world, played for the highest stakes, in the most straightforward and engaging format.”

The PGA Tour considered other ways to play the Tour Championship, including a bracket-style format with head-to-head play. The tour said the PAC would continue to examine the field size and qualification standards for future Tour Championships.

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In a news release Tuesday, the tour said golf fans indicated they wanted to see winning scores closer to par at the Tour Championship.

The tour said bonuses for the top 30 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings “will be balanced for 2025 to account for the increased volatility, reward season-long performance and recognize the significance of the FedExCup.”

“As the PGA Tour continues to evolve and respond to feedback from fans and players, additional enhancements to the Tour Championship are being evaluated and will be announced in the coming months,” the news release said.

The tour is also weighing whether to relocate the Tour Championship to another golf club after the 2027 season, sources told ESPN, although East Lake Golf Club could remain part of a rotation for the event.

Last year, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler started the tournament at 10 under as the FedEx Cup seasonlong points leader. He was 20 under over 72 holes on his own, and his overall scoring total of 30 under was four strokes better than Collin Morikawa, who started at 4 under.

The PGA Tour said its rules committee will “adjust its course setup approach to encourage more risk/reward moments throughout each round, further heightening the drama and competition.”

“We want the Tour Championship to be the hardest tournament to qualify for and the FedEx Cup trophy the most difficult to win,” Scheffler, a PAC member, 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.”

From 2007 to 2018, the PGA Tour crowned two champions at the Tour Championship: the winner of the tournament and the leader in the seasonlong FedEx Cup points race. Starting strokes were introduced in 2019 to protect golfers at the top, while eliminating the confusion of having two champions after the season-ending championship.

The points leader started at 10 under and was at least two strokes ahead of everyone else in the field. The No. 2 player in points started at 8 under, No. 3 at 7 under, No. 4 at 6 under, and so on.

PGA Tour members, including Scheffler, criticized the format as being too gimmicky. Other golfers complained that they didn’t have a chance to win the tournament because they were starting so far behind.

“I talked about it the last few years, I think it’s silly,” Scheffler said during a news conference at the 2024 FedEx St. Jude Championship. “You can’t call it a seasonlong race and have it come down to one tournament.

“Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the way it did at the Players. I finish 30th in the FedEx Cup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the seasonlong race? No, it is what it is.”

Starting so far in front of the field didn’t always guarantee Scheffler a victory. In 2022, he squandered a six-stroke lead by carding a 3-over 73 in the final round and lost to Rory McIlroy by one. The next year, Scheffler started at 10 under and went just 1 under over 72 holes on his own. He tied for sixth at 11 under, 16 strokes behind winner Viktor Hovland.