ATLANTA — The winner of this weekend’s Tour Championship, which begins Thursday at East Lake Golf Club, will take home an $18 million prize.
The top 29 players in the FedEx Cup Playoffs point standings will compete for the top prize, with Will Zalatoris in third place, who had to withdraw on Tuesday due to a back injury.
But the biggest news of the week could come Wednesday, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan told the media. Details are starting to emerge from the players-only meeting hosted by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy at last week’s BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware.
For the 22 players at the meeting, a proposal was made to keep top players with the PGA Tour by changing up to 15 events to smaller fields and bigger purses. More than two dozen PGA Tour members have left to join the rival LIV Golf Series, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, including past major champions Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed.
The players pitched their ideas to Monahan. A player familiar with the discussions told ESPN that the plan is still in its early stages, and he was unsure how quickly he would be able to implement the changes if the tour goes ahead.
A source told ESPN on Tuesday that Monahan is expected to reveal significant changes at a news conference in East Lake.
“Change in an organization as long as the PGA Tour, I think it’s generally slow to change, and if you’re making big changes, it’s not going to happen overnight,” Patrick Cantley said on Tuesday, defending the FedEx Cup champion.
Cantley declined to comment on what was discussed in Delaware last week. He said he supports changes that would strengthen the PGA Tour’s position in its battle with LIV Golf.
“Anything that’s good for the audience and I think it’s a good thing to try to bring more people into the golf fold and enjoy golf,” Cantley said.
Cantlay FedEx Cup defense
Cantley, who successfully defended his BMW Championship title last week, is trying to become the first player to win the FedEx Cup in back-to-back seasons. Not even Tiger Woods did.
Cantley has started the 2021 Tour Championship 2 strokes ahead of Tony Finau. He begins this week’s tournament 2 strokes behind world No. 1 golfer Scotty Scheffler.
“I’m excited to be back on my favorite golf course and I’ve definitely had some recent success,” Cantley said. “It’s good to come into this race with a chance to win from the top of my first start, although this year should be a different challenge than last year considering I’m a 2 forward 2 on the back.”
Cantley, ranked third in the world, called this season “grinding.” He had 11 top-10 finishes in 19 tour starts but didn’t win his first individual victory until last week at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware. In late April, he teamed up with good friend Xander Schauffele to win the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.
“The last two months is the most golf I’ve played in two months,” Cantley said. “I think it’s six out of eight or seven out of nine. [tournaments] For me, that’s a lot of golf. I’m excited about my chances this week, I only started this event with two shots. But I will be happy when the season is over and I have two weeks off before the Presidents Cup.
Players are not fans of the format
The Tour Championship is the only PGA Tour event that uses a stroke-based system, which is determined by players’ standings in FedEx Cup points after the BMW Championship.
Points leader Scheffler starts Thursday at 10-under par, and the three players behind him, Cantley, Schaufele and Sam Burns, start at 8-under, 6-under and 5-under. The next five players start the tournament at 4 under, advancing one shot for every five players until the 26-30 are tied.
Zalatoris, who won his first win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, was third in points in the first playoff and started at 7 under. Zalatoris pulled out of last week’s BMW Championship in the third round with two herniated discs in his back.
Despite Cantley’s success at the Tour Championship, he still doesn’t like his form, which is in his fourth season of existence.
“I’ve already talked about it,” Cantley said. “I’m not a fan. I think there should be a better system, although I honestly don’t know what a better system is.”
Schauffele, who has scored in the 60s in 18 of his 20 career rounds at East Lake, doesn’t particularly favor the format. In the year He won the Tour Championship as a rookie in 2017 and was runner-up in 2019 and 2020.
“If it had been the way it was, Scotty would have won the FedExCup months ago,” Schauffele said. “I’m sure Scotty would want it in the old system, and it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t deserve it.
“But in terms of the game play and shaking things up and giving the audience what they need, at the end of the day we’re playing golf and we’re entertaining, so we have to create a fun place,” Schuffele said. “I think everybody wants to have an alternative outcome where somebody else has a chance to win. Like I said, I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I’m sure it can be improved.”
So what is the best way to change? US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick has suggested that a match-play format might be a better option in the three playoff events. That change could give everyone on the field a chance to win.
“Golf is a lot different than other sports,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s why I think looking at the match play is probably more of an answer because you have a team that’s in last place or whatever in the playoffs and you don’t think they’re going anywhere and then you end up going up.” And then you can get a guy, in the 90s [place]You have reached the end.”
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One of the results of more than two dozen players leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf is an abundance of golfers making their Tour Championship debuts. In fact, there are nine first-timers playing in East Lake this week: Fitzpatrick, Sepp Straka, Scott Stallings, Cameron Young, Max Homa, Tom Hoge, KH Lee, JT Poston and Sahith Theegala.
“Yeah, I was talking to somebody last week and the average age of players is down a lot now and guys are winning younger,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think that says something like nine first-timers. Obviously, everyone is a lot shorter than first-timers. I think obviously golf is in a good position on that front.”
Zalatoris will be the 10th first-time player. He will finish 30th in the FedEx Cup standings and receive a $500,000 bonus. Schaufel didn’t like the way it worked for Zalatoris, who finished sixth or better in three of the four majors. He lost to Justin Thomas in a playoff at the PGA Championship and finished second at the US Open.
“You know, I think I saw on the Vail news that he’s not going to play this week, unfortunately, and I think it’s a little tough after a season of having to settle just to go to last place,” Schauffele said. “I think it could be adjusted a little better.”
East Lake is clean.
East Lake, home of golf legend Bobby Jones, has hosted the Tour Championship since 1998. It has a thick, long Bermuda texture, which is extra juicy thanks to wet weather in Atlanta this week. The typically warm August weather in Georgia can give players a break. Forecasts call for temperatures of 80 to 86 degrees. There is a good chance for thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday.
“I’d say this course is definitely one of the best golf courses we’ve been in all year. It seems to be in perfect shape every year,” Cantley said. It seems very wet this year. Fairways are long, and I don’t think they were cut just because of softness. But if the weather closes in and it doesn’t, “I’m sure it’ll be fine every day if it doesn’t rain too much.”
