The format of the Tour Championship is a recurring debate. The final event of the PGA Tour playoffs fails to convince, and every August, there are many dissenting voices that speak out.
In the current model, the leader of the FedEx Cup starts the tournament at ten under par, and as you go down the ranking, players receive fewer strokes. There is a ten-stroke difference between the leader and the tenth on the annual table, and for example, between the first and the second, two.
Among the critics is Scottie Scheffler, the World Number One himself has sometimes expressed his dissatisfaction with the current format, stating that it was “weird” and “not the optimal identifier” of the best player of the season.
It seems that the PGA Tour management has listened to the general discontent of a large part of the golfing community and could change, as early as this year, the format of the tournament that decides the season champion on the North American circuit.
At least that’s what the outlet The Athletic has reported: “The PGA Tour is in advanced talks to revamp the format of the Tour Championship and turn it into a knockout-style event.” In fact, according to the outlet, “the change could happen in this year’s tournament,” which takes place from 21 to 24 August in Atlanta.
The Tour Championship would consist of a bracket with direct matchups. Both stroke play and match play formats are being considered as options.
The current format, which began in 2019, gathers the top 30 golfers of the year in the final event of the FedEx Cup playoffs. The possible advantage that the top-ranked players would now receive is being exempt in a hypothetical first round.
The PGA Tour had a knockout-style match-play tournament between 1999 and 2023, but just a year ago, the WGC Match Play Championship was removed from the calendar. We’ll see if a tournament of this style returns and in what format it does.
