The TOUR Championship will include the top 30 PGA Tour players in the FedEx Cup point standings, with the winner awarded a $15 million bonus. The unique format allows point leader Patrick Cantlay, winner last week in the BMW Championship, to begin the event with a score of ten under par, two shots ahead of Tony Finau and three in front of last week’s playoff loser Bryson DeChambeau.
In fourth place in the standings and starting with a score of six-under is Jon Rahm, followed by Cameron Smith in fifth place and at five under par. The players that are sixth to tenth in the FedEx Cup will start with scores of four under. Those at 11th to 15th will tee off at three-under, 16th to 20th at two under par, 21st to 25th at one under, and the remaining entries beginning at even par.
East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta is the host for the TOUR Championship for the 15th year, playing to par 70 at 7,346 yards. Dustin Johnson, in the second year of the current format, won the 2020 tournament and the FedEx Cup last year by three shots over Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele, capping off a great two-month run of golf.
Anyone starting the tournament more than five or six shots behind Cantlay has their work really cut out for them. In 2019, Rory McIlroy shot lights out to erase a five-shot deficit to Justin Thomas with a 13 under par 267 that gave him a total of 18 under par to win his second FedEx Cup after starting at five under par, which was three strokes better on the course than anyone else in the field.
…DeChambeau is just behind at +500 and showed last week that his brief slump seems to be behind him.
Betting Odds
With the format, the players at the top of the FedEx Cup standings have a big advantage, and the betting odds reflect that edge. Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm lead the list at +380. DeChambeau is just behind at +500 and showed last week that his brief slump seems to be behind him.
Tony Finau has odds of +650, and then they jump to +1800 with Justin Thomas, who is sixth in the standings and starts six shots behind Cantlay. Three players at +2200 who have a good chance of coming from behind, including one who has accomplished the feat, are Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, who starts at three under par, and Rory McIlroy, who is another shot back at two under par.
Other players of note include Collin Morikawa, who seems to have become the forgotten man despite an outstanding season which included a victory in the Open Championship. He is at +3700 despite starting at three under par, but a missed cut at the Northern Trust and a tie for 63rd last week have diminished confidence in a player who usually shows up when the stakes are high.
Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka also has some ground to make up, starting at two under par with odds of +5000. One of the two players who worked their way into the top 30 with last week’s performance is Sergio Garcia, who has ten shots to make up and has odds of +21000.
