There was once a time when the PGA Tour crowned two different golfers as winners at the end of a FedExCup season: one was the TOUR Championship winner and the other was the FedExCup Champion, who was awarded based on leading the season-long standings. However, the PGA Tour tweaked the format and now designates only one winner—the player who wins the TOUR Championship—while giving the FedExCup standings leader a 10-stroke staggered start as an advantage.
Something that Scottie Scheffler received too. However, this format has led to doubts about who actually won the TOUR Championship if only the 72 strokes are counted. According to Claire Rogers of Golf Digest, when counting just 72 strokes, Collin Morikawa leads with a score of 22 under, followed by Sahith Theegala and then Scheffler in third at 20 under. Thus, Morikawa would have been the 72-stroke winner if the staggered start advantage had been disregarded.
Since the TOUR Championship uses the staggered stroke format, Morikawa could not be crowned the winner. A similar situation occurred in 2009 with Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. At that time, Woods was second on the TOUR Championship leaderboard due to the format, while Mickelson was the winner. However, Woods did take home the FedExCup Champion trophy as the season-long champion.
Tour Championship leaderboard vs. Tour Championship leaderboard if everyone started at even par pic.twitter.com/Ag00A23Ipf
— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) September 1, 2024
Seeing that the staggered format prevented Morikawa from winning the TOUR Championship, the golf world expressed frustration and called for a different format that would benefit all players.
Netizens urge for a new TOUR Championship format
Aside from the TOUR Championship, which uses the staggered stroke format, and the Barracuda Championship, which follows the modified Stableford format, no other PGA Tour event deviates from the traditional 72-hole events. The PGA Tour maintains the unique format to give the season-long leader an advantage going into the finale and to make the standings meaningful. However, some fans have struggled to understand this approach. One fan expressed their frustration, saying, “& this is why the tour championship should start everyone at even par just like… wait for it… hold on… every other f**king tournament on tour??????”
When the extra 10 strokes were removed or not counted, Scheffler was third on the leaderboard, suggesting that he won at East Lake Golf Club primarily because of the advantage. This led to calls for a change in the format, with fans exclaiming, “Get rid of the extra strokes.”
Another fan shared similar frustration with the TOUR Championship’s extra stroke format, calling it the “DUMBEST FORMAT EVVVVER.” To some extent, even Scheffler has expressed that he was not a fan of the format, though he accepted it as part of the playoffs.
While there was massive criticism, one user suggested a potential change for the TOUR Championship. As of the 2024 season, there are no match-play events on the PGA Tour, while the LPGA Tour features the T-Mobile Match Play, where 54-hole stroke play determines top seeding and players advance through different stages to reach the finals. This fan proposed that the PGA Tour should adopt a similar match-play format, stating, “The Tour Championship should 100% be a match-play event. They need to adjust this ASAP. It was beyond boring to watch.”
It should be noted that Scheffler did not win only the TOUR Championship in 2024; he also had six victories and a gold medal to his name. Consequently, he was far ahead in the FedExCup standings and deserved the 10-stroke start due to his exceptional performance throughout the season. Even without the advantage, it is likely that the world No. 1 would have dominated the field, as one user noted, “Scottie is the type of guy that would’ve found more birdies if he had to. He did it all year. He scored what he needed to score to win.”
The PGA Tour does consider feedback from its fans, but it remains to be seen whether the TOUR Championship’s format will be changed for the 2025 season.
