The PGA Tour season comes to a dramatic conclusion with this week’s Tour Championship, which begins Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
For the second consecutive year, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler enters as the top seed and with a two-shot advantage. He built that to six shots entering the final round last year, only to see Rory McIlroy hunt him down en route to his record third career FedEx Cup title.
The final 30 players are in the field, all with a shot at the coveted title. Our golf experts preview the event and provide their favorite prop picks this week along with the best bets to claim the FedEx Cup title.
TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Location: Atlanta, Aug. 24-27
Course: East Lake Golf Club (Par 70, 7,346 yards)
FedEx Cup Bonus Pool: $75M (Champion: $18M)
Defending Champion: Rory McIlroy
FedEx Cup leader: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 1-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday, 1-3 p.m. (GC), 3-7 p.m. (CBS); Sunday, 12-1:30 (GC), 1:30-6 p.m. (CBS)
Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. ET; Saturday, 12-7 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Twitter: @TourChamp
THE FORMAT
The top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings qualified for the season-ending event. The staggered scoring system means Scottie Scheffler will begin the tournament at 10-under par, two strokes ahead of Viktor Hovland.
RK. PLAYER, STARTING SCORE
1. Scottie Scheffler, -10
2. Viktor Hovland, -8
3. Rory McIlroy, -7
4. Jon Rahm, -6
5. Lucas Glover, -5
6. Max Homa, -4
7. Patrick Cantlay, -4
8. Brian Harman, -4
9. Wyndham Clark, -4
10. Matt Fitzpatrick, -4
11. Tommy Fleetwood, -3
12. Russell Henley, -3
13. Keegan Bradley, -3
14. Rickie Fowler, -3
15. Xander Schauffele, -3
16. Tom Kim, -2
17. Sungjae Im, -2
18. Tony Finau, -2
19. Corey Conners, -2
20. Si Woo Kim, -2
21. Taylor Moore, -1
22. Nick Taylor, -1
23. Adam Schenk, -1
24. Collin Morikawa, -1
25. Jason Day, -1
26. Sam Burns, Even
27. Emiliano Grillo, Even
28. Tyrrell Hatton, Even
29. Jordan Spieth, Even
30. Sepp Straka, Even
PROP PICKS
—Taylor Moore to Win Tournament Matchup vs. Jason Day (+135 at DraftKings): Day has the massive edge in experience on Moore, who qualified for East Lake for the first time. Moore has been wildly inconsistent, winning the Valspar Championship and finishing fifth in the first leg of the playoffs two weeks ago while also missing five of his past nine cuts. Similarly, after his win at the Byron Nelson, Day missed three consecutive cuts. He did finish T2 at The Open, but has a T52 and T45 the past two weeks, and may be distracted with his wife expected to give birth to the couple’s fifth child in the next few weeks.
—Tom Kim to be Top Asian (+175 at BetMGM): The other two players in this prop are Sungjae Im at +138 and Si Woo Kim at +225. All three will begin the tournament at 2 under, and each are capable of making noise at East Lake. Im has the experience edge, having finished second in total strokes last year — just one behind McIlroy. He’s also coming off a solo seventh at the BMW. However, Tom Kim quietly finished T10 to continue a string of excellent play. Despite a Grade-1 ankle sprain, he posted a final-round 67 to tie for second at The Open and followed it up with a T24 and T10 the past two weeks.
—Xander Schauffele Outright Winner Without Strokes (+900 at BetMGM/DraftKings): Schauffele might be hard-pressed to make up seven shots on Scheffler — and pass nine other players in the process — but he has an excellent track record at East Lake. In addition to winning the Tour Championship as a rookie in 2017, Schauffele has finished in the top 10 in each of his previous six starts in Atlanta. That includes solo third in 2021 and T6 last year, and Schauffele is coming off a solid T8 at last week’s BMW Championship.
2023 Prop Picks Record: 37-42-2
BEST BETS
—Scheffler (+140 to win at BetMGM with bonus strokes applied) finished second last week despite shooting 5 under on Sunday after holding the 54-hole lead. He enters the Tour Championship at No. 1 for the second consecutive year, having finished second to McIlroy last year. Scheffler leads the book with 24.4 percent of the money backing him to win and is second with 9.0 percent of the total bets.
—McIlroy (+350) enters the week with 28 consecutive rounds of par or better, the longest active streak on tour. This is also his highest start since the Starting Strokes format was introduced in 2019, and he has finished in the top 10 in four consecutive playoff events. McIlroy has garnered the third-most total bets (11.4 percent) and money (11.4 percent) at BetMGM this week.
—Hovland (+450) shot a course-record 61 to win last Sunday, adding to a strong year that included a T2 at the PGA Championship and a win at the Memorial. He’s the book’s second-biggest liability, having drawn the most total bets at 10.1 percent and the second most money at 18.9 percent.
—Rahm (+800) finished second to Cantlay two years ago and held the FedEx Cup lead for 30 weeks until his T31 at the BMW. His mini-summer slump has led to modest interest from the public, which has backed his with 6.5 and 9.2 percent of the action, respectively.
—Schauffele (+2800) won the Tour Championship as a rookie in 2017 and has finished in the top 10 in each of his previous six starts. He is the book’s third-biggest liability this week, having been backed by 6.7 percent of the total bets since opening at +3300. Schauffele is BetMGM’s biggest liability in the market with no bonus strokes applied. At +900 to have the fewest total strokes this week, he has drawn the most bets (15.9 percent) and money (33.5 percent).
—Jordan Spieth (+25000) is a significant longshot as he starts 10 shots behind Scheffler, but that hasn’t stopped the sentimental bets from flowing in. Spieth is the book’s biggest liability, having drawn 4.0 percent of the bets since opening at +3000.
NOTES
— Rahm, Schauffele and Tony Finau share the longest active streak, having reached the Tour Championship each of the past seven seasons.
—McIlroy is the only three-time FedEx Cup champion (2016, ’19, ’22), and seeks to become the first player to win in consecutive seasons. His six career playoff victories is tied with Dustin Johnson for the most all-time.
—Cantlay is trying to join McIlroy and Tiger Woods as the only two-time Cup winners.
—U.S. Open champion Clark is among five players making their Tour Championship debuts. The others are Tom Kim, Moore, Taylor and Schenk. Kim is the youngest player in the field at 21, while Glover is the oldest at 43.
—Field Level Media
