World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler Questions PGA Tour's 'Silly' FedEx Cup Playoff Format

Scottie Scheffler doesn't believe the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoff format is the best way to determine who the best golfer was for a given year.

"I talked about it the last few years, I think it's silly," Scheffler told reporters on Wednesday. "You can't call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament.

"Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn't heal the way it did at The Players. I finish 30th in the FedEx Cup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No, it is what it is."

The PGA Tour playoff essentially boils down to a three-tournament event that begins Thursday with the FedEx St. Jude Championship. From there, the top 50 advance to the BMW Championship in Castle Rock, Colorado, and the top 30 after that move on to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Whichever player has the most FedExCup points entering the Tour Championship does get something of an advantage, as he starts with a score of 10-under at the beginning of the tournament. Other competitors get progressively fewer starting strokes depending on their position in the standings.

Scheffler started the last two Tour Championships in first place at 10-under just to watch Rory McIlroy win in 2022 and Viktor Hovland win last year.

The world's No. 1 golfer has been so dominant this year that his 5,993 FedEx Cup points are almost 2,000 ahead of second-place Xander Schauffele's 4,057, so he will likely be in the same position at the start of this season's Tour Championship.

The issue Scheffler raised is one fans see in other sports leagues as well.

After all, single-elimination playoff formats inherently set the stage for drama that may not always result in the best overall team winning the title. An NFL team that went 15-2 during the regular season could play poorly on one given Sunday afternoon and lose in the Divisional Round to a team that went 9-8.

Or perhaps a baseball team that went 100-62 over the course of a long season will run into a hot pitching staff in the best-of-five Divisional Series and suddenly see their incredible campaign end in three games.

College basketball fans are no strangers to underdogs getting hot from three-point range and stunning a No. 1 or 2 seed that is objectively the better overall team on paper.

While those formats don't necessarily produce the best overall team or player as champion every time, it does provide more potential for thrilling competition and entertainment for fans. McIlroy highlighted as much when discussing the FedEx Cup format.

"I love this format because if it wasn't this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he's so far ahead," McIlroy said, per ESPN's Mark Schlabach. "So I really like this format.

"I think it makes the Tour Championship more exciting from a consumer standpoint. Is it the fairest reflection of who's been the best player of the year? Probably not. But I think at this point we're not in for totally fair, we're in for entertainment and for trying to put on the best product we possibly can."

Scheffler has been the best golfer this year with victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship, Master, RBC Heritage, Memorial Tournament, Travelers Championship and Olympics, but the pressure will be on to deliver at the Tour Championship.

Otherwise someone else will be able to call themselves the FedEx Cup winner yet again.