PGA Tour Announces Elimination of Starting-Strokes Format at Tour Championship

The starting-strokes format for the Tour Championship has been eliminated beginning this year, per an approval from The PGA Tour's Player Advisory Council (PAC) and policy board on Tuesday (h/t ESPN's Mark Schlabach).

"Our Fan Forward Initiative has helped us evaluate each part of the PGA Tour season and today's announcement is an important first step in the evolution of our postseason," PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said per a statement. "The Player Advisory Council led a thorough process to respond to what our fans are asking for: The most competitive golf in the world, played for the highest stakes, in the most straightforward and engaging format.

This year's Tour Championship will take place from Aug. 21-24 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Like last year, it will still include the top 30 FedEx Cup finalists.

Last year's winner was Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world. Scheffler benefitted from the old format last year, as he began the tournament at 10-under. However, he didn't finish with the best performance, shooting 20-under.

That was two strokes behind Collin Morikawa at 22-under, but the 10-under start let him finish at 30-under overall. Morikawa only got a four-stroke head start and finished at 26-under.

So Scheffler's comments on the matter speaks volumes, and that's in addition to his status as the world's best golfer and a PAC member as well.

"We want the Tour Championship to be the hardest tournament to qualify for and the FedEx Cup trophy the most difficult to win," Scheffler said in a statement. "Shifting the Tour Championship to a more straight-up format with a tougher course setup makes it easier for fans to follow and provides a more challenging test for players-which brings out the best competition."

As Schlabach noted, the PGA Tour used to have two champions (2007-2018), the person who won the tournament and the player who finished first in the FedEx Cup points race.

Then a change occurred in 2019 with the starting strokes, and one champion was named at the end of the year.

Now that's gone by the wayside, with the 72-hole winner of the tournament now being called the champion.

In the meantime, Scheffler remains the No. 1 player on the FedExCup standings with 2,801 points, with the top five rounded out by Rory McIlroy, Sepp Straka, Justin Thomas and Ben Griffin.