Can’t get enough of March Madness brackets or the College Football Playoff’s new 12-team bracket? The PGA Tour Championship may be headed that direction soon.
The PGA Tour is reportedly in ‘advanced’ talks to revamp the league’s season-ending Tour Championship into a bracket-style competition as early as this year, according to The Athletic, who first reported the news. ESPN added that the updated competition format may involve a combination of stroke play and match play.
Under the current format of the Tour Championship — the final event of the three-tournament FedEx Cup Playoffs, where the top 30 players compete for a $25 million prize — players start with staggered scores depending on how many FedEx Cup points they have entering the championship.
The player with the most FedEx Cup points accumulated throughout the year starts at 10-under-par with a two-shot lead. The player with the second-most points starts the tournament at 8-under, followed by third (-7), fourth (-6), fifth (-5), 6th-10th (-4), 11th-15th (-3), 16th-20th (-2) and 21st-25th (-1). The players ranked 26th-30th in FedEx Cup points start at even par.
FedEx Cup points don’t carry over into the Tour Championship, meaning the player who wins the playoff finale is crowned that year’s FedExCup champion.
Scottie Scheffler, who won the 2024 Tour Championship and FedEx Cup as the No. 1 seed, said the Tour Championship format is flawed. ‘I think it’s silly,’ Scheffler added in August.
‘You can’t call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament,’ Scheffler said. ‘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 FedExCup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No. It is what it is.’
Rory McIlroy, however, said he’s a fan of the current format because it levels the playing field: “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 added, “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.”
The 2025 Tour Championship will be held August 20-24 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, the tournament’s permanent home since 2004.
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