ATLANTA – Sports fans sometimes complain that “the regular season doesn’t matter.” That can not be said of the PGA Tour season as the regular season efforts of Scottie Scheffler will start his TOUR Championship at (-10) in comparison to the likes of K.H. Lee, J.T. Poston, Sahith Theegala, Adam Scott, and Aaron Wise who will all begin their pursuit of the FedEx Cup at (even) par when the players tee-off (tomorrow) Thursday, August 24 at East Lake Golf Club.
Yes, the 47-event 2021-22 PGA TOUR Season will conclude at the TOUR Championship this weekend, where the FedEx Cup Champion will be crowned. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the Tour leader in wins this season with four, enters the TOUR Championship at No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings and will begin the tournament at 10-under via FedEx Cup Starting Strokes. Scheffler is making his third consecutive appearance in the TOUR Championship, finishing No. 5 in 2019-20 and No. 22 in 2020-21. Scheffler, who won his first major championship title earlier this season at the Masters Tournament, looks to become the second player to win the Masters and the FedEx Cup in the same season (Jordan Spieth, 2014-15).
If he wins the 2022 FedEx Cup, Rory McIlroy would become the first player to win the FedEx Cup three times. When McIlroy won his second title in 2019, he joined Tiger Woods as the only two players to win the season-long race twice.
Xander Schauffele, who enters the weekend at No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings, has advanced to the TOUR Championship in all six seasons on the Tour. Schauffele won the TOUR Championship as a rookie and has finished in the top 10 in all five starts, tied with Justin Thomas for the longest active streak on Tour.
Sam Burns is making his second consecutive appearance at the TOUR Championship, finishing 18th in 2021. Burns is one of four players who has three or more victories this season, collecting titles at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Valspar Championship and Charles Schwab Challenge (others with 3+ victories: Scottie Scheffler/4, Cameron Smith/3, Xander Schauffele/3).
Cameron Smith has three wins this season, including THE PLAYERS Championship and The Open Championship. Smith withdrew prior to the start of last week’s BMW Championship and fell from No. 3 to No. 5 in the FedEx Cup standings. With a win, Smith would become the second player to win THE PLAYERS Championship and the FedEx Cup in the same season, joining McIlroy (2018-19), and the first to win The Open and the FedEx Cup in the same season.
Scott Stallings finished runner-up at last week’s BMW Championship to move to No. 12 in the FedEx Cup standings and qualify for the TOUR Championship for the first time in his 12-year PGA TOUR career. Stallings has a career-high seven Top-10s this season (five in last nine starts).
J.T. Poston is making his first start in the TOUR Championship. Poston was No. 112 in the FedEx Cup standings after the U.S. Open and earned a runner-up (Travelers Championship) and a win (John Deere Classic) the following two weeks, becoming the only player outside the Top 75 after the U.S. Open to qualify for the TOUR Championship.
Will Zalatoris withdrew from the tournament due to a back injury. As a result of his WD, if all 29 players finish 72 holes, Zalatoris will finish 30th in the FedEx Cup, receiving $500,000 in FedExCup bonus money.
Starting Strokes for the remaining 29 players are unaffected.
The Way They’ll Start at TOUR Championship
- Scottie Scheffler -10
- Patrick Cantlay -8
- Xander Schauffele -6
- Sam Burns -5
- Cameron Smith -4
- Rory McIlroy -4
- Tony Finau -4
- Sepp Straka -4
- Sungjae Im -4
- Jon Rahm -3
- Scott Stallings -3
- Justin Thomas -3
- Cameron Young -3
- Matt Fitzpatrick -3
- Max Homa -2
- Hideki Matsuyama -2
- Jordan Spieth -2
- Joaquin Niemann -2
- Viktor Hovland -2
- Collin Morikawa -1
- Billy Horschel -1
- Tom Hoge -1
- Corey Conners -1
- Brian Harman -1
- K.H. Lee Even
- J.T. Poston Even
- Sahith Theegala Even
- Adam Scott Even
- Aaron Wise Even