The Tour Championship, which ends golf's season, may be played in a bracket format that includes stroke play and match play, a source confirmed to ESPN on Friday, as the PGA Tour considers revamping its playoff format.
Tweaking the Tour Championship format is one of a handful of potential changes being considered, sources said, adding that “everything is being considered.”
Any changes will ultimately require approval from the PGA Tour Board of Directors.
“I want to see something exciting for the players and the fans,” said Patrick Cantlay, one of the six players on the board. “There has been some discussion around this issue, but nothing definitive.”
The Tour Championship is the final event of the three-tournament FedExCup Playoffs, with 30 players advancing to compete for the $25 million year-end top prize that Scottie Scheffler will win in 2024.
Under the current format, players at the top of the FedEx Cup standings enter the Tour Championship with a points advantage. While it might only be two strokes ahead of the second-place golfer for the top-ranked golfer, Scheffler questioned the “silliness” of the format in August.
“You can't call it a season-long game and boil it down to a tournament,” Scheffler said. “Suppose, we get to East Lake and my neck suddenly gets inflamed and it doesn't heal like it did in The Players Tournament. I finish 30th in the FedExCup because I had to withdraw from the last game? This is really the whole season. “No, that's it. “
Rory McIlroy, on the other hand, said last season that he liked the status quo, although he admitted it might not be the best way to determine the best golfer in a season.
“I like this format because if it wasn't for this format, then we wouldn't have had a chance against Scottie because he was so far ahead,” McIlroy said. “So I really like that format.”
Any changes could begin as early as the 2025 season. The Tour Championship is scheduled for August 21-24 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
The Athletic first reported potential changes to the Tour Championship, with sources calling them “advanced discussions.”
Adam Scott, who is also on board, urged caution about what he called a “traditional” event, which he considered the Tour Championship. In 2006, he won the title in the first week of November. The FedEx Cup begins the following year. He said the Tour Championship has “kind of gotten lost” due to its many iterations since 2007.
Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley has described the current format as “clumsy”. The idea of some form of head-to-head competition caught his attention.
“I think it's definitely interesting because the pressure you feel at the Tour Championship … if you're going to win the FedEx Cup and win no matter how much money it is, that's real pressure,” Bradley said . “So it’s cool to see two guys go out and compete.”
Tony Finau said he felt a head-to-head match was inappropriate because the impact on the outcome was so significant.
“Putting all your chips on match play, I think it's the wrong move,” he said. “We played so much stroke play, we didn't even have a match play event. I knew it would probably create more drama, maybe head-to-head. As a player, I don't know what that would be like no matter the format, You'll all make a lot of money in the end.
ESPN's Mark Schlabach, The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.
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