The Tour Championship: How Scoring Works
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This year marks the first introducing of ‘starting strokes’ for the Tour Championship at East Lake, but how does it work?
There will be a marked difference at the end of this year’s FedEx Cup when whoever wins the Tour Championship is crowned the FedEx Cup Champion.
The Tour Championship will still count as an official PGA Tour victory – and with it comes a five-year Tour exemption and a place in the Sentry Tournament of Champions- but there won’t be different winners of each event.
It means there will be no more calculations needed to figure out who wins the Cup, but instead there will be a clear winner at the end of 72-holes. In the event of a tie, there will be a sudden-death playoff.
FedEx Cup Starting Strokes: How it works
The top 30 players in the standings will all compete for the Tour Championship, and the player who finishes at the top of the leaderboard will be crowned winner of the tournament and the 2019 FedEx Cup Champion.
But it won’t be a regular 72-hole event where players all start on level par: Instead, to recognise players for their regular-season performance, there will be a staggered start to the TOUR Championship with a new scoring system named ‘Starting Strokes.’
Justin Thomas, who won the BMW Championship and currently leads the FedEx Cup, will be given a head start when he begins the tournament at 10-under-par. The next four players in the standings will begin on 8-under, 7-under, 6-under and 5-under.
Beyond that, players in positions 6-10 will start on 4-under, 11-15 will start on 3-under, 16-20 on 2-under, 21-25 on 1-under, and 26-30 on level par.
For example, defending FedEx Cup Champion Justin Rose, who currently sits at 17th in the FedEx Cup standings, will begin the Tour Championship on 2-under-par.
Starting Strokes: FEDEXCUP RANK/PLAYER
Below, find out how each player will start at the beginning of the Tour Championship
-10: Justin Thomas (#1)
-8: Patrick Cantlay (#2)
-7: Brooks Koepka (#3)
-6: Patrick Reed (#4)
-5: Rory McIlroy (#5)
-4: Jon Rahm (#6), Matt Kuchar (#7), Xander Schauffele (#8), Webb Simpson (#9), Abraham Ancer (#10)
-3: Gary Woodland (#11), Tony Finau (#12), Adam Scott (#13), Dustin Johnson (#14), Hideki Matsuyama (#15)
-2: Paul Casey (#16), Justin Rose (#17), Brandt Snedeker (#18), Rickie Fowler (#19), Kevin Kisner (#20)
-1: Marc Leishman (#21), Tommy Fleetwood (#22), Corey Conners (#23), Sungjae Im (#24), Chez Reavie (#25)
E: Bryson DeChambeau (#26), Louis Oosthuizen (#27), Charles Howell III (#28), Lucas Glover (#29), Jason Kokrak (#30)
