Damien Kayat previews the 2023 Tour Championship.
2022/2023 US PGA Tour
FedEx Cup Playoffs
The Tour Championship
East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia
24th-27th August
There I was thinking that Olympic Fields was difficult. Viktor Hovland shot a course-record 61 on Sunday to absolutely ghost past the likes of Scheffler and Fitzpatrick. I have always felt that Hovland needs to make more mid-range putts if he wants to take the next step to Major stardom. He holed virtually everything on Sunday in one of the most devastating performances in recent golfing memory (Bryson aside). I have to admit, I’m starting to feel more positive about Europe’s Ryder Cup prospects. The likes of Hovland and Fitzpatrick are peaking at the right time while perennial challengers such McIlroy and Rahm form the backbone of the side. The tour now moves to the traditional FedEx Cup closer: The Tour Championship.
The season-ending Tour Championship is a staple of the American golfing establishment. Tom Watson won the inaugural staging of this event in 1987 (back when it was known as the Nabisco Championship). It was conceived as a showcase event for the top 30 money earners for the season. But it gradually lost its magic, with the likes of Mickelson and Woods often choosing to skip the old Tour Championship. There wasn’t enough of an incentive for players as they came to the end of an arduous campaign something needed needed to change. The FedEx Cup Playoff series was born in 2007, with vastly improved prizemoney and elevated tension (though the LIV Golf makes the FedEx Cup financial incentives look somewhat quaint). The series originally consisted of four events until the Dell Technologies Championship was done away with.
In 2019- queasy about the notion that the year’s best golfers often never went on to win the FedEx Cup- the tour implemented a new strokes-based system called the FedEx Cup Starting Strokes. It essentially introduced a handicap system whereby the top players from the year will get a distinct advantage. And I’m really all for it. What’s the point of having this celebration of the year’s golfing exploits if the 30th placed guy just romps home to victory? But it does diminish the event as a spectacle to some degree. The 30-man line-up also makes for some pretty laborious home-viewing. In any event, here’s how the golfers will start this week:
Scottie Scheffler (-10)
Viktor Hovland (-8)
Rory McIlroy (-7)
Jon Rahm (-6)
Lucas Glover (-5)
Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick (-4)
Tommy Fleetwood, Russell Henley, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele (-3)
Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Corey Conners, Si Woo Kim (-2)
Taylor Moore, Nick Taylor, Adam Schenk, Collin Morikawa, Jason Day (-1)
Sam Burns, Emiliano Grillo, Tyrell Hatton, Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka (even)
Possibly the 2nd most iconic course in Georgia, East Lake Golf Club is a vintage Donald Ross masterwork. Home course to the legendary Bobby Jones, East Lake is a ball striker’s paradise. But it’s not necessarily one for the huge bombers. Players who thrive here tend to have a nice combination of length and distance (think Xander Schauffele and Dustin Johnson). Players will also need to negotiate these undulating Bermuda greens. One would think that would put an onus on putting. But it actually puts more of an emphasis on a strong approach game. Players need to know how to use these undulations to their advantage and you would do well to look for strong GIR stats.
Rory McIlroy looks primed for a tilt at an astonishing 4th FedEx Cup title. He is on a streak of nine consecutive top 10 finishes and he always seems to peak around East Lake. He will start three shots back of Scottie Scheffler. The American probably thought he had done enough on Sunday to get over the line. How was he to know that Hovland would do what he did? In any event, Scheffler has been a paragon of consistency this season and his ball-striking makes him a great candidate this week. Can Viktor Hovland build on last week’s momentum and win a bit of a backdoor FedEx Cup title? It will also be interesting to see how comeback kid Lucas Glover does this week.
Past FedEx Cup winners
2022: Rory McIlroy
2021: Patrick Cantlay
2020: Dustin Johnson
2019: Rory McIlroy
2018: Justin Rose
2017: Justin Thomas
Betting Favourites (To Win)
Scottie Scheffler (27/20), Rory McIlroy (3/1), Viktor Hovland (7/2), Jon Rahm (7/1), Patrick Cantlay (16/1)
Rickie Fowler- To Win (50/1)
Rickie Fowler may have as good a chance as anyone of potentially overhauling Scheffler. He starts seven shots adrift and he has two previous top 10 finishes at East Lake. At the very least, I think he represents excellent value in the place markets. He currently sits in the top 10 on tour in strokes gained: tee-to-green and strokes gained: approach the green. He has had eight top tens this season. That’s double the amount of top 10’s he has had in the last three seasons combined. He shot a 60 at the Travelers and he has what it takes to go super low.
The Man to Beat- Scottie Scheffler- To Win (27/20)
It would only be fitting if supreme ball-striker Scottie Scheffler wins this year’s FedEx Cup. He has been a bastion of consistency, picking up his 12th top five of the season at last week’s BMW Championship. And it was once again the putter that let Scheffler down. He gained an incredible 13 strokes on the field for ball-striking. And East Lake is a course that really rewards ball-striking and perhaps deemphasizes putting to some degree.
