The PGA Tour season which began in January in Kapalua ends this week in Atlanta.
The Tour Championship is again the finale for the three-tournament FedEx Cup playoffs, where the field has been whittled from 70 to 50 to 30. A $100 million prize pool is at stake this week with a whopping $25 million to the winner. Pro golf is overflowing with cash these days but that’s still a number that will get the attention of the world’s best.
Scottie Scheffler comes in at the top of the points list and will start at -10 in the “starting strokes” format—and if that sounds familiar, it is. Scheffler has come in as the points leader three years in a row, but the last two times he failed to bring home the big prize as Rory McIlroy grabbed it in 2022 (his third FedEx Cup) and Viktor Hovland won last year. Both are in the field again this year, as are past FedEx Cup champions Patrick Cantlay (2021), Xander Schauffele (2017) and Billy Horschel (2014).
Xander Schauffele, who has had the low gross score outright or tied in two of the last four years (meaning best score regardless of starting strokes), will begin the week two behind Scheffler. Hideki Matsuyama, the winner of the first playoff event at the FedEx St. Jude, is three back and Keegan Bradley—the Cinderella story who barely made it to the BMW Championship then won it—is four back. The farthest-back players will be at even and need to make up a lot of ground to contend for the title.
East Lake Golf Club, the oldest course in Atlanta and where Bobby Jones learned how to play, has hosted the Tour Championship annually since 2004. The course underwent a significant restoration and will look a bit different on screens this year, especially with the removal of many trees. The course is now a par-71 instead of 70 (the downhill 14th hole will now be a par-5) and playing slightly longer at 7,490 yards.
Tour Championship full field
30 players
Åberg, Ludvig
An, Byeong Hun
Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
Bhatia, Akshay
Bradley, Keegan
Burns, Sam
Cantlay, Patrick
Clark, Wyndham
Finau, Tony
Fleetwood, Tommy
Henley, Russell
Hoge, Tom
Horschel, Billy
Hovland, Viktor
Im, Sungjae
Kirk, Chris
Lowry, Shane
MacIntyre, Robert
Matsuyama, Hideki
McIlroy, Rory
Morikawa, Collin
Pavon, Matthieu
Pendrith, Taylor
Rai, Aaron
Schauffele, Xander
Scheffler, Scottie
Scott, Adam
Straka, Sepp
Theegala, Sahith
Thomas, Justin
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 2024 Tour Championship Full Field: Top 30 Battle for the FedEx Cup and Big Bucks.