People still confused by Tour Championship format, says Xander Schauffele

MIAMI – Xander Schauffele has experienced the evolution of the Tour Championship in ways few others can claim.

He made his first Tour Championship as a PGA Tour rookie in 2017, and he went on to win the tournament. Sure, Justin Thomas still wound up as the FedExCup champion for winning the season-long points race, but the American still left with a tidy cheque.

In 2019, the PGA Tour changed the season finale’s format – the top 30 players would still qualify, but their starting scores would be “staggered” from 10 under to even-par based on their points. That way, the Tour Championship winner and the FedExCup champion would be one and the same.

And in 2020, Schauffele was the first player to post the lowest 72-hole score at East Lake Golf Club but not go home as a champion.

He shared his feelings about the format on Tuesday, ahead of this week’s tournament in Atlanta.

“I can happily say I’ve been on both sides of it,” the 29-year-old said. “I’ve never won the whole thing, but I’ve won this event and I was given a trophy and I’ve won it and was not.”

He could not comment on whether the format should be tweaked again, “because I haven’t thought of a way to make it better”.

“I still believe that when I talk to some friends and people, they still feel like a little confused on how it all happens,” he added.

“This is supposed to be like our most important event all year. It kind of comes down to this moment. For people to be like a little bit confused, it’s still not a finished product to me in that sense.”

One thing Schauffele surely does not want changed is the venue.

Since winning on his debut at East Lake, he has two runner-up finishes, a fourth, a fifth and a seventh.

He is a combined 66 under (81 under including staggered starts from 2019 to 2022) in those six years and has never shot a round over par. East Lake will be closed for a large-scale renovation after this Tour Championship in order to be ready for 2024’s edition.

“Man, I’m a big believer in not changing anything that’s already really great,” the world No. 6 said. “When you go to a restaurant and order something that tastes really good, I usually order it over and over and over again.

“So when this course is set up great and the condition it’s in right now, with really fast greens, rough is up, it’s awesome. It’s hard. You have to golf your ball.”

World No. 3 Rahm is also a fan of the course, where he was second to Patrick Cantlay in a dramatic finish in 2021.

He is also tied with Tony Finau and Schauffele for the longest active streak in qualifying for the Tour Championship for the past seven seasons, but has yet to claim that elusive first FedExCup title.

“To be a 100 per cent honest, I’ll gladly give up that streak to be able to say that I have a win out here,” the 28-year-old admitted.

“Obviously, Majors are the most important thing in golf... But there’s a difference to being the FedExCup champion... It feels like it’s more than just one week.

“It’s a culmination of a whole year in these last three weeks in a row. So, it has a little bit of a different special feel to it. I want to be able to say I’m a FedExCup champion.”

Schauffele enters this week’s tournament at three under, in a tie for 11th. He is chasing Scottie Scheffler (10 under), Viktor Hovland of Norway (eight under), Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland (seven under), Spain’s Rahm (six under) and more whom he will have to leapfrog if he wants to win his first FedExCup.

“Nothing to lose. I think a lot of guys who are pretty far back feel that way,” Schauffele said. “So just need to kind of have a really good Thursday, Friday, to position yourself for the weekend.

“If you can kind of get within some sort of touch within two, three shots, it means you played really well the first two rounds and maybe give yourself a chance come the weekend.” REUTERS