Scottie Scheffler bids to turn great regular season into FedExCup title
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Scottie Scheffler on the 12th fairway during a practice round for the 2024 Tour Championship.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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ATLANTA – There is nothing Scottie Scheffler can do about the Tour Championship’s format, at least not for this year.
For all the times he has been asked if he thinks the season finale’s “staggered scoring start” is a fair method to help decide the FedExCup winner, he has remained consistent in his response.
“It may be imperfect, but it shouldn’t matter if you’re playing your best at the end of the season,” he says.
The American will be gunning for his first FedExCup title this week in Atlanta, where he begins the Tour Championship with at least a two-stroke advantage on the field.
“At the end of the day, if you play good-enough golf, it will take care of itself,” he said on Aug 27.
Many have questioned if just a two-shot head start fully rewards a player who had the kind of season Scheffler had.
The world No. 1 won six tournaments, including the Masters and the Players Championship, and added an Olympic gold medal for good measure, though that is not a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
Scheffler starts at 10 under on Aug 29 and Xander Schauffele at eight under, even though the former garnered more than 1,000 FedExCup points than his second-ranked rival. Since the format changed in 2019, nobody who started the Tour Championship atop the leaderboard went on to win the Cup.
But Scheffler, a Texas native, drew parallels to how play-offs work in other American sports.
“It’s like the (Dallas) Cowboys have had great regular seasons the last few years and left me heartbroken in the play-offs,” he said. “But golf is a different sport. I’m not sitting here saying I have the crystal ball and I know what’s best.
“Golden State Warriors, best regular season ever and they lose in the Finals. It happens.”
Scheffler was also asked if he would be on board if one of the PGA Tour’s new sponsors from the Strategic Sports Group offered a radical idea to change the play-off format.
“Golf is a funny game,” he added.
“There’s no perfect system in order to play a golf tournament. A lot of times the guy that plays the best may not even win that week. It’s a challenging sport. I’m open to suggestions. I still think 72 holes of strokeplay is the best format for a golf tournament, but if a sponsor wants to come in and change it up a little bit, I love competing.”
The 28-year-old tied for 33rd at the BMW Championship, just his second finish outside the top 10 since January. REUTERS
