The PGA Tour season will draw to a close this week when the 2020 FedEx Champion is crowned at the Tour Championship – but keep in mind the format took on a new shape last year.
The top-30 players in the FedEx Cup standings have qualified for the event, which tees off on Friday at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta, Georgia, with each player allocated strokes based on their current ranking on the FedEx Cup list.
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The higher the player’s placement out of the 30 contenders, the more strokes he is awarded before play gets under way. For example: Dustin Johnson, who sits atop the FedEx Cup standings, will start the first round already on 10 under par, while second-placed Jon Rahm will start on eight under.
Players ranked third to fifth will begin on seven under, six under and five under, respectively, with rankings six to 10 all allocated to four under.
Ultimately, the idea – first introduced last year much to the confusion of many spectators and players – is to give players who have consistently performed well over the course of the season an advantage to be rewarded for a high-placed finish come Monday. This comes instead of an all-square format for the final event despite the efforts of the long year.
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This means that whoever wins the Tour Championship on Monday will subsequently be crowned winner of the 2020 FedEx Cup.
Current FedEx Cup standings:
1 – Dustin Johnson (-10)
2 – Jon Rahm (-8)
3 – Justin Thomas (-7)
4 – Webb Simpson (-6)
5 – Collin Morikawa (-5)
T6 – Daniel Berger (-4)
T6 – Harris English (-4)
T6 – Bryson DeChambeau (-4)
T6 – Sungjae Im (-4)
T6 – Hideki Matsuyama (-4)
T11 – Brendon Todd (-3)
T11 – Rory McIlroy (-3)
T11 – Patrick Reed (-3)
T11 – Xander Schauffele (-3)
T11 – Sebastián Muñoz (-3)
T16 – Lanto Griffin (-2)
T16 – Scottie Scheffler (-2)
T16 – Joaquin Niemann (-2)
T16 – Tyrrell Hatton (-2)
T16 – Tony Finau (-2)
T21 – Kevin Kisner (-1)
T21 – Abraham Ancer (-1)
T21 – Ryan Palmer (-1)
T21 – Kevin Na (-1)
T21 – Marc Leishman (-1)
T26 – Cameron Smith (par)
T26 – Viktor Hovland (par)
T26 – Mackenzie Hughes (par)
T26 – Cameron Champ (par)
T26 – Billy Horschel (par).
