This week’s Tour Championship will crown the winner of the 2020 FedEx Cup as the PGA Tour season draws to a dramatic close at East Lake Golf Club. ANDRE HUISAMEN picks three players to feast your eyes on.
With each of the 30 players allocated strokes, based on their current FedEx Cup ranking, it promises be an enthralling finish to an unprecedented season on Tour.
What might seem as an unfair benefit to many people is actually an exceptionally staggered leaderboard, which has rewarded players for their efforts across the course of the season.
WATCH: Relive: Tiger’s heroic comeback at East Lake
For those who still don’t understand how this format works, here’s how. Ultimately, the player who wins the Tour Championship on Monday will subsequently be crowned FedEx Cup champion for the year.
Dustin Johnson
It took DJ a while to get going this year and the long Covid-19 break in the season certainly had him return with a new sense of determination. Victory at the Travelers Championship in June was followed by a second-place finish at the PGA Championship last month. DJ, though, has been firing on all cylinders since 2020’s first Major by winning the first FedEx Cup playoff event at The Northern Trust with a record-breaking score. That propelled him to the top of the world and FedEx Cup rankings, where he has been based with even more grit after securing second spot at last week’s BMW Championship.
Starting the Tour Championship on 10 under par – and already atop the leaderboard – means DJ is the ultimate favourite to claim his maiden FedEx Cup title. At 8/5 odds he is probably not the best financial pick, but those odds certainly prove how good he’s been leading up to Friday.
Webb Simpson
Simpson can genuinely be seen as a real threat to the top three – DJ, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas – due to a touch of unpredictability. Currently fourth in the FedEx Cup standings, Simpson will begin the week on six under with decent odds of 11/1 to come out on top on Monday. The 2012 US Open champion might have been firing hot and cold in recent events, but he has proven to be consistent at East Lake in the past and could be a real dark horse throughout the week.
READ: Reminder: How the Tour Champs works
Justin Thomas
JT’s FedEx Cup record will always count in his favour, but he is another player who could rise to the occasion at the Tour Championship. Thomas seems like the typical competitor who waits until the very last moment to make his charge and I think Johnson could very well be more concerned about him than second-placed Rahm. Respective finishes of T49 and T25 so far in the FedEx Cup playoffs don’t boast an attracting outlook, but one simply can’t rule out a late curveball in this strange season. Thomas has odds of 11/2 ahead of play on Friday.
All odds are based on William Hill plc.
