PGA Tour - Golf: All you need to know about the Tour Championship

bet365 News Team Published: Aug 22 2022 17:06

The Tour Championship, the golf tournament that is the climax of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs, takes place at East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia, starting on Thursday.

A total of 30 players will be battling for a first prize of $18m, which was won last year by Patrick Cantlay, who also triumphed at last week’s BMW Championship.

Here is everything you need to know about the Tour Championship.

What:	The Tour Championship
Where:	East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
When:	13:00 Thursday 25th August to Sunday 28th August
How to watch:	Live on Sky Sports Golf & bet 365's Live Golf Tracker
Odds:	Scottie Scheffler 12/5, Patrick Cantlay 4/1, Xander Schauffele 15/2, Will Zalatoris 11/1, Rory McIlroy 12/1

When is the Tour Championship?

The Tour Championship will start at 13:00 on Thursday 25th August and will be played over four rounds, ending on Sunday 28th August.

Where is the Tour Championship?

The Tour Championship will be played at its traditional home of East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

The course has played host to the championship every year since 2004 and was also the venue for the Tour Championship in 1998, 2000 and 2002.

It is a 7,346-yard par 70 with the sixth and the 18th holes the only par fives on the course. There are four par threes.

Who has won the Tour Championship on the most occasions?

The only two players to have won the Tour Championship more than once are Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Apart from McIlroy, the only two other non-American winners of the tournament have been Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Colombia’s Camillo Villegas.

Since 2019, a handicap system has been introduced which means the winner of the Tour Championship will also be considered the FedEx Cup champion and will win the first prize which in 2022 is $18 million.

How do players qualify to play in the Tour Championship?

Members of the PGA Tour compete for FedEx Cup points during the entire season, which starts each year in September. More points are available for the more prestigious tournaments with the aim to be in the top 125 of the standings for the first event of the playoffs.

This is the FedEx St Jude Championship which takes place at the beginning of August and the top 70 in the rankings after that event progress through to the BMW Championship.

The figure is then whittled down to the 30 players who will compete at East Lake.

What is the scoring system that will be in operation at the Tour Championship?

Since 2019, there has been a handicap system in operation at the Tour Championship so the winner will also claim the FedEx Cup and the $18 million first prize.

The player who heads into the tournament as FedEx Cup leader will start on -10 and, this year, that is Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, who has won four times on the PGA Tour in 2022.

Patrick Cantlay, who won the second playoff event, the BMW Championship and is reigning FedEx Cup champion, starts on -8.

Will Zalatoris, who won the FedEx St Jude Championship two weeks ago, will start on -7 despite withdrawing from last week’s tournament with a hip injury.

The further the player is in the rankings, the more shots he will have to make up on Scheffler, so that the players who qualified in positions 25-30 - KH Lee, JT Poston, Sahith Theegala, Adam Scott and Aaron Wise - will start on even par.

Who are the favourites for the Tour Championship?

Not surprisingly, the players with the greatest head start are at the front of the market with leader Scottie Scheffler ranked the 12/5 favourite.

The Masters champion had missed the cut at the FedEx St Jude Championship but he bounced back well by finishing tied for third at the BMW and the Texan will surely fancy his chances of finishing the job.

Patrick Cantlay claimed the BMW Championship for the second successive year and he is unlikely to surrender his FedEx Cup without a fight and he is 4/1 to retain his crown.

Xander Schauffele, who was third at the BMW, has never finished lower than seventh in five visits to East Lake and is 15/2 to push up from four shots off the pace, while Rory McIlroy, who will start six shots back, is 12/1 after finishing in the top ten in seven of his last ten events.