ATLANTA – FedExCup leader Scottie Scheffler will begin Thursday’s opening round of the TOUR Championship with a two-stroke lead over defending champion Patrick Cantlay, who’s coming off a win in last week’s BMW Championship. It’s good to be No. 1 under the unique Starting Strokes format, even though a two-shot lead can disappear in one hole. Xander Schauffele, a three-time winner this season, will start 6 under, four back of Scheffler. Sam Burns, also a three-time winner this season, will begin at 5 under. One of those four will most likely be your next FedExCup champion, but anyone can win, all the way down to No. 29 Aaron Wise, who will start at even, 10 back. Here are Five Things to know before play gets underway at the TOUR Championship. 1. History hangs in the balance Scheffler didn’t have a single PGA TOUR win at the outset of this year. Now he’s got four and is looking to put a bow on a season that’s already been special. With a win this week, he’d be the first player to win the FedExCup with a five-win season since Justin Thomas five years ago. The complicating factors, though, are many. “Yeah, it’s definitely a bit different,” Scheffler said. “I think what’s going to probably work best for me is to look at it like a four-day event and really ignore the Starting Strokes deal and kind of go out there and do my thing and see where it puts me at the end of four days.” Hot on his heels will be Cantlay, 30, who knows what it takes to capture the FedExCup. As the top seed, he went into the TOUR Championship with a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm last year, held that lead all week, and edged Rahm by one to win golf’s ultimate prize. No player, not even Tiger Woods, has successfully defended his FedExCup title. Cantlay chalked that up to bad luck and injuries, and said he feels no special motivation to go back-to-back. That said, he added, “Two is a lot better than just one.” 2. Rory McIlroy could one-up Tiger Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy announced “a new tech-infused golf league” Wednesday, which promises a Monday-night team-golf concept set to begin play in prime time in 2024. No player, not even Woods, has won the FedExCup three times, but his new business partner could get it done this week. McIlroy, who has a lot of good vibes at East Lake, will start the tournament at 4 under par, six behind, but history suggests that might not be too far back. He was five off the lead through 36 holes and won the 2016 TOUR Championship, and (with Starting Strokes) began the tournament five behind when he won it again in 2019. He was nine behind through 36 holes when he won THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT last fall. “I’ve had chances the majority of the times I’ve been here to win the FedExCup,” said McIlroy, who birdied the last three holes to finish T8 at the BMW Championship last weekend. “… I felt like I got my golf game together a little bit better in Wilmington last week and played OK. I need to make a few more putts this week to have a chance.” A victory this week would put a cherry on top of a remarkably consistent season, as McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in nine of 15 starts, including all four majors. 3. The top four are teams of rivals Top-seeded Scheffler regularly rents houses with fourth-seeded Sam Burns. Together they account for seven victories this season, and wound up in a playoff, won by Burns, to decide the Charles Schwab Challenge. They will most likely make up one of the pairings for U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Davis Love III at Quail Hollow next month. Second-seeded Cantlay, meanwhile, is besties with third-seeded Xander Schauffele. They combined to win the two-man Zurich Classic of New Orleans this season, with Schauffele also collecting wins at the Travelers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. Cantlay hadn’t won an individual tournament this season until last week’s BMW. They have already formed a successful duo in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and it was their debut in the 2019 Presidents Cup that strengthened their bond. Schauffele could have helped his friend by making a birdie putt from 7 1/2 feet on the last hole of the BMW. It would have left him alone in third place at 12 under, with Scheffler in solo fourth, one shot behind him. Cantlay would have (barely) become FedExCup No. 1 and taken the two-shot lead entering the TOUR Championship. As it was, Schauffele missed and he and Scheffler tied for third, and the subtle difference gave the Masters champ enough FedExCup points to nudge him past Cantlay heading into East Lake. “A lawyer,” Schauffele said when asked what Cantlay might be good at besides golf. “He’s really good at putting his thought into words, thinking to finality, and he’s very linear.” Thanks to Schauffele’s miss at the BMW, Cantlay will have to make his case for the FedExCup from two behind. 4. Will Zalatoris’ injury changed things It’s been an action-packed last month for Will Zalatoris, who made a caddie change, won the FedEx St. Jude Championship for his first PGA TOUR victory and suffered a back injury. He has two herniated discs and withdrew from the TOUR Championship after missing the BMW. The Zalatoris WD means that only two players are fewer than five back, which may or may not comfort frontrunner Scheffler. It means that the field is now only 29 players who will be sent off as 14 twosomes and a single each day. It also has Presidents Cup implications. At seventh in the Presidents Cup points standings, Zalatoris was all but a lock to be one of the six picks allotted U.S. Captain Davis Love III. It was widely assumed that Love would just pick Nos. 7-12, but now he has a decision to make that could impact anyone from No. 13 Tom Hoge to No. 30 Sahith Theegala, one of two rookies in the field at the TOUR Championship. “I think that there’s so much depth right now,” PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday. “You look at both teams, … I think both captains and both teams recognize that there’s a next-man-up philosophy. They’re prepared for that.” 5. Making the TOUR Championship just got even bigger Players have always made it a goal to reach the TOUR Championship. It sets up the following season, since by making it to East Lake they also punch their tickets to many of the game’s biggest events, including multiple majors. It was announced this week that, effective immediately, players who made it to the TOUR Championship will also get to play in the Sentry Tournament of Champions – historically a winners-only event – and also will receive a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR, through 2024. The new rule will affect eight players at East Lake this week: Theegala, Cameron Young, Aaron Wise, Brian Harman, Scott Stallings, Adam Scott, Corey Conners, and Collin Morikawa. All can now book tickets to Maui. “It’s cool,” said FedExCup No. 29 Wise, who will go off as a single Thursday. “It kind of makes it feel like, even though you didn’t win, you got a win this season with the two-year exemption and trip to Maui.”
Click here to read the full article…
