Dramatic changes ahead for Tour Championship in 2019
The Tour Championship will undergo some substantial changes for the 2019 season, starting with this: the FedEx Cup leader coming into the tournament will get a stroke advantage before even teeing off.
The idea behind the change is to ensure that the winner of the Tour Championship also wins the overall FedEx Cup, removing the whole “ahead on points” strangeness and, theoretically, making the entire process much more understandable for the casual fan.
Here’s how it shakes out: the leader coming into the Tour Championship will get a 10-stroke bonus, starting the tournament at -10. The lowest-ranked of the 30 players will get no advantage. In sum, by place, here’s how each player will start the Tour Championship:
1st : -10
2nd: -8
3rd: -7
4th: -6
5th: -5
6th to 10th: -4
11th to 15th: -3
16th to 20th: -2
21st to 25th: -1
26th to 30th: E
And from there on out, it’s on. Winner of the tournament wins the whole deal, including a newly jacked-up $15 million prize. The total prize pool will be an astounding $60 million. (The PGA Tour estimates that players will be competing for $500 million in prize money, and that the FedEx Cup winner will take in about $28 million. Learn to play golf, kids.)
To keep players interested through the regular season, the Tour is also rolling out the “$10 million Wyndham Rewards Top 10,” with the regular-season winner getting $2 million and the 10th-place finisher getting $500,000.
The Tour Championship tees off Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, with Bryson DeChambeau leading the field … but, unfortunately for him, not with a 10-stroke lead.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
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