How starting strokes would have changed the 2025 Tour Championship with Tommy Fleetwood denied the FedEx Cup title

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One of the big talking points heading into the Tour Championship was the decision to get rid of the starting strokes ahead of this year’s event at East Lake.

The PGA Tour is continuing to work to find the right format for the Tour Championship. Since 2019, the leader in the FedEx Cup had started the playoff finale at 10 under par, while the last handful of players in the field would have begun their week at even par.

The decision was taken to have everyone start at level par for this year’s event. Rory McIlroy admitted he did not mind the starting strokes. However, Scottie Scheffler is one of those who criticised the old format.

Thankfully, the decision seemed to be vindicated with Tommy Fleetwood winning an excellent event in Atlanta to secure his first PGA Tour victory.

How starting strokes would have changed the 2025 Tour Championship leaderboard

But it is interesting to think about what would have happened had the tournament played out in exactly the same manner with the old format in place.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it would not have been Fleetwood who lifted the FedEx Cup. Like Collin Morikawa in 2024, the Englishman would have finished second to Scottie Scheffler despite posting the lowest gross score of the week.

There would have also been a big jump from Patrick Cantlay. Cantlay finished tied for second in reality, while he would have ended up tied for fourth after starting the week on two under par and eight shots off the lead.

Elsewhere, starting strokes may have made the leaderboard slightly easier for Sepp Straka to stomach, with the Austrian ending the week at three over par rather than seven.

All eyes on the PGA Tour to see what they decide next with the Tour Championship

While there are some outliers, the PGA Tour can arguably take a lot of encouragement from how this past week’s tournament did play out.

Many of those who would have been high on the leaderboard under the previous system were in the mix to win on Sunday.

And given that the event delivered such a popular winner, it is going to be very interesting to see how the PGA Tour look to change the Tour Championship from 2026 onwards.

You would think that 2025’s event was good enough to convince those working behind the scenes that there is little need to revert back to using starting strokes.