The 2025 FedEx Cup Playoffs concluded on Sunday evening with Tommy Fleetwood winning the Tour Championship.
Fleetwood finally achieved his first PGA Tour victory by holding off Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley at East Lake.
While it was an exciting tournament, some people believe it’s unfair that Scottie Scheffler did not win the FedEx Cup after his remarkable year.
Golf expert Ryan Lavner has now suggested a significant change to the Tour Championship format to PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp.
Ryan Lavner tells Brian Rolapp to change the Tour Championship
The end-of-season playoffs are supposed to reflect what has happened throughout the year, like the postseason in the NFL or NBA.
However, the PGA Tour’s current problem is that the playoffs consist of three standalone events, where the best players do not receive an advantage.
This enabled in-form players, such as Chris Gotterup and Akshay Bhatia, to challenge Scheffler and Rory McIlroy for the title, despite playing inferior golf for most of the season.
Lavner’s solution is for the Tour Championship field to be reduced from 30 players to 15 or 16 to help prevent a surprise winner.
He explained: “When I look at the Tour Championship and what you can potentially do to whittle down the possibilities of what you can get…
“This is nothing against Tommy Fleetwood. He would have been in the Tour Championship format regardless of how this is going to play out, potentially lessening the field.
“But an Akshay Bhatia or Chris Gotterup crashing the party, or a Corey Conners, who tied for fourth at East Lake, crashing the party…
“If you’re looking at what you can do to potentially give Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy, players who defined the 2025 PGA Tour season, a better chance of winning the FedEx Cup, it has to begin and end with shortening the Tour Championship field even more.
“I don’t know what the right number is. 16 seems like a pretty good number, but maybe 15 as well. That has to be something the PGA Tour will look into.”
Ryan Lavner wants Pebble Beach to host the Tour Championship
Lavner also posed another interesting idea to Rolapp for next season’s Tour Championship: a venue change.
He thinks that East Lake is not “special” enough to host such an important event and should be replaced with Pebble Beach.
“We cannot have East Lake in Atlanta as the Tour Championship site anymore,” he continued. “I think it has run its course, but I have a solution. This is no dig at our friends at East Lake. I love Atlanta. I’m a Georgia guy. That’s not where I’m going here.
“However, I think it’s a strong PGA Tour venue, but it’s not a particularly inspiring course. It doesn’t feel special. It doesn’t feel grand for what should be a really big event – the PGA Tour Super Bowl, as they have been calling it since the FedEx Cup’s inception in 2007.
“So, I would move the PGA Tour season finale to Pebble Beach, and what I would do with East Lake is move it to two weeks before The Masters. That should be a signature event with 100 players, and it’s like a pre-Masters tune-up.”
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