Scottie Scheffler has been the best player on the PGA Tour this season by a long way, but he will have no advantage in the race for the FedEx Cup as the best 30 golfers of the year tee it up at East Lake for the Tour Championship this week.
Scheffler has dominated the FedEx Cup standings on the PGA Tour in 2025, with five wins to his name including two major championship victories.
The four-time major champion has gone from strength to strength over the past few years.
And Scheffler has actually admitted himself that he has improved all-round as a player over the past 12 months.
Scheffler’s hunger, determination and dedication to his craft have enabled him to reach the level he is currently at.
He has been truly sensational in 2025. However, all of his wins and top-10 finishes will mean absolutely nothing at East Lake this week, with all 30 players starting from scratch.
When the new Tour Championship format was announced, Scheffler offered his support to the changes.
He said: “At the end of the day you have to perform when it matters the most. I think now with the format we have, we have a great format of a 72-hole golf tournament.
“If I want to win the FedExCup, I have to play well at the last week of the season, and it’s just simple as that.”
Why Scottie Scheffler was left ‘exhausted’ after last year’s Tour Championship
Back in 2024, Scheffler won the Tour Championship by four strokes, although Collin Morikawa actually beat the Texan by two strokes throughout the week.
The handicap system at East Lake wasn’t the most popular format by any means.
Scheffler was asked what it felt like to win the FedEx Cup after being handed a two-shot advantage over Xander Schauffele at the start of the week.
He said: “Yeah, it feels really nice. Like you said, I’ve been leading the points list for a long time, so to come in here with a little lead is nice to play the way I did and be able to finish it off the right way.“
The world number one was then asked if he found it more mentally taxing playing the entire tournament with the lead, and essentially being in a no-win situation whereby everyone expected him to triumph.
Scheffler responded: “I think so. I tried my best to just stay in the present this week, and I feel like I did a really good job of that.
“In terms of the lead, it’s unusual playing this many rounds of a tournament with a lead, especially a seven-shot lead after the first round is something that I will probably never have at any other tournament besides this one.
“So it’s definitely a bit of a different feeling. I feel like sometimes this tournament lasts longer than other tournaments. I don’t know why. But it just — like I’m exhausted right now. There’s really no other way around it. I’m just really, really tired.“
That obviously won’t be the case for Scheffler this year, with all 30 players starting the tournament on the same score.
And nobody will be surprised at all if the 29-year-old ends the season with a win.
Is Tour Championship format fair considering Scottie Scheffler’s dominance?
It is worth noting that Scheffler has already pocketed $23 million in FedEx Cup and Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 bonuses after leading the regular season points race and topping the pile after the BMW Championship.
So he definitely won’t have missed out if he doesn’t manage to win at East Lake this week.
However, it still feels like the PGA Tour need to work on how the Tour Championship operates.
In a season-long race, there quite simply has to be some kind of advantage for the player who is leading heading into the tournament in Atlanta.
Take the NBA and NFL playoffs for instance. Whichever team has the best record throughout the regular season gets home advantage.
Perhaps a matchplay system would be better for FedEx Cup Playoffs. That way, it could be seeded so that the players who finish higher up the standings would theoretically have an advantage, on paper at least.
The Tour Championship is the PGA Tour’s showpiece event and they quite simply must get it right going forward.
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