DUBLIN, Ohio — The PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship is not only making changes to the format but also to how players are compensated.
The details have not been worked out yet, but there will be some sort of new distribution of FedEx Cup bonus money—which totaled $100 million last year and was paid out to players as additional funds not considered official earnings.
With the Tour Championship now giving all 30 players an equal chance to win the FedEx Cup, the bonus money will in some way be spread more to reward players for their standing following either the regular season conclusion at the Wyndham Championship or at the BMW Championship, the FedEx Cup playoff event that precedes the Tour Championship.
“I think the way the finances are going to be is more leaning towards the reward for a great regular season and some payouts that way, versus just your performance at the Tour Championship,” said Scottie Scheffler, who won the Tour Championship last year and a $25 million bonus, after his pro-am round Wednesday at the Memorial Tournament. “Because as players that’s not why we compete. I don’t compete for the financial benefit at the end, I care much more about winning the Tour Championship than I do winning the money for the Tour Championship.
“Look, I want to win the FedEx Cup because it’s the race over the course of the whole season, you have to play great golf to finish in the top 30 for the entire season, and you got to show up at the right time and play great golf.”
And yet, that’s why there will be some sort of modification. It was Scheffler who last year lamented the Tour Championship format, as he could lead the FedEx Cup standings all year, suffer an injury or a bad week, and plummet down the list at East Lake in Atlanta, where the top 30 players will compete.
With no separate FedEx bonus pool and no “starting strokes” format to give an advantage to the leaders, it makes sense that the Tour Championship might have a “regular” purse with bonus money to be dispersed elsewhere.
“I think the focus for us at this point has been announcing the changes that we’re making to the format itself, and that there will be changes on that [money] front, the changes which we will get to you,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
The changes to the format seem well received. Players mostly were not happy with the starting strokes formula that was put in place in 2019. Xander Schauffele twice shot the low 72-hole score for the week and didn’t get a trophy. Collin Morikawa did that last year but Scheffler—who started the competition two strokes ahead of the field due to the starting strokes format—won the tournament and thus the FedEx Cup.
“It seems to be more aligned with sort of how other playoffs work,” Schauffele said. “And now East Lake and winning the Tour Championship, I think, it’s the same thing. Everyone is trying to hoist that trophy and that part hasn’t changed at all. It’s just the way we’re going to go about it is a little bit different, and I think it will be easier to follow for fans now that everyone is starting at level.
“And, shoot, if you make it in as 30th—I made it in as 27th before, you really have a nice look at trying to win this thing.”
Shifting the bonus money has another benefit—returning the focus to winning the event as opposed to the huge bonus amount.
When the concept was introduced in 2007, Tiger Woods won the first FedEx Cup and a $10 million bonus, a huge sum for the time when the winner’s share of a purse was around $1 million. The bonus figure increased at various times to where it was $25 million last year. But the drop off to second place, $7.5 million, was significant.
“I have hated for a while how so much of it is tied into the money, and I mean that for on the fans side,” Max Homa said. “I just don’t know why you would care. So, to make it about the competition and to make it about winning something and not cultivating it to like make sure that the guy who had the best year is going to probably win ... it never made a lot of sense.
“I’m a fan of so many other sports, and I know we’re not exactly like them, but the story lines that come with the Warriors losing after having the best season of all time, the history of the Patriots losing to the Giants after being undefeated—like those are things that we hold on to. And it’s not to take away from their season, it’s you just got to keep earning it."
This article was originally published on www.si.com as PGA Tour Stars Approve of Tour Championship Changes (And Its Payouts).
