For six years the Tour Championship was the strangest event in golf: players teed off on Thursday already several shots under par based on where they sat in the FedEx Cup standings. That is over. Since 2025, all 30 players at East Lake begin at even par, and the lowest 72-hole score wins both the tournament and the FedEx Cup.
It is now, in structure, an ordinary golf tournament with an extraordinary prize.
Why the Tour Scrapped Starting Strokes
The staggered start was introduced in 2019 to solve a real problem: before it, the tournament winner and the FedEx Cup champion were frequently different players, and television had to explain two leaderboards at once. Starting strokes fixed that by guaranteeing the winner of the adjusted leaderboard was also the season champion.
It created a different problem. Fans told the Tour through its Fan Forward research that they wanted winning scores closer to par and a format that was simply understood, and players disliked the optics of teeing off already several shots behind. The Player Advisory Council and policy board approved the change, and commissioner Jay Monahan framed it as the first step in reworking the postseason. A bracket-style head-to-head format was considered and set aside.
What It Means in Practice
The competitive effect is that the finale is now genuinely volatile. Under the old system, a No. 1 seed starting at 10 under was very hard to catch, and the 26th through 30th seeds were effectively playing for pride. Now the 30th seed and the top seed tee off level, which means the season-long points leader can arrive at East Lake having dominated for eight months and finish 20th.
That volatility is precisely why the Tour moved the bulk of the bonus money to the BMW Championship — the season-long body of work gets paid there, and East Lake is a four-round shootout for the trophy and a separate bonus. For the money side, see our breakdown of the Tour Championship purse and winner’s share, and for the historical context, every Tour Championship winner by year. Official format details are published by the PGA Tour.
The Bottom Line
Thirty players, 72 holes, no cut, everyone at even par, lowest score wins the tournament and the FedEx Cup. No adjusted leaderboard, no points math afterward. The season-long reward now comes as money at the BMW Championship rather than as a head start in Atlanta — which makes the finale less fair on paper and far more watchable in practice.