ATLANTA — Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025
There is something fitting about the PGA TOUR ending its season at East Lake.
The course has history. Atlanta has the golf fans. And this year, the TOUR has given us a format that should make the final week of the season pretty easy to understand:
Thirty players. Four rounds. Everybody starts at even par. Lowest score wins the TOUR Championship and the FedExCup.
No starting strokes. No complicated math. Just golf.
And standing at the front of the field is the guy who has spent most of the last two years making winning look almost routine.
Scottie Scheffler.
Scottie Is Still the Guy
Scheffler enters East Lake as the No. 1 player in the FedExCup standings for the fourth consecutive year, and he arrives after winning the BMW Championship last week for his fifth victory of 2025.
That is an absurd number.
He also won the PGA Championship and The Open Championship this season, becoming the first player since Tiger Woods in 2006-07 to win at least five times in consecutive seasons. He also enters the week as the defending TOUR Championship and FedExCup champion.
But here’s the fun part: none of that gives him a single stroke at East Lake.
For the first time since the Starting Strokes format was introduced, Scheffler doesn’t get to begin at 10-under because he finished No. 1.
He starts at even par, just like the other 29 players.
That makes this a fascinating test of just how good Scottie really is.
He’s been the best player in the world. He’s been the most consistent player in the field. And now he has to go beat everybody straight up.
The PGA TOUR’s own statistical breakdown called this version of Scheffler the most complete we’ve seen, particularly with his off-the-tee and approach play. His putting has also taken a major step forward, with Scheffler entering East Lake ranked 16th on TOUR in putting — a career-best mark.
Basically, if you’re looking for a reason not to pick Scottie, you may want to start getting creative.
But Don’t Sleep on Fleetwood
If there is one guy entering East Lake who feels way too close to finally breaking through, it’s Tommy Fleetwood.
Fleetwood finished third at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and fourth at the BMW Championship. He has six top-10 finishes in his last 11 starts, with five of those coming in fourth place or better.
And yet, somehow, Fleetwood still hasn’t won a PGA TOUR event.
He’s been runner-up six times.
He’s been around the biggest stages in golf.
He finished second at the U.S. Open and has been a Ryder Cup standout.
Now he gets East Lake with the biggest prize of his career sitting on the table.
The guy is beyond due.
If Fleetwood finally breaks through this week, there may not be a more satisfying golf story in Atlanta.
Ben Griffin Has Earned This Moment
Then there’s Ben Griffin, one of the more interesting names in this 30-man field.
Griffin is making his TOUR Championship debut, but he isn’t here as some feel-good inclusion.
He earned it.
He finished No. 6 in the FedExCup standings after a breakout season that included two victories, at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and Charles Schwab Challenge, along with eight top-10 finishes. He also finished inside the top 10 at the U.S. Open.
And his recent form is worth watching.
Griffin finished T9 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and T12 at the BMW Championship, giving him back-to-back solid playoff finishes heading into Atlanta.
This is his first East Lake experience.
Sometimes those are the guys who make things interesting.
And Never Count Out Rory or JT
You know better than to write Rory McIlroy off at East Lake.
McIlroy has nine top-10 finishes in 11 career starts in Atlanta and has won the FedExCup three times, more than anyone in PGA TOUR history. He finished T12 at the BMW Championship and will try to become the first four-time FedExCup champion. This is also his eighth consecutive TOUR Championship appearance.
That’s not a bad résumé at one golf course.
Then there’s Justin Thomas.
Thomas isn’t coming into the week with the same headlines as Scheffler or McIlroy, but that might make him more dangerous. He won the RBC Heritage earlier this year for his first TOUR victory since 2022 and finished the regular season with seven top-10s. He also has a remarkable history at East Lake: in his first seven TOUR Championship appearances, he finished T7 or better every time.
So, yeah.
Don’t count JT out.
East Lake Has a New Feel
The other major storyline is the tournament itself.
This is the first TOUR Championship without Starting Strokes. The top 30 in the FedExCup standings earned their way here, but once they arrived, everyone went back to zero.
The winner gets the FedExCup, the TOUR Championship title, a $10 million prize and a five-year PGA TOUR exemption.
And that makes Thursday feel different.
There is no need to explain the leaderboard.
The guy at the top is actually leading.
The guy five shots back is actually five shots back.
Simple golf.
The course itself is ready for it. East Lake is a par 70 measuring 7,490 yards, with the 14th hole returning to a par 4 after playing as a par 5 last year. The course underwent a major renovation led by Andrew Green, while its history stretches back to Bobby Jones and the original Tom Bendelow design, with Donald Ross and Rees Jones also leaving their fingerprints on the property.
Thirty Players. One Week.
That’s what makes Wednesday at East Lake so fun.
There are no bad players here.
There are seven TOUR Championship debutants, including Griffin, Maverick McNealy, Andrew Novak, Harry Hall, Jacob Bridgeman and Chris Gotterup. There are six former FedExCup champions. There is the No. 1 player in the world. There is the three-time FedExCup champion. There are major champions, Ryder Cup stars and guys looking to make the biggest statement of their careers.
And then there’s Fleetwood, still chasing that first TOUR victory.
That’s a pretty damn good field.
The majors will always be the majors. Nothing is changing that.
But the TOUR Championship has the opportunity to be its own spectacle — the big, expensive, high-stakes finale that sends the PGA TOUR season into the history books before golf moves toward its next chapter.
And now, for the first time, the format lets the golf tell us who deserves to write that final chapter.
Thursday can’t get here soon enough.
Welcome to East Lake.
