The top 30 golfers on the FedEx Cup points list are headed to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta this week.

All things considered, it will be difficult to produce a better show than what we saw at last week’s BMW Championship.

One week after lapping the field in Boston by 11 strokes at the Northern Trust, Dustin Johnson very nearly went back-to-back with another impressive performance at Olympia Fields Country Club.

D.J. drained a lengthy birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Jon Rahm.

However, the fiery Spaniard returned the favour with an absolutely incredible 66-foot birdie putt to take home the title.

Rahm won at +1000 odds – the second choice on the board for that event.

Now he gets an opportunity to compete for the prestigious FedEx Cup and the $15 million price that goes with it.

There’s just one Canadian who made the field.

Mackenzie Hughes punched his ticket on the last putt at the BMW.

The 29-year-old is a +40000 long shot to win outright this week, as he starts 10 strokes behind Johnson, the world’s top-ranked golfer.

Here is our first look at the field for the Tour Championship, which begins on Friday and wraps up on Labour Day.

Betting Odds To Win The Tour Championship – Top-15

Dustin Johnson +200

Jon Rahm +300

Justin Thomas +600

Webb Simpson +1200

Rory McIlroy +2000

Collin Morikawa +2000

Bryson DeChambeau +2200

Xander Schauffele +2500

Hideki Matsuyama +2800

Daniel Berger +2800

Tony Finau +5000

Harris English +5000

Patrick Reed +6600

Brendon Todd +6600

Sungjae Im +8000

 

Pre-tournament positions already determined

Before immediately running out and wagering on golfers with bloated odds, consider the FedEx Cup format for the Tour Championship.

The top players will begin the final tournament ahead of the players who barely squeaked into East Lake.

That means D.J. is two strokes up on Rahm, who’s currently in second.

The sliding scale goes down from there so those who finished in the 26-to-30th positions are a full 10 shots back of the lead.

 

Tour Championship Starting Positions

Dustin Johnson -10

Jon Rahm -8

Justin Thomas -7

Webb Simpson -6

Collin Morikawa -5

D. Berger/H. English/B. DeChambeau, S. Im, H. Matsuyama -4

B. Todd/R. McIlroy/P. Reed/X. Schauffele/S. Munoz -3

L. Griffin/S. Scheffler/J. Niemann/T. Hatton/T. Finau -2

K. Kisner/A. Ancer/R. Palmer/K. Na/M. Leishman -1

C. Smith/V. Hovland/M. Hughes/C. Champ/B. Horschel

 

Johnson Searching for elusive FedEx Cup title

Back in 2016, Johnson had one hand on his maiden FedEx Cup title, only to have it snatched away by Rory McIlroy.

This year marks his best shot to get it done since then, coming off a victory and a playoff loss.

D.J. has played dominant golf and will benefit from a head start, which makes him an obvious choice as the betting favourite for this tournament.

In the last two tournaments alone, Johnson has gained an insane 26 shots over the field tee-to-green.

He’s also posted five-career top-10 results at this venue.

At +200, you’re not getting much value betting on Johnson.

However, sometimes you just have to ride the favourite when it looks as though everything will line up for him.

 

McIlroy searching for record third FedEx Cup title

Despite not posting a top-10 finish in eight starts since golf returned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s hard to ignore Rory this week, even despite the fact that he will start seven strokes behind.

He’s one of only two golfers to win the FedEx Cup twice (Tiger Woods).

He accomplished that feat in 2016 and then again in 2019.

Last year, McIlroy showed that closing the gap at East Lake was no problem at all.

He erased a five-shot deficit to begin the week en route to victory.

McIlroy showed signs of life last week, contending into the weekend at the BMW before settling for a tie for 12th place.

At +2000 odds to win outright, you’re getting some value on a player who’s proven he can get it done in the season finale.

He’s also third in scoring average in both the first and second rounds on the campaign, which could help him bridge the gap quickly.

McIlroy is expecting his first child, which he has said would force him to withdraw.

However, he’s worth a long look at decent odds if he does in fact compete as planned.

 

Past Five Winners at the Tour Championship

2019: Rory McIlroy -18

2018: Tiger Woods -11

2017: Xander Schauffele -12

2016: Rory McIlroy -12

2015: Jordan Spieth -9

 

FORE YOUR INFORMATION

Horse For This Course

Xander Schauffele +2500

Xander Schauffele has played the Tour Championship three times in his career with tremendous results.

He won the event as a rookie in 2017.

Then in 2018, he wound up in a tie for seventh.

Schauffele followed that up with a runner-up result last year.

In 12 career rounds at East Lake, he's shot par or better every time.

He's coming here with seven straight top-25 finishes.

While he will start seven shots back, Schauffele needs to be on your radar this week.

 

Trending Down

Patrick Reed +6600

Usually a big game hunter, Patrick Reed has struggled in the first two playoff events.

He's had a pair of middling results – T-49th and T-40th.

Reed has lost strokes to the field approaching the green both weeks.

He hasn't had a strong track record here either, with last year being his only top-10 in five appearances.

However, this is exactly the type of stage that Reed is known to thrive on.

Starting seven strokes back, you can do a whole lot worse than Reed at +6600 odds to win outright.

That's just juicy enough to strongly consider sprinkling some money on the 2018 Masters champ.

*All Betting Information appears as listed by Bodog on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020