After last year's defeat, Scheffler in driver's seat again at TOUR Championship
Published
The culmination of the FedEx Cup Playoffs arrives with the Tour Championship from East Lake in Atlanta this week, where Scottie Scheffler opens the tournament with a lead at 10-under.
Scheffler will be looking exorcise demons, having failed to capitalize on his advantage at the tournament last year.
The field at the Tour Championship, comprised of the top 30 golfers by FedEx Cup points, opens play with free strokes given based on their performance through the FedEx Cup playoffs in the month of August.
Other competitors near the top of the leaderboard include Viktor Hovland at 8-under, Rory McIlroy at 7-under and Masters winner Jon Rahm at 6-under.
Scheffler also opened at 10-under last year, but was ultimately caught and passed by McIlroy, who made up six strokes over the weekend and eventually edged Scheffler and Sungjae Im to win by a stroke at 21-under.
Amidst an impressive rally for McIlroy, Scheffler did himself few favours with a 73 on the Sunday and tied the PGA Tour record by losing a six-shot lead in the final round.
"I wanted to win the season-long title,'' Scheffler said after his closing round. "I've had a really great year and I wanted to finish it off with a win here, and unfortunately I wasn't able to do that.''
McIlroy, who opens this year in the third spot, is a three-time winner at the event. He has a chance to become the winningest golfer at the Tour Championship, as his three championships are currently tied with Tiger Woods for the most in tournament history.
Other former winners playing in this year's tournament include Patrick Cantlay (2021, opening at 4-under on Thursday), Xander Schauffele (2017, opening at 3-under) and Jordan Spieth (2015, opening at even par).
Two Canadians are in contention, with Corey Conners starting play at 2-under and Nick Taylor opening at 1-under.
Conners and Taylor open play eight- and nine-strokes back, respectively, so they will have to dig out of a deep hole to put themselves in contention. Only one Canadian was won in tournament history: Mike Weir, back in 2001.
The winner of the tournament pockets $18 million and earns a five-year exemption.