Tour Championship: What to Expect

The Course – East Lake Golf Club

Established in 1904, East Lake Golf Club located in Atlanta Georgia, is home to the PGA Tour season finale and Tour Championship. Built just outside the city core, East Lake Golf Club provides 7,346 yards of true test to determine who deserves to walk away with the Fedex Cup Championship. Since 2005 East Lake has acted as the final stop on the tour and with 13/15 different winners of this event over this time we know there is always a chance to see anyone pull off the spectacular. Thirty professionals will enter this weekend with the goal to come out on top.

How It All Goes Down

After three events in the 2020 PGA Fedex Cup Playoffs players have been seeded and scores are now settled. Unlike the original format of points; which led to an array of scenarios that needed to happen to watch your favourite players take home the Fedex Cup. Now it is simply settled by score, the players are ranked, and their starting score is set based on how they finished in points during the first three events (See chart Below). Players need to bring their best this weekend if they intend on winning it all.

Notable Players

Xander Schauffele

Fedex Cup Postion: 14

Starting Score: -3

Now some people might ask why we are talking about the 14th ranked player who does not have a win since early in the 2019 season. The answer to that is… history, looking at the young professional that has only had three full seasons under his belt, Schauffele has qualified all three years for this event and his results speak for themselves. After successful win in his first crack at East Lake, Schauffele followed that up with a 7th place finish in 2018 and then a runner finished in last years event losing to Fedex Champion Rory McIlroy. His best score at was in 2019 at fourteen under, we have to wonder if that will be enough to make up the seven shot differential and beat out this tough field of competitors.

Jon Rahm

Fedex Cup Postion: 2

Starting Score: -8

A win last week at the BMW Championship vaulted Rahm in to Second place going into the Tour Championship. Starting two shots back of the lead, Rahm definitely possesses the skills to get it done this weekend. He has succeeded at two of the hardest venues on the schedule with wins at The Memorial at Murfield Village and followed that up with his win last week at Olympia Field GC. Rahm has only one top 10 in the three starts he has at East Lake GC, which does make us wonder if this could be the year.

Dustin Johnson

Fedex Cup Postion: 1

Starting Score: -10

Tied for second at the PGA Championship, a win at The Northern Trust and then a playoff runner-up at the BMW Championship. If we are talking about coming on hot when it counts, we really don’t have to look much further than Dustin Johnson. A mediocre season to start would be a fair statement but coming back from the pandemic DJ just keeps turning it on. With five top 10 finishes at East Lake GC, DJ hasn’t been able to break into that winner circle but with how strong he has looked this could very well be the year. A two-shot lead heading into the weekend does not fair well for the competitors after he blew the field out by 11 strokes at the North Trust two weeks back, this is not the guy you want to give an advantage to. With a combined 91 weeks as world number golfer, it is surprising to think that DJ has yet to pull off a Fedex Cup Championship, but the odds are in his favourite this week and I am sure he would want to make up for last years 29th place finish at East Lake.

Rory McIlroy

Fedex Cup Postion: 12

Starting Score: -3

Two-time defending Fedex Cup Champion Rory McIlroy would love to cap off another season with a victory at East Lake and become the only three-time champion. Starting seven strokes back does not make this an easy win but with Rory’s success at East Lake GC, he might be able to make the come back, after what looked to be his season to win, Rory took a bit of a slide after the break and hasn’t seen the same form he had during the early season. With 2 Career wins at East Lake, and four Top 5 finishes Rory knows his way around the course, but we will have to see if he can turn around the last few starts and make a run for the final victory of the season.

Prediction

With the final event upon us its time to make our picks, with how hot he has been the first pick to win it all would have to be world number 1 himself, Dustin Johnson. Chasing his first Fedex Cup Championship if there is a year to win this is it, he’s got the right equipment in the bag and he hopes to roll to a victory by the end of the weekend.