After a gruelling season on the PGA Tour, the Tour Championship is finally here and by the end of this weekend, the 2024 FedEx Cup Winner will be crowned.
Over the past couple of weeks, the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings have been whittled down to 30, and those select players will now take on East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
The format of the Tour Championship is different from most PGA Tour events in several ways. For starters, there is no cut line, so all 30 players who tee it up on Thursday will complete all 72 holes across four days of action.
Secondly, each player will start with a set score and play from there. The score each player starts with correlates to their position in the Fed Ex Cup standings to ensure that all the hard work earlier in the season is for something.
As if beating Scottie Scheffler wasn't difficult enough, the world number one will start this week on -10. This is two shots clear of Xander Schaufelle in second place and ten shots clear of the five players who come into the week ranked between 26-30.
Despite that, golf is a funny game and shots can be won and lost on each hole so there is still plenty to play for this week. Here are our Tour Championship betting tips.
Tour Championship betting tips
Xander Schaufelle E/W (Five places) – 2/1
Scottie Scheffler goes in as the leader this weekend, but the world number one has made it clear how much he dislikes this format in the past. The pressure of starting several shots ahead of the rest of the field has never benefitted him before.
Therefore, perhaps Xander Schaufelle should be considered the favourite this week. Schaufelle has had a stellar season, one to rivals Scheffler without question, thanks to his two major triumphs at the PGA Championship and Open Championship and is the most in-form player in golf right now.
He also has pedigree around this golf course. On three occasions, Schaufelle has posted the lowest 72-hole score at East Lake and was the winner in 2017 prior to the switch to the current format.
Rory McIlroy E/W (Five places) – 12/1
Rory McIlroy's season has fallen by the wayside since his well-documented collapse on holes 16 and 18 at the US Open. He missed the cut at the Open Championship a month later and never really got in contention for a medal at the Olympics. This is now his final opportunity to make something of this season before preparations once again begin for another shot at the Masters in the Spring.
The Northern Irishman could benefit from starting six shots back. In recent years, he has been a far better chaser than a frontrunner and playing with ‘nothing to lose' usually brings about his best golf.
What will encourage him more this week is his form at East Lake. Like Schaufelle, McIlroy has also posted the lowest 72-hole score at East Lake on three occasions. However, the difference is that on all three of those occasions, McIlroy was also crowned the FedEx Cup champion.
Sam Burns E/W (Five places) – 22/1
Sam Burns will start the week on the same score as McIlroy, but he has surged through the pack during the playoffs, and form coming into the Tour Championship is everything—just ask last year's winner, Viktor Hovland.
Burns finished fifth place at the St Jude Championship a fortnight ago and shot a remarkable round of 65 last Sunday to finish second at the BMW Championship.
His putter is red hot right now, which makes him a serious threat. It gives him the potential to reel off birdies at will. He's ranked second for shots gained on the green in both playoff events so far, and a similar performance on the dancefloor this week should at least give him a chance of covering the E/W selection.
Tour Championship singles
- Xander Schaufelle E/W (Five places) – 2/1 @ Betfred
- Rory McIlroy E/W (Five places) – 12/1 @ Betfred
- Sam Burns E/W (Five places)– 22/1 @ Betfred
Andy is tipster who has been calling Golf tournaments for several years across many different platforms. He has covered all tournaments from the Asian Tour to the Masters.
