What are the starting strokes for golfers who have advanced to the 2023 Tour Championship?
Since 2019, the PGA Tour has used the starting strokes format to help make sure that the Tour Championship winner is the same as the FedEx Cup winner. The starting strokes are assigned depending on the FedEx Cup standings until the Tour Championship. The player in first place starts the tournament with a lead of 10 strokes, and second place has eight strokes and so on.
This system allows the player leading the tour to have the highest chance of scoring the lowest score after incorporating the starting strokes. For the second time in the past two years, Scottie Scheffler will be starting the Championship with 10 under par.
The players right at his tail at the East Lake are Viktor Hovland, who jumped up in points after his sensational showing at the BMW Championship, which took place this weekend. The Norwegian will be starting with an eight under par. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Lucas Glover are close behind with a -7, -6 and -5 score, respectively.
The top 30 of the Tour Championship currently look like this:
The winner of the TOUR Championship is declared the FedEx Cup champion and takes home a staggering $18 million check. The payouts trickle down across the 30 players with a minimum of $500,000 for the 30th position.
Winner of the 2022 Tour Championship
Rory McIlroy was the winner of the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup last year. He did this after being four under par at the start of the weekend last year. He won it with a margin of one stroke against Scottie Scheffler, who started the championship at the top of the boards with 10 starting strokes. The second place was tied with Sungjae Im, who also started with a four under par.
The 2022 win made Rory the first three-time FedEx Cup winner. His performance on the last day was nothing short of impressive. He made up for his six-stroke defincit in the final round and then some to steal the first place from Scheffller. McIlroy's 31-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole on the fateful Sunday will be a shot to remember; it essentailly sealed the FedEx Cup for Rory.
