It’s The TOUR Championship week – the final stop of the 2022 PGA Tour season, and while the field at East Lake is missing many familiar names, it still features a throng of marquee names, including the season’s four major winners.
The 30-player set will once again be contested using the much criticized handicap format, and will be played at the acclaimed East Lake Golf Club.
The star-studded gathering in Atlanta, Georgia will feature defending champion Patrick Cantlay, who enters fresh off a win. He will be joined by a several other former FedEx Cup winners, including top-ranked stalwarts such as Rory McIlroy (2019, 2016), Justin Thomas (2017) and Jordan Spieth (2015).
Other top-ranked stars teeing it up this week in Atlanta include world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith (2), Xander Schauffele (5), Jon Rahm (6), Collin Morikawa (8), Will Zalatoris (9) and Matt Fitzpatrick (10).
Below, you’ll find more details to help you get primed for the 2022 edition of the FedEx Cup’s TOUR Championship.
The Skinny
Tournament: The TOUR Championship/FedEx Cup
Dates: Aug 25-28, 2022
Where: Atlanta, GA
Course: East Lake Golf Club
Distance: Par 70, 7346 yards
Architect: Tom Bendelow (1908), Donald Ross (1913)
Redesign: Rees Jones (1994)
Format: 72-holes, starting-strokes
Purse: $75 million
Winning Share: $18 million
2021 Champion: Patrick Cantlay
How to Follow The TOUR Championship
TELEVISION: Thu-Fri: 1-6 p.m. (GOLF); Sat: 1-2:30 p.m. (GOLF), 2:30-7 p.m. (NBC); Sun: 12-1:30 p.m. (GOLF), 1:30-6 p.m. (NBC)
PGA TOUR LIVE: Thu-Fri: 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. (ESPN+); Sat: 12:30-7 p.m. (ESPN+); Sun: 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. (ESPN+)
PGA TOUR RADIO: Thu-Fri: 12-6 p.m.; Sat: 2-7 p.m.; Sun: 1-6 p.m.
(PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio)
LINKS: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
TOUR Championship History
The Tour Championship has been the FedExCup playoff finale since the first playoff in 2007, but the event has roots going back 20 years earlier. Always an elite event, prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 money leaders of the past PGA Tour season and generally took place in the late fall.
The inaugural 1987 event was claimed by Tom Watson – two strokes clear of Chip Beck, the second member of the 59 Club.
Other champions in the pre FedExCup era included legends such as Curtis Strange, Tom Kite, Paul Azinger, David Duval, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
In 2007, the Tour Championship moved from November to mid-September, where it ended the four-tournament FedEx Cup Playoffs. As in past years, 30 players qualified for the event, but the basis for qualification was no longer prize money. Instead, FedEx Cup points accumulated during the regular PGA Tour season and then during the three preceding playoff events determined the participants.
From 2019 onward, the FedExCup was reduced to three events, and the Tour Championship is now held in late August rather than mid-September. The tournament also adopted a new format called starting strokes, in order to ensure that the winner would also be the FedExCup champion.
Woods holds the tournament record with three wins – two coming in the FedExCup format, the most recent of which was in 2018. Mickelson and McIlroy are the only other players to have won more than once, with Tiger as the runner-up in both of Phil’s victories.
East Lake Golf Club has been the Tour Championship’s permanent venue since 2004, although the FedExCup is only a small part of the club’s story. Founded 100 years earlier in 1904, the Atlanta course is a Donald Ross design, famous for being the home course of the legendary Bobby Jones.
It is believed to be the site where Jones played his first and last rounds. The course also once hosted the Ryder Cup, the 1963 edition, with Arnold Palmer as the U.S. captain.
History: Recent Winners
Year-Winner-To Par (Margin)
2021 Patrick Cantlay -21 (1)*
2020 Dustin Johnson -21 (3)*
2019 Rory McIlroy -18 (4)*
2018 Tiger Woods -11 (2)
2017 Xander Schauffele -12 (1)
2016 Rory McIlroy -12 (Playoff)
2015 Jordan Spieth -9 (4)
* Cantlay started -10 (Gross -11)
* Johnson started -10 (Gross -11)
* McIlroy started -5 (Gross -13)
History: Wins
3 – Tiger Woods (1999, 2007, 2018)
2 – Phil Mickelson (2000, 2009)
2 – Rory McIlroy (2016, 2019)
Hole of the Week
No. 15, East Lake Golf Club
Par 3, 211 yards
Considered one of the oldest “isthmus” par 3s (not an island, but close to being one) in the country, the 15th hole at East Lake should once again provide all kinds of action this week. A super-flat green is surrounded by the golf course’s iconic lake, which provides a natural setting for gusts of wind to create havoc at most any time.
“The 15th hole will really be a gut-checking hole, as Justin Rose refers to some of the holes at East Lake,” Rees Jones said in 2016. “They will have to fight through 14 and 15 and then push the pedal down on the last three holes.”
The club’s signature hole has historically played well over par, and has ruined many good rounds down the stretch.
The Field at East Lake
Pre-Game Leaderboard
1. Scottie Scheffler -10
2. Patrick Cantlay -8
3. Will Zalatoris -7
4. Xander Schauffele -6
5. Sam Burns -5
6. Cameron Smith -4
7. Rory McIlroy -4
8. Tony Finau -4
9. Sepp Straka -4
10. Sungjae Im -4
11. Jon Rahm -3
12. Scott Stallings -3
13. Justin Thomas -3
14. Cameron Young -3
15. Matt Fitzpatrick -3
16. Max Homa -2
17. Hideki Matsuyama -2
18. Jordan Spieth -2
19. Joaquin Niemann -2
20. Viktor Hovland -2
21. Collin Morikawa -1
22. Billy Horschel -1
23. Tom Hoge -1
24. Corey Conners -1
25. Brian Harman -1
26. K.H. Lee E
27. J.T. Poston E
28. Sahith Theegala E
29. Adam Scott E
30. Aaron Wise E
Full Field & Odds
Credits: OWGR, PGA Tour Media, Getty Images, Fast Scripts
