ATLANTA – Scottie Scheffler usually is the one giving strokes when he plays at home in Dallas at Royal Oaks Country Club.
“I’m typically playing to a plus 7. I used to be a plus 5. They moved me to a plus 7,” he said on Tuesday at his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the Tour Championship, the final leg of the FedEx Cup. “So now we’ve got guys in the group that are getting like two strokes a hole. I typically still will win more often than not, but it’s just fun. It’s just entertaining.”
This week, at East Lake Golf Club, Scheffler is the beneficiary of a handicap of sorts, starting at 10-under with a two-stroke head start over his nearest competitor, Xander Schauffele, and as many as 10 strokes ahead of the 30th man in the season-long standings, Justin Thomas, in the staggered-start scoring to the tournament.
“Scottie starting ahead, I don’t even know the words for that,” said Sam Burns, who starts six strokes back at 4-under and T-6. “He doesn’t need any more help than how good he already is.”
Scheffler, who tied for 33rd in the 50-man field at last week’s BMW Championship, voiced his displeasure with the FedEx Cup format two weeks ago in Memphis, calling it “silly,” but he didn’t object to taking a lead into the start of the FedEx Cup finale for the third straight year.
“I want every stroke that I can get this week. I’ve experienced it on the other side, and I would much rather start a tournament with a lead than start it behind. It’s as simple as that,” he said. “This is the best opportunity that I’ll have in my career probably to win a golf tournament. I’m starting two strokes ahead of second place. That’s a pretty cool place to be, really.”
He’s the first player to enter the Tour Championship at No. 1 in the standings in three consecutive years. Despite the head start, he’s failed to win from the pole position the last two years, finishing T-2 in 2022 and T-6 in 2023.
“I think we need a season-long race. I think the FedEx Cup has been really good for our Tour and for the game. I think it’s something exciting to finish off the year,” Scheffler said. “In terms of the season-long race, it’s maybe not always going to be the guy that plays the best the whole season; it’s going to be the guy that plays the best in these playoff events. That’s really what you’re identifying is the guy that plays the best in these last three events.”
Scheffler said that he enjoyed the previous format, where NBC’s Steve Sands would furiously be writing various scenarios on a dry-erase board and no one could calculate or understand the points from minute to minute. Under the old format, Scheffler would have more than a 1,000-point lead over Schauffele and no one else would even be able to catch him.
“I didn’t necessarily mind that the winner of the Tour Championship wasn’t the winner of the FedEx Cup. It provides a little less volatility, which is the negative,” he said.
In the current format, his lead going into the final 72 holes may not properly reflect his season of dominance, but he’s also been rewarded handsomely already with an $8 million payday as the winner of the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, which doled out $40 million in bonus money to the top-10 finishers on the regular-season money list.
Scheffler accepts that the system isn’t perfect and it’s a business and he’s an entertainer, though he noted, “I’m not going to go out on the first tee and do dances and celebrate like crazy.”
He said he’ll likely voice his concerns behind closed doors in the future, especially when the title sponsor is underwriting a bonus pool of $100 million that will pay a record windfall of $25 million to the FedEx Cup champion. That’s more than Annika Sorenstam, the all-time leader in earnings on the LPGA Tour, made in her entire career. In short, Scheffler’s picked a good time to be world No. 1 and his focus is simply on winning his seventh Tour title of the season.
“So, really, it comes down to the guys putting up the money for us to play with,” he said. “At the end of the day, we have sponsors for our tournaments, and they’re going to want it a certain way, and if FedEx is putting up the kind of money they’re putting up at this event, we’re going to have to play it the way they want to play it. It’s just as simple as that.”
