“Not a Good Move” – Golf Fans Left in Splits as PGA Tour Announces New Format for Tour Championship

After several weeks of discussion, the PGA Tour finally made a big announcement. On Tuesday, the professional men’s golf tour revealed the new format for the season-ending Tour Championship.

The Tour Championship is the final event of the PGA Tour season. The race for the season-long FedEx Cup comes to an end with this event.

In the past few years, the format of this event had been highly criticized. The event featured a “staggering start” format. Before the tournament, every player was given a certain amount of strokes depending on their FedEx Cup standings.

This saw the No.1 player start the event at 10-under par. As a result of this, the players at the top would gain a huge advantage. Last year, Scottie Scheffler started the tournament at 10-under and walked away with the title with ease.

In April, Golfweek reported that the tour was planning to remove the staggering start format and make the event into a March Madness-style tournament. Once again, golf enthusiasts were not pleased with this.

According to the PGA Tour, the new format would see the removal of the staggered start. The top 30 players will all start the round at even-par as the tournament will be played as a normal 72-hole stroke play event. The best performer at the end of the tournament will win the FedEx Cup.

Beginning this year, Starting Strokes will be eliminated from the TOUR Championship.@TOURChamp will be played as a 72-hole stroke-play event, with all players starting the tournament at even par.

The best performer over the course of those four rounds will win the #FedExCup.

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 27, 2025

Apart from this, the PGA Tour rules committee will also make some changes to the course setup. The courses will be made it bit challenging with more “risk/reward moments” throughout each round.

Social media reacts to new Tour Championship format

The Tour Championship format was something that the fans were eager to see get changed. On Monday, a part of their wish came true as the PGA Tour removed the starting strokes from this season-ending event.

Fans on X were left in the split and threw in mixed reactions to this. While some were pleased to see the Tour Championship undergo a transformation, some were not happy with the changes made. One user wrote, “Not a good move” while debating that the FedEx Cup points were thus meaningless.

Check out that and some other reactions from X below:

This is not a good move. The FedEx points system and its ranking are now meaningless. Say, A player who’s maybe ranked 20th, makes the cut and plays out of his mind golf for two days, now wins the FedEx Cup Championship. What’s the point of even having a points system?

— gas_station_sushi (@gasstationunagi) May 28, 2025

People are gonna lose their shit when the dude who’s 27th in FedexCup standings wins the whole thing now.

— TGL_INCEL (@TGL_INCEL) May 27, 2025

Ask ANY golf fan how to fix this horrible format and they’ll all give the same answer… you gotta at least give match play a try guys

— Spencer (@SpencerHoffman9) May 27, 2025

No match play after Friday like the us am is a fumble

— Jake Ferraro Golf (@rarogolf) May 27, 2025

Great work guys. You’ve basically turned into a year-long event into a single four day tournament.

We’re also going to get far more undeserving FedExCup winners than ever before due to this.

Laughable and pathetic decision.

— Jason (@Certinfy) May 28, 2025

Hallelujah. About time for both changes.

— Andrew (@djbigblack85) May 27, 2025

Never understood the idea of giving a guy like Scottie a head start with strokes. Glad they changed it

— Scottlaw43 (@scNme43) May 28, 2025

Thank god! This needed to be done.

— Jake Hurricane (@BigJakeCLE) May 28, 2025

If you eliminate the advantage, what is the point of being in the lead? If you move to match play, the top 2 seeds could get a bye into the weekend and then be put on opposite sides of the bracket. Play 9 holes instead of 18 to get two rounds in per day. Random draw for F9 vs B9

— Politasports.com (@Politasports1) May 27, 2025

So the new format is the same as the old one. Alrighty then

— Dos (@dfsupdates) May 28, 2025

I never understood giving the best players strokes in this tournament. Isn’t that like giving the Super Bowl team with the best record a 7-0 head-start at the beginning of the Super Bowl game.

— OscarLuis🇺🇸 (@DrOscarGutierre) May 28, 2025

It is likely that this new format will remain the talk of the golf town for a while. As always, the Tour Championship will be played at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. This year, the event will be played between August 18 to 24.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan comments on changes to the Tour Championship

At long last, the PGA Tour finally made some changes to the Tour Championship format. The new changes will see the event return to its original stroke-play format. Following the announcement of these changes, Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan commented on this matter.

In a statement released through the PGA Tour.com, the top boss expressed that The Player Advisory Council did what the fans had been asking for.

Our Fan Forward initiative has helped us evaluate each part of the PGA TOUR season and today’s announcement is an important first step in the evolution of our postseason. The Player Advisory Council led a thorough process to respond to what our fans are asking for: The most competitive golf in the world, played for the highest stakes, in the most straightforward and engaging format.

Beginning this year, Starting Strokes will be eliminated from the season-ending TOUR Championship as the TOUR’s top players compete for a chance to win the PGA TOUR’s Ultimate Prize, the FedExCup. pic.twitter.com/Trst6Efb8z

— TOUR Championship (@TOURChamp) May 27, 2025

At the moment, World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is once again top of the FedEx Cup standings. The American golfer leads the standings following his triumph at the PGA Championship. 2025 Masters Champion Rory McIlroy is 2nd in the standings with his 3 wins.

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