August 23, 2024; Castle Rock, Colorado, USA; Scottie Scheffler after his putt on the 15th hole during the second round of the BMW Championship Golf Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports There's not much Scotty Scheffler can do about the Tour Championship format, at least not this year.
Whenever Scheffler was asked if he thought a “staggered scoring start” for the season finale was a fair way to help decide the FedEx Cup winner, his answer was consistent: It might not be perfect, but it shouldn't matter if you're in Play your best at the end of the season.
Scheffler will be competing for his first FedEx Cup title this week in Atlanta, where he starts the Tour Championship with a two-shot lead.
“At the end of the day, if you play well enough, everything will take care of itself,” Scheffler said Tuesday.
Many questioned whether a two-shot lead was enough to reward a player having the kind of season Scheffler had. The world No. 1 won six events, including the Masters and Players Championship, and picked up an additional Olympic gold medal, although it was not a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.
Scheffler started at 10 under on Thursday and Xander Schauffele was at 8 under, although Schauffele won a FedEx Cup points gained by over 1,000 points. Since the format changed in 2019, no one who started the Tour Championship at the top of the leaderboard has gone on to win the trophy.
But Scheffler, who is from Texas, compared how the postseason works to how other sports in the United States operate.
“It's like the Cowboys had a great regular season game the past few years and then it breaks my heart in the playoffs,” Scheffler said. “But golf is a different sport. There are a lot of different voices and ways to do it. I'm not going to sit here and say I have a crystal ball and I know what's best.
“Golden State, the best regular season ever, and they lost in the Finals. This happens.”
Scheffler was asked if he would get on board if one of the PGA Tour's new sponsors, Strategic Sports Group, came up with the radical idea of changing the playoff format.
“Golf is a fun game,” Scheffler said in a lengthy response. “You don't always – there's no perfect system for entering golf tournaments, it's the product that's the most fun and the one that attracts the best players every time.
“A lot of times in golf, the guy who plays the best might not even win that week. It's a fickle game as far as small bounces go. It's a challenging sport. I Open to suggestions.
Scheffler had a rough week, finishing tied for 33rd at the BMW Championship, his second outside the top 10 since January. He will try to reset at East Lake Golf Club and treat it like a normal golf tournament.
“At the end of the day, I want to win the golf tournament we're playing in,” Scheffler said. “Right now I'm two shots up, which is pretty cool.”
–Scene-level media