Xander Schauffele: People still confused by Tour Championship format
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[August 23, 2023]
Xander Schauffele has experienced the evolution of the Tour
Championship in ways few others can claim.
Schauffele made his first Tour Championship as a PGA Tour rookie in
2017, and he went on to win the tournament. Sure, Justin Thomas
still wound up as the FedEx Cup champion for winning the season-long
points race, but Schauffele still left with a tidy check.
In 2019, the PGA Tour changed the season finale's format -- the top
30 players would still qualify, but their starting scores would be
"staggered" from 10 under par to even par based on their points.
That way, the Tour Championship winner and the FedEx Cup champion
would be one and the same.
And in 2020, Schauffele was the first player to post the lowest
72-hole score at East Lake Golf Club but not go home as a champion.
Schauffele shared his complicated feelings about the format Tuesday
ahead of this week's tournament in Atlanta.
"I can happily say I've been on both sides of it," Schauffele said.
"I've never won the whole thing, but I've won this event and I was
given a trophy and I've won it and was not."
He said he couldn't comment on whether the format should be tweaked
again, "just because I haven't thought of a way to make it better."
"I still believe that when I talk to some friends and people they
still feel like a little confused on how it all happens," Schauffele
said. "I think this is supposed to be like our most important event
all year. It kind of comes down to this moment. And, like, for
people to be like a little bit confused, it's still not a finished
product to me in that sense."
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One thing Schauffele surely doesn't want changed is
the venue. Since winning in his debut at East Lake, Schauffele has
two runner-up finishes, a fourth, a fifth and a seventh. He is a
combined 66 under par (81 under par including staggered starts from
2019-22) in those six years and has never shot a round over par.
East Lake will be closed for a large-scale renovation after this
Tour Championship in order to be ready for next year's.
"Man, I'm a big believer in not changing anything that's already
really great," Schauffele said. "When you go to a restaurant and
order something that tastes really good, I usually order it over and
over and over again. ... So when this course is set up great and the
condition it's in right now, with really fast greens, rough is up,
it's awesome. It's hard. You have to golf your ball."
As for this week, Schauffele enters the tournament at 3 under par,
in a tie for 11th. He's looking up at the likes of Scottie Scheffler
(10 under), Viktor Hovland of Norway (8 under), Rory McIlroy of
Northern Ireland (7 under), Spain's Jon Rahm (6 under) and more who
he will have to leapfrog if he wants to win his first FedEx Cup.
"Nothing to lose. I think a lot of guys who are pretty far back feel
that way," Schauffele said. "So just need to kind of have a really
good Thursday, Friday, to position yourself for the weekend, and if
you can kind of get within some sort of touch within two, three
shots, it means you played really well the first two rounds and
maybe give yourself a chance come the weekend."
--Field Level Media
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