There appears no easy solution to a possible format change for the season-ending Tour Championship.
Reigning FedExCup champion Scottie Scheffler is a member of the Player Advisory Council that met Tuesday to discuss, among others, how the Tour could potentially move away from the staggered-start format that has been in place since 2019.
Multiple formats have reportedly been discussed, from head-to-head match play to medal match play. Scheffler declined Wednesday to share many specifics, saying that the details are still being “ironed out.”
“Where the PGA Tour is right now, I think we’re in a really good spot where we have good competition, and I think when it comes to the FedExCup, I want to have some of the purest forms of competition and really crown a true winner,” Scheffler said at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “Is starting strokes the best format for that? Right now, I would say probably not. And so that’s why I think we’re looking at different stuff.”
Rory McIlroy, a three-time FedExCup winner, said that he likes the idea of a bracket-style format, but he’s unsure whether it’s the best fit for the big-money finale.
“Would East Lake lend itself to match play and would that be exciting? It might be,” he said. “But I think one of the comments has been: We play stroke play the whole way through the season, and then to decide the FedExCup champion, we play match play? I don’t know if that’s the best way to determine the season-long champion. It could be. I like the format, I like the idea.”
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that the circuit is still “shooting for” a possible change to be implemented at this year’s playoffs. It’d be yet another in a long line of changes to the Tour’s postseason.
“It has to be close to being right, but it has to be simple,” McIlroy said. “We’ve sort of overcomplicated the whole thing in a way, and I think we just need to simplify it.”
