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The Tour Championship begins Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. One of the 30 players in the field will hoist the FedEx Cup and collect $18 million, the prize for first place, come Sunday evening.
For the second consecutive year, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will start the competition in first place at 10-under par. Last week’s BMW Championship winner, Viktor Hovland, is two strokes behind the Dallas, Texas native.
2022 Tour Champion and second-ranked golfer in the Official World Golf Rankings, Rory McIlroy, will begin the first round at seven-under.
The rest of the standings can be seen below. We’ll also provide one betting prediction ahead of the first round for a golfer we think will make the top 10.
Tour Championship day 1 tip: Tournament finish (72 holes)
The following pick is for the entire tournament and includes starting strokes.
Xander Schauffele to finish top 10 @ 20/23 (-115 on BetFred)
Of all the players in the field, Schauffele has owned the best form at East Lake Golf Club. The former San Diego State Aztec has made six appearances at the Tour Championship and has won once, along with topping the field in 2020 (without starting strokes). His average finishing position at the event is 3.3.
Schauffele’s results at the Tour Championship (without strokes added)
- 2022: 6th
- 2021: 3rd
- 2020: 1st
- 2019: 2nd
- 2018: 7th
- 2017: 1st
The 29-year-old will begin the Tour Championship at 3-under par in a tie for 11th. With the course fitting his game so well, it isn’t much to ask for him to move up one spot when he’s done so many times before.
The table below shows where the No. 6 golfer in the Official World Golf Rankings, Schauffele, stands among the others on the leaderboard heading into day one of the event.
Tour Championship starting scores
| Position/Score | Players |
| (1) 10-under | Scottie Scheffler |
| (2) 8-under | Viktor Hovland |
| (3) 7-under | Rory McIlroy |
| (4) 6-under | Jon Rahm |
| (5) 5-under | Lucas Glover |
| (T6) 4-under | Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick |
| (T11) 3-under | Tommy Fleetwood, Russell Henley, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele |
| (T16) 2-under | Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Corey Conners, Si Woo Kim |
| (T21) 1-under | Taylor Moore, Nick Taylor, Adam Schenk, Collin Morikawa, Jason Day |
| (T26) Even | Sam Burns, Emiliano Grillo, Tyrrell Hatton, Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka |
PGA Tour data analyst Ron Klos compiled data for all 30 golfers in the field. In terms of average strokes gained per round (without starting strokes), Schauffele ranks second with 1.73 strokes picked up per 18 holes. He ranks first in terms of total strokes gained with 41.6 ahead of McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth.
Course history at East Lake GC for the #TourChampionship going back to 2015.
-Includes average finish position WITHOUT STROKES ADDED and Strokes Gained per round in each category. Players are sorted by SG: Total.
For downloadable sheets each week, get access to all of my data… pic.twitter.com/ZUbnTEfuuJ
— Ron Klos (@PGASplits101) August 21, 2023
Despite not winning a tournament since 2022, the Olympic gold medalist has earned 10 top 10 finishes this year in 20 starts. The fields mostly consisted of 156 golfers and not just 30. Schauffele was forced to withdraw due to injury at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January during the second round. Excluding that event, he has a top 10 percentage of 52.6%.
Schauffele, a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, has also been one of the top players this season in terms of total strokes gained.
Strokes Gained: Total
- Schauffele: 1.756 per round (ranked 6th on the PGA Tour among 185 players)
The near-even money odds provided by Betfred for him to finish inside the top 10 are extremely valuable, thanks to being a course horse and one of the best players on the planet. His full scorecards and tournament logs can be viewed below via ESPN.
| DATE | TOURNAMENT | POS | OVERALL SCORE | EARNINGS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10/13 – 10/16 | Accordia Golf Narashino CC | T9 | 67-69-69-65 | 270 (-10) | $297,000 |
12/1 – 12/4 | Albany | 4 | 72-68-69-68 | 277 (-11) | — |
1/5 – 1/8 | Sentry Tournament of Champions Kapalua Resort (Plantation Course) | Withdrawn | 70-32 | 102 (-2) | — |
1/19 – 1/22 | Pete Dye Stadium Course | T3 | 65-68-68-62 | 263 (-25) | $472,000 |
1/25 – 1/28 | Torrey Pines (North Course) | T13 | 72-71-69-72 | 284 (-4) | $160,515 |
2/9 – 2/12 | TPC Scottsdale (Stadium Course) | T10 | 67-67-70-70 | 274 (-10) | $485,000 |
2/16 – 2/19 | Riviera Country Club | T33 | 69-74-70-68 | 281 (-3) | $104,429 |
3/2 – 3/5 | Arnold Palmer Invitational pres. by Mastercard Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge | T39 | 68-70-75-76 | 289 (+1) | $70,029 |
3/9 – 3/12 | TPC Sawgrass (THE PLAYERS Stadium Course) | T19 | 72-73-69-68 | 282 (-6) | $275,000 |
4/6 – 4/9 | Augusta National Golf Club | T10 | 68-74-71-71 | 284 (-4) | $432,000 |
4/13 – 4/16 | Harbour Town Golf Links | 4 | 67-66-70-66 | 269 (-15) | $980,000 |
4/20 – 4/23 | TPC Louisiana | T4 | 67-63-66-66 | 262 (-26) | — |
5/4 – 5/7 | Quail Hollow Club | 2 | 66-69-64-70 | 269 (-15) | $2,180,000 |
5/18 – 5/21 | Oak Hill Country Club | T18 | 72-72-71-67 | 282 (+2) | $214,400 |
6/1 – 6/4 | The Memorial Tournament pres. by Workday Muirfield Village Golf Club | T24 | 77-66-72-74 | 289 (+1) | $163,000 |
6/15 – 6/18 | Los Angeles Country Club | T10 | 62-70-73-72 | 277 (-3) | $435,018 |
6/22 – 6/25 | TPC River Highlands | T19 | 68-64-67-67 | 266 (-14) | $245,800 |
7/13 – 7/16 | The Renaissance Club | T42 | 70-66-67-74 | 277 (-3) | $36,255 |
7/20 – 7/23 | Royal Liverpool GC | T17 | 70-74-68-70 | 282 (-2) | $187,900 |
8/10 – 8/13 | TPC Southwind | T24 | 66-68-70-69 | 273 (-7) | $158,286 |
8/17 – 8/20 | Olympia Fields Country Club | T8 | 71-65-67-68 | 271 (-9) | $620,000 |
8/24 – 8/27 | East Lake Golf Club | – | (-3) | ||
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