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The season-ending Tour Championship starts today and by Sunday, the 2023 FedEx Cup champion will been crowned. The Tournament, which is set to be played at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta Georgia, follows a different format to most PGA events in that each player will start on a set score, correlating to where they are currently sit in the FedEx Cup rankings.
Scottie Scheffler, the leader, will start today on -10 while five players, including Jordan Spieth, will start on even par as they are ranked 26th-30th on the one-year list. If beating the world number one wasn’t hard enough, the rest of the field now have to battle against Scheffler with a head start.
Another interesting facet to the Tour Championship is that there are only 30 players in the field. Most PGA Tour events have well over 100 players competing, however, this one is reserved solely for the highest-performing players of the year. Due to the exclusivity of the event, the winner will walk away with a whopping $18m.
With just a few hours to go until day one, here are some free predictions and tips that you might want to consider.
The best Tour Championship tips
Contents
Viktor Hovland to win – 4/1
The man who comes into the Tour Championship in the bets form is Viktor Hovland who stormed through the field on Sunday last week to win the BMW Championship. That victory moved him up to second in the FedEx Cup rankings which means he will start this week on -8, meaning he has the least ground to make up on Scheffler at the top of the leaderboard.
The win last week hardly came out of the blue, either, as the Norweigan has had his most consistent year on the PGA Tour to date. He also won the Memorial Tournament in June and has a further seven top-ten finishes to his name. Last week, he beat Scheffler by two shots and that was Scheffler playing close to his best so if the 25-year-old can repeat that performance this week then he looks a good pick to come out as the 2023 FedEx Cup champion.
Two years, two ridiculous hole-outs 🔥
There’s something about No. 5 at East Lake for Viktor Hovland.#TOURVault pic.twitter.com/HnoBAL6ig5
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 23, 2023
Strokeplay winner, Tommy Fleetwood – 22/1
If it wasn’t for a sloppy first half of the season then Tommy Fleetwood would be coming into the Tour Championship with a legitimate shot at winning the whole thing. As it happens, he starts the tournament seven shots behind Scheffler on -3 which feels like too much of a bridge to gap.
That shouldn’t deter Fleetwood or dampen his spirits, though, as the Englishman has had a very good second half to the season and looks closer to winning his first PGA Tour event than ever before. Although that is unlikely to happen this week, he could still shoot the lowest strokeplay score this week particularly as the shackles will be off given his low starting position.
Jon Rahm top five finish – 5/6
Jon Rahm’s season couldn’t have gotten off to a better start and by April he had already won four tournaments and the famous green jacket for winning the Masters. It is the first time that Rahm has returned to Georgia since that win back in April which could give him the spark he needs to get going again after a few months of indifferent form.
He hasn’t recorded a win since the Masters and other than a second-placed finish at the Open Championship, he hasn’t really competed for one either. It has resulted in him losing top spot in the FedEx Cup rankings and will now start the Tour Championship on -6 (fourth position).
Rahm is an excellent chaser and starting behind the likes of Scheffler and McIlroy will likely spring him into life. We wouldn’t rule him out winning the event from four-back but if he doesn’t then a top-five finish seems very much on the cards which makes the each-way market also tempting.
Top American player, Scottie Scheffler – 8/15
As mentioned, Scottie Scheffler is starting this tournament ahead of everyone on -10. The next best American in the standings is Lucas Glover who is starting on -5. Meanwhile, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, and Brian Harman will all start even further back on -4.
Considering the distance between Scheffler, who is also the best golfer on the planet, and the other Americans in the field we feel that 8/15 represents tremendous value. Scheffler would have to play poorly, something he has only done once since October (on a links course), and we just can’t see it happening.
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