Scottie Scheffler hits onto a practice green at the St. Jude Championship golf tournament, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. The tournament is scheduled to begin Thursday. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler goes into the PGA Tour’s postseason as the No. 1 seed and it’s not even close. Winning the FedEx Cup and its $25 million bonus still feels far away.
The FedEx Cup playoffs begin Thursday at the St. Jude Championship for the top 70 from the season standings. The leading 50 players after this week move on to the BMW Championship, and from there it’s the top 30 who reach the season finale at the Tour Championship.
Scheffler doesn’t see this as a chance to put an exclamation point on his remarkable season of winning the Masters, an Olympic gold medal, The Players Championship and four signature events against the strongest fields.
The FedEx Cup playoffs are so fickle that no matter what he has done since January, and no matter what he does the next two weeks, the best he can do is start the Tour Championship at East Lake with a two-shot lead.
Scheffler was the No. 1 seed going into the Tour Championship each of the last two years. He lost a six-shot lead on the final day in 2022, and last year shot 73 in the third round to fall out of contention. East Lake has gone through a renovation, so maybe that will help.
“At the end of the day, it really comes down to East Lake,” he said Wednesday. “I didn’t have my best stuff at East Lake the last couple years. I’m kind of excited that they changed the course a little bit. It may give me some new vibes around there.”
For the PGA Tour, it was a choice between bringing some excitement to its version of a Super Bowl by having all 30 players with a mathematical chance, or rewarding someone with a dominant year that Scheffler has produced.
Since the PGA Tour moved to this format in 2019 — two playoff events with quadruple the points, and then the top seed starting the Tour Championship at 10-under par with a two-shot lead — none of the top seeds going into the postseason has won the big prize.
“You’ve got to figure out a way to strike a balance between it being a good TV product and it still being a season-long race,” Scheffler said. “Right now … I know for a fact you can’t really quite call it the season-long race when it comes down to one stroke-play tournament on the same golf course each year.”
If it were a true season-long race, this would be something akin to a ceremonial three weeks before crowning Scheffler.
“That’s not good, either,” he said. “It would be great for me. But those aren’t the rules.”
The system now is great for Rory McIlroy, the only three-time FedEx Cup champion. He won the titles in 2016, 2019 and 2022, never as the top seed to start the postseason or even going into the Tour Championship.
“I love this format because if it wasn’t this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he’s so far ahead,” McIlroy said.
“Is it the fairest reflection of who’s been the best player of the year? Probably not,” McIlroy said. “But I think at this point we’re not in for totally fair. We’re in for entertainment and for trying to put on the best product we possibly can.”
The more compelling part of the FedEx St. Jude Championship is toward the bottom. Top 50 is the golden ticket in this era of $20 million signature events. The players who make it to the second playoff tournament — the top 50 — are guaranteed the eight signature events that have big money and elevated FedEx Cup points.
Even that advantage is no guarantee, however. Seven players — including Lucas Glover, the defending champion at the TPC Southwind — didn’t make it to the postseason.
Among those on the outside of the top 50 going into this week are Jordan Spieth at No. 63.
Scheffler does not have the stage to himself in the postseason. Xander Schauffele is No. 2 from not only winning the PGA Championship and the British Open, but ripping off nine top 10s in his last 12 starts.
In his favor is East Lake, a course he dominates. He has broken par in 25 of his 28 rounds at the Tour Championship — the other three were at even-par 70. He had the low 72-hole score in 2020 and matched the low score in 2023. Both times, he started too far back in the staggered start, and the FedEx Cup went to someone else.
Only twice has he gone to East Lake among the top 10 seeds, so these next two weeks will be critical for Schauffele to at least hold his position. Of course, he’s going to a new East Lake that has gone through a tee-to-green restoration project by architect Andrew Green.
“I’m looking at it like I’m going to be there for the first time,” Schauffele said.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
