OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — The Tour Championship now has the richest individual prize fund in golf with the PGA Tour making the FedEx Cup payoff count as official money for the first time. The total purse is $40 million, with $10 million to the winner.
Since the FedEx Cup began in 2007, the bonus pool at the end of the Tour Championship was unofficial money, with part of it deferred.
Prize money was eliminated at the Tour Championship when the postseason was reduced from four to three tournaments in 2019, and the FedEx Cup bonus pool increased.
With the introduction that year of “starting strokes" — the No. 1 seed started at 10-under par and had a two-shot lead over the No. 2 seed — whoever won the finale at East Lake won the FedEx Cup and was credited with a PGA Tour title for winning the Tour Championship.
In a change this year, the starting strokes were eliminated, and the top 30 players who reach the Tour Championship will all start from scratch like a normal tournament.
A PGA Tour spokesperson confirmed Wednesday evening that the $40 million bonus pool will now be official money at East Lake.
In another change, the $25 million for winning the FedEx Cup was spread out. Scottie Scheffler received $10 million for leading the FedEx Cup in the regular season, and he will get $5 million for being the No. 1 seed after this week's BMW Championship. That is still part of the bonus pool and will not be official money.
But now that the player with lowest score wins the Tour Championship — and FedEx Cup — the $40 million set aside for the top 30 players will be official, with $10 million to the winner.
Scheffler leads the money list with $20,362,883. Masters champion Rory McIlroy ($16,156,418) and U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun ($12,302,222) now will have a mathematical chance of topping Scheffler if they win at East Lake.
The runner-up at East Lake gets $5 million in official money, while third place gets $3,705,000. Last place gets $355,000.
The last time East Lake had an official purse was in 2018 at $9 million, and Tiger Woods won $1.62 million. Justin Rose won the FedEx Cup without winning a postseason event and got the $10 million bonus.
Patrick Cantlay was among several players who liked the change away from starting strokes, and he said winning the Tour Championship — even if a player was at No. 30 — was still worthy of being the FedEx Cup champion.
“I think at this point if you played a whole year and get into the Tour Championship with the guys who have played — the 30 best guys who have played the best all year — and you beat them that week with everything on the line, that’s a huge accomplishment,” he said.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
