TOUR Championship
Course: East Lake Golf Club (7,440 yards, par 70)
Purse: $40,000,000
Winner: $10,000,000 and FedExCup
Tournament Preview
And then there were 30. The goal for every PGA Tour player at the start of the year is to make it to this event. Making the TOUR Championship signifies consistency and some top finishes throughout the course of the grind that is the PGA Tour season. All players in the field for East Lake know that they will have an equal chance at winning the FedExCup and the $10 million bonus that goes along with it this week. Despite Scottie Scheffler being well clear in FedExCup points on the season, that advantage all goes away and he will have to prove it one more time over the course of 72 holes at a historic golf course. That type of drama you could say is extremely manufactured, but it will be drama nonetheless.
Last week Wyndham Clark was extremely impressive in St. Louis and picked up his third win of 2026. He also threw a bit of a wrench in the Player of the Year debate. Clark now joins Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup with his third victory of the season, but he is the only one of the three to have a major championship as well on the books in 2026. Scottie Scheffler only has two wins, but also has by far been the most consistent player this year. Given the massive advantage Scheffler has over the rest of the PGA Tour in scoring average and SG: Total, it would probably take another win this week and a FedExCup trophy to put Clark over the line for a lot of players.
Another race that everyone was keeping an eye on last week was the U.S. Presidents Cup team. The six automatic qualifiers that will be on Captain Brandt Snedeker's team next month at Medinah will be Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa. All six were very deserving and would have been on the team regardless had they not auto-qualified. Just missing the cut was Chris Gotterup, Ben Griffin, Xander Schauffele and J.J. Spaun. Gotterup and Schauffele should be locks for a pick, but for Griffin and Spaun it is very questionable. Both were in that Top 6 for the majority of the year after great 2025 campaigns, but the last month or so for both players has been pretty tough. Meanwhile you have other American players surging like Patrick Cantlay and Maverick McNealy.
It will be fascinating to see what Captain Snedeker decides to do with his six picks. Does he go with experience, young players with upside, guys who have put together the best seasons, guys who have played the best over the last couple months, players who best fit the course or players who are likely to be apart of the Ryder Cup team next year? Plenty to consider there and I'm not necessarily sure there is a wrong answer given dominant the U.S. has been in the Presidents Cup over the years. The TOUR Championship will provide the final opportunity for some players to make a statement that they deserve a spot on the team. Unfortunately for some contenders like Ben Griffin, Justin Thomas and Maverick McNealy they won't have that chance since they did not crack the Top 30 in the FedExCup this year.
The TOUR Championship has had plenty of different looks over the years since the inception of the FedExCup in 2007. In the early days some players were able to clinch before we even got to East Lake, then we had a period where the points got reset and spaced apart, then we went to a starting strokes format and now for the second straight year all 30 players will start level. Things are expected to look totally different in golf's version of a postseason when all the changes go into place in 2028. There's a lot of excitement over what it could look like with match play at some iconic courses being heavily rumored. The expectation is that PGA Tour Commissioner and CEO Brian Rolapp will give us some additional insight in his press conference this week.
The weather in Atlanta this week will be hot and humid as expected. There is also projected to be extremely minimal wind. There is a solid chance we see thunderstorms throughout the event as well. It more than likely will disrupt play at some point. Fortunately with only 30 players in the field they should have no issues getting 72 holes in by Sunday afternoon. Tommy Fleetwood is the defending champion of the TOUR Championship and FedExCup winning at 18-under-par by three strokes last year. That was the first career PGA Tour win for Fleetwood.
Recent Champions
2025 - Tommy Fleetwood (-18)
2024 - Scottie Scheffler (-30)*
2023 - Viktor Hovland (-27)*
2022 - Rory McIlroy (-21)*
2021 - Patrick Cantlay (-21)*
2020 - Dustin Johnson (-21)*
2019 - Rory McIlroy (-18)*
2018 - Tiger Woods (-11)
2017 - Xander Schauffele (-12)
2016 - Rory McIlroy (-12)
*= Starting Strokes Format
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Total Driving
- SG: Putting Bermuda/Putts per GIR
- Par 4 Scoring/Scrambling
Champion's Profile
East Lake is a very classic design with mostly narrow tree-lined fairways and not a lot of tricks. It's another very long course as a Par 70 that stretches over 7,400 yards. Despite the smaller landing areas off the tee, this is a heavy driver usage course. Players have tried for the most part to get it as far down as possible to the green and hope to find the fairways. Much like it was two weeks ago at TPC Southwind, the Bermuda rough is no joke and makes controlling irons shots very difficult to average sized greens that are well protected. SG: Off-the-Tee, Total Driving, SG: Approach and GIR Percentage should all be key staples of the key stats to look at this week.
Short game and putting can't be overlooked at East Lake either. There are plenty of short grass runoff areas, tricky bunker shots and even flop shots from Bermuda rough in play this week that players will need to navigate at some point. These greens are also always some of the slickest on the PGA Tour. It's a real challenge to match up line and speed, but a few every year excel at it and often find themselves near the top of the leaderboard. Back on Bermuda greens, I'd put more emphasis on how players putted in Greensboro and Memphis than what they did last week on Bentgrass in St. Louis.
While it might not be the most exciting course in the world to watch, East Lake does do a terrific job of determining the best player. There is really nowhere to hide out there. You have to execute the shots and get the ball in the hole. There opportunities out there to take advantage of, but also plenty of very difficult pars.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Scottie Scheffler ($14,800)
Some folks might get scared away this week from Scheffler this week after his disappointing T12 in St. Louis in which he battled blisters on his hands. That might lower his ownership at East Lake where his game should fit extremely well. Scheffler had the best putting week of his career the last time we were on Bermuda putting surfaces at TPC Southwind. Scheffler has also been one of the top players in total driving over the last few years, which is always a key factor at East Lake.
Sam Burns ($12,000)
Burns did not have the showing he likely expected last week, but I just can't find a way to pivot off of him this week. Burns was the No. 2 player in my model thanks to his red hot iron play and putter. He is the top player in this field in SG: Putting over his last 36 rounds on Bermuda and has also gained on approach in eight straight events. In six of those starts he also gained at least a full stroke per round on approach.
Wyndham Clark ($11,600)
Clark has been so strong since mid-May scoring three wins in that time frame. He is putting it better than anyone over this summer, and his scrambling numbers have been off the charts as well. Clark has finished solo third and solo eighth in his two prior starts at East Lake. The course type really hasn't mattered the last few months, Clark just continues to rack up a ton of birdies and put his name near the top of leaderboards.
The Middle Tier
Patrick Cantlay ($11,000)
Cantlay once again is saving his best golf for the end of the season. He comes into the TOUR Championship off finishes of T8-T12-2nd in his last three starts, and is looking to win his second FedExCup title. Cantlay ranks high in a number of key stats for me this week. He is third in this field in SG: Tee-to-Green over his last 24 rounds and second in SG: Par 4 over his last 36 rounds. Cantlay led the field at Bellerive in SG: Approach and was second in SG: Around-the-Green. He has finished T7 or better in four of his last five starts at East Lake.
Collin Morikawa ($10,400)
I didn't think Morikawa had the length to contend with some of the top dogs at Bellerive, but he certainly proved me wrong by finishing T4 and ranking seventh in SG: Off-the-Tee. He now heads to East Lake where he has found a lot of success with three top-6 finishes in six prior starts. Morikawa led the field in St. Louis in putts per GIR and has now gained strokes on the greens in six of his last seven starts. When putter is working, Morikawa seems to always be in contention given how accurate of a ball striker he is.
Viktor Hovland ($9,800)
Hovland is another former winner at East Lake (2023). He is one of the most accurate ball strikers on Tour ranking fourth in this field in Total Driving last 24 rounds, third in Good Drive % last 24 rounds and seventh in SG: Approach last 36 rounds. Hovland is also No. 1 in Par 4 BOB% last 36 rounds on a course where you will need to make a lot of score on the par-4s. Lastly, Hovland ranks second in proximity over his last 36 rounds on long courses.
The Long Shots
Ryan Gerard ($9,200)
Gerard is a player in the mix for a pick for the upcoming Presidents Cup He has had a pretty nice season to make it to this point and enters with top-25 finishes in four of his last five starts. The 27-year-old sits 20th in the DataGolf rankings and has a chance to make a statement at East Lake. Gerard ranks fifth in in this field in Total Driving last 24 rounds and sixth in scrambling last 36 rounds. One of his three runner-up finishes in 2026 came at Muirfield Village, which is a similar type of demanding tee to green test as East Lake.
Tom Kim ($8,200)
Kim is my best value play this week down here in the low-$8K range, but popping up No. 5 in my model. Kim has been the best iron player on Tour over the last several months, but also has been very accurate off the tee and quite tidy around the greens. Kim ranks top 3 in this field in SG: Approach last 36 rounds, GIR percentage last 36 rounds, third in scrambling last 36 rounds and second in Par 4 BOB% last 36 rounds.
Gary Woodland ($7,000)
Woodland had all the pressure going into last week at No. 31 in the FedExCup. He was able to put together a very strong performance to return to East Lake for the first time since 2019. The 4 was his sixth top-10 finish of the season. Woodland ranked fourth in SG: Approach and second in scrambling at Bellerive. He slots in second in this 30-man field in total driving over the last 24 rounds, while also ranking top 20 on Tour in Par 4 scoring, Par 4 BOB% and proximity 200+ yards.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
With only 30 players in the field, ownership across the board should be pretty high, especially compared to a normal PGA Tour event. There's also just less lineup options in general with these 30 players spread out from $14,800 all the way down to $6,000. This week I do lean towards a slightly more balanced build. You can easily fit in four players in the $10K-$12K range and be able to round it out with a couple cheap options with high upside because all of these players have either won or racked up a few high finishes at some point this season. Course history at East Lake has typically been pretty sticky over the years and is likely a solid separator if you are between two players.
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