TOUR Championship One and Done Picks
It all comes down to this. The TOUR Championship is the last event in the majority of One-and-Done leagues and depending on your settings it can be pretty consequential because of the $40 million purse and $10 million first place check. The RotoWire league has been back and forth all season, but the top two have broken away from the field after both nailing Wyndham Clark last week at the BMW Championship. It's still very tight in the race to cash and the results at East Lake will go a long way to deciding that.
The TOUR Championship features only the top 30 players in the FedExCup Standings. This will be the second straight year that the PGA Tour has gone with this model where whoever has the low 72-hole score this week being crowned the season-long champion. There is certainly some that are turned off by that, which is way major changes were announced for the TOUR Championship starting in 2028. The season-long champion will be crowned at the conclusion of the regular season finale, while the Top 32 players in the standings will qualify for TOUR Championship set to take place over two weeks. The first week will be pool play with the top two players from all eight pods set to advance to the second week where those 16 players will be placed in a bracket and the player who goes undefeated after four rounds will be the TOUR Championship winner.
It is certainly a risk, but the PGA Tour really needed to change things up because the current format has seemingly lost interest amongst both fans and players. Unfortunately we have to finish off this week and next season before we can see these massive changes start to take place.
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Course Tidbits
- Course: East Lake Golf Club (7,440 yards, par 70)
- Location: Atlanta, Georgia
- Purse: $40 million -- $10 million to winner
- Defending Champion: Tommy Fleetwood (-18)
- 2025 Scoring Average: 67.814 (-2.186)
- 2025 36-Hole Cut: No Cut Event
- Average Low 72 Hole Score Last 5 Years at East Lake: -18
East Lake might not be the most exciting venue on the PGA Tour, but one thing it does do is test the best players in the world. There aren't a lot of tricks at this course, but it does hold you accountable for misses. The fairways are on the narrower side and mostly tree-lined. Missing the short grass will create a ton of stress, especially out of this nasty bermuda rough.
The greens are pretty average in size, but are well defended either by bunkers or shortgrass runoff areas. You got to find a high percentage of greens in regulation around this course because you are not going to get away with having to constantly scramble around this place. The best iron players typically are able to work their way towards the top of the leaderboard.
The bermuda greens are typically some of the slickest on Tour when playing in optimal conditions. It does look like we should see some rain fall throughout the event, which will make them a little more receptive. If you putted well on bentgrass last week, it may not carry over to these bermuda surfaces. The Zoysia fairways, bermuda rough and bermuda greens is the same setup players faced two weeks at in Memphis at TPC Southwind.
Visit RotoWire's PGA earnings report to find total winnings and winnings per entry via our fantasy golf stats pages.
RotoWire One and Done Tools
- One and Done Rostership
- Tournament History/Current Form
- Projected Player Schedule
- OAD Strategy
- OAD Full Season Planner
TOUR Championship: One and Done Picks
I have him left. This is the last tournament. --Len Hochberg
From a macro perspective, you're simply taking the best remaining player that's available for the fewest number of your competitors that are within reach of surpassing in the standings. Perhaps some folks shy away from Clark in the finale because of the simpleton "it's hard to win two weeks in a row" style of thinking, despite Clark's implied win probability actually doubling from about three percent last week to around six percent this week. --Bryce Danielson
I wasn't a fan of Aberg as the third-favorite at the BMW and I'm not much of a fan of his this week either. It's been a strange year for Aberg. He started on fire, but ran into some issues while closing that seemed to affect his play soon after. He's since rebounded to have a handful of strong showings, but he's yet to find a win this season. It hasn't been a bad year for Aberg, but it probably can be classified as a disappointment, if for nothing else, because he failed to improve upon his 2025 season. I have no doubt that Aberg will be a top-5 player at some point in his career, but there's something missing right now and I don't think he figures it out until next season. --Greg Vara
I did not find a spot to play Cantlay until this point and I'm pretty glad I waited. He ranked No. 3 in my model this week and like always seems to be saving his best for the playoffs. Cantlay has finished T8-T12-2nd in his last three starts. The irons play over sthat stretch has been as good as it has ever been in his career and he is now up to No. 6 in the DataGolf rankings hoping to get a pick for the upcoming Presidents Cup. Cantlay led the field at Bellerive in SG: Approach and was also second in SG: Around-the-Green. He has a great record at East Lake with four finishes of T7 or better in his last five starts, including a win in 2021 and a T2 last year. --Ryan Andrade
Throughout the season I deployed the same player in both I was in every week, fulling knowing I would use the final player in the TOUR Championship and not at all in the other league. I wasn't necessarily planning on that player being Hovland, but I'm not regretting it after cashing in the league that ended last week and having a player available for the final event who ranks second in the field in SG: Total since making his first appearance at East Lake in 2020. --Kevin O'Brien
TOUR Championship: One and Done Fades
Really wanted to pick Justin Thomas. But faded him so much the past few weeks he faded right out of the TOUR Championship. Matsuyama, in 11 trips to East Lake, has finished in the top-10 three times and only once in his past six tries. He finished 29th last year. --Len Hochberg
In the outright betting market, Aberg has probably surpassed Fleetwood -- and Patrick Cantlay -- as the most overpriced click on a weekly basis. The 26-year-old Swede hasn't won anywhere in 18 months, and he just finished 43rd of 50 in SG: Ballstriking at the BMW Championship where he particularly struggled with his accuracy off the tee. Additionally, he failed to post a top-15 result in either of his first two trips to East Lake. --Bryce Danielson
Well, this didn't play out like I had hoped. I held off on Young all season with the hope that I'd catch him at the right time and that time might not come this season. I passed on Young while he was on a heater earlier this season and he really hasn't been the same guy since. I think he's still capable of being that guy any given week, but I have to admit, I kind of painted myself into a corner with this one. On the bright side, Young did finish 4th here last year, so we know he can get around this course. --Greg Vara
Young has really struggled on the greens the last several weeks. He ranks 29th out of 30 players in SG: Putting over the last 24 rounds. It has resulted in seven finishes outside the top 25 in his last nine starts, not something you would expect from a player who was in the Player of the Year discussion not that long ago. Young has also struggled with his approach play in the playoffs, something that was a big part of the reason for his success throughout much of the season. Hopefully you were able to take advantage of him earlier in the season. --Ryan Andrade
It was a fun season for Fitzpatrick, whose presence at East Lake alone will keep him relevant on the PGA Tour for a while. However, he will be making his TOUR Championship debut and has not had a quality result in two months, so even if you want to zag this is not the way to go. --Kevin O'Brien
Don't get burned by late withdrawals. Visit RotoWire's PGA tournament field page for a live-updated summary of the field for the current week and list of players who have dropped out.
