Tour Championship at East Lake: Big Purse & PGA Thrills
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00:00The tour championship, the big purse, it's all here this week down in Atlanta at East
00:09Lake Golf Club.
00:10Watching this play out will be sensational.
00:12Now, the reason that we bring on Dubs Anderson is here.
00:15He is a fine co-host.
00:17We know a lot about a lot of topics, but this man knows the PGA Tour, and thank goodness
00:22I have him with this segment.
00:24So Dubsy, let's just lay it out here.
00:26The tour championship will be played this weekend.
00:29As I said, a huge purse here.
00:30But let the people know, if they weren't following along yet, how did we get this point with
00:35the tour champion this week?
00:37And also, how does it play out, and what are some of the rules that everybody can look
00:40forward to?
00:41Yeah, it's a little different this week, Donny.
00:44It's the last event for the FedExCup playoffs, so it is the season finale.
00:48A lot of money on the line, $25 million for whoever finishes up on top at East Lake on
00:55Sunday afternoon.
00:56There were 70 players to start the playoffs, it became 50 there last week, and we've now
01:00only got 30 remaining.
01:03There's going to be no cut for this one, so every goal for the Tees off on Thursday has
01:07a really good chance of going through to the weekend and making a bit of a tilt up this
01:11leaderboard.
01:12Now, the starting positions is a unique one.
01:14It's a staggered scoring start.
01:17So we do this in trying to reward the better players through the regular season.
01:20So how's it going to look on Thursday morning?
01:22Scotty Scheffler will start this tournament at 10-under par.
01:26Xander Schauffele, he'll start in second place at 8-under par.
01:30Hideki Matsuyama, he'll start at 7-under par, and we keep on seeding the golfers.
01:35Once we get to 5-under, 5 shots apiece here.
01:39So a lot of the golfers will be starting 8 shots back, 9 shots back, 10 shots back.
01:43So it really is such a benefit for playing some good golf throughout the season.
01:47Scotty Scheffler, he's had 6 wins, including a gold medal as well.
01:52Xander Schauffele has had the two majors, and he looks to be playing with a chip on
01:56his shoulder.
01:57So if you look at the markets this week, you'll be saying, gee, Scotty Scheffler, that's a
02:01little short at plus 110, but he will start on Thursday at 10-under par.
02:06This is going to be a familiar spot for your world number one.
02:09He's gone off there as the top choice the last couple of years, but has failed to get
02:13it done.
02:14It was Viktor Hovland taking up a 7-shot margin last year to ultimately lift the trophy at
02:19the Tour Championship.
02:20So for us, what does that tell us?
02:22It's never easy being a frontrunner on the PGA Tour.
02:25It's very tough trying to lead a tournament going through Saturday afternoon through to
02:29Sunday afternoon.
02:30For Scotty Scheffler, he has got to carry that expectation starting bright and early
02:35on Thursday morning.
02:36And for all of the chasers, well, they're not expected to get the win, so they're playing
02:40with a little house money so they can just play a little looser, a little freer on what
02:45looks to be a revamped Eastlake Golf Club over there in Atlanta.
02:49They'll play it as a par 71 this year at 7,500 yards.
02:53I was covering this tournament a couple of seasons back, Donnie.
02:56This is a big ballpark.
02:57It's the ultimate test.
02:58It brings a bit of water into play, but a good thing for all of these golfers is this
03:03is prime time.
03:04This is where they try and trend their golf game up towards.
03:06They want to play well in the majors.
03:08They want to play very well here considering how much money is at stake.