Tour Championship 2022: Course and current form stats ahead of this season's finale

With 46 out of 47 tournaments now complete, the leading 30 golfers in this season's FedEx Cup standings travel to Atlanta to contest the Tour's lucrative showdown.

This will be the 22nd time that the Tour Championship has been staged at East Lake, where this season's No 1 golfer will be crowned on Sunday afternoon.

For a fourth successive year, the tournament will use a handicap system to determine the outcome.

All 30 pros will start the 72-hole event with a handicap that is dependent on their current position in the FedEx Cup table, following the BMW Championship which finished in Delaware on Sunday.

PGA Tour officials first decided to employ this handicap system in 2019, as it ensures that the player who wins the Tour Championship will also be declared FedEx Cup champion for the season.

Therefore Scottie Scheffler, the current FedEx Cup leader, will tee-off at East Lake on Thursday at 10-under-par.

Patrick Cantlay, who is second in the list, begins on minus eight, while those golfers ranked between 26th and 30th (Kyoung-Hoon Lee, JT Poston, Sahith Theegala, Adam Scott and Aaron Wise) start on level par.

The full list of handicaps is as follows:
FedEx Cup positions (1-30):
1st: 10-Under-Par
2nd: - 8
3rd: - 7
4th: - 6
5th: - 5
6th-10th: - 4
11th-15th: - 3
16th-20th: - 2
21st-25th: - 1
26th-30th: Level Par

It may appear to be a strange format for deciding this season's No 1 golfer, but with so much prize money up for grabs this week, there haven't been too many dissenting voices as yet.

Course Details

East Lake is a famous venue five miles east of downtown Atlanta, where the great amateur Bobby Jones played much of his golf.

However, the venue fell into disrepair not long after hosting the 1963 Ryder Cup, but like a Phoenix from the ashes rose again during the mid-1990s, and has been a regular PGA Tour stop for the past couple of decades.

East Lake is a typical lush parkland course where tight tree-lined fairways demand accuracy from the tee.

The layout's Bermuda grass rough is also a handful for those who stray off the fairways.

The greens are usually firm and quick, with water coming into play on four holes, while birdies are extremely difficult to extract.

When the tournament was switched from its usual October/November date to September, in 2007, East Lake's Bentgrass greens were re-seeded with Bermuda in order to cope with the much higher temperatures.

Latest betting for this week's Tour Championship - official PGA Tour final position

Stroke Averages

For Those Teeing-Up At East Lake This Week (2016-21)
Average .... (Rounds)
67.30: Xander Schauffele (20)
67.85: Rory McIlroy (20)
68.08: Justin Thomas (24)
68.30: Jon Rahm (20)
68.75: Billy Horschel (12)
69.10: Tony Finau (20)
69.42: Jordan Spieth (12)
69.50: Sung Jae Im (12)
69.58: Hideki Matsuyama (24)
69.83: Cameron Smith (12)
69.94: Patrick Cantlay (16)
Min. No. of Rounds = 12
Only those playing this week are included in table

Four To Watch

Patrick Cantlay: At No 2 in the current Play-Offs' standings, the American has a great chance of defending his FedEx Cup title this week. Has been in strong form most of the season and is at a career-high No 3 in the world.

Rory McIlroy: His most recent 20 rounds at East Lake - where he has triumphed twice - is 67.85.

Scottie Scheffler: Always an advantage to start with a two-stroke lead - before a single tournament shot is struck. Stood on the podium at the weekend when he tied-third at the BMW Championship.

Xander Schauffele: Has twice posted the lowest 72-hole total at East Lake and has enjoyed a brace of victories on the PGA Tour during the past nine weeks.

Please Note: Course Positions for 2019-21 relates to a golfer's 72-hole total, rather than their position after handicap. Thus, in 2019, Justin Thomas posted the 9th lowest 72-hole total, but finished 3rd after his -10 handicap was taken into account.

Latest betting for this week's Tour Championship - lowest 72-hole total

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MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut