Tour Championship 2023: Course and current form stats

• Title decided by handicap format

• Scottie 13/82.63 to make amends this time around

• Can Rory 7/24.50 claim fourth East Lake title?

Tournament Notes

• And then there were 30. The leading 30 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings, thru the BMW Championship, get to play in Atlanta this week;

• For a fifth straight year, this prestigious PGA Tour title will be decided by a 72-hole handicap format;

• 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;

• Those teeing-up will have a handicap that relates to their current position in the FedEx Cup table (following BMW Championship);

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

• Viktor Hovland, who is second in the list, begins on minus eight, while those ranked between 26th and 30th (Sam Burns, Emiliano Grillo, Tyrrell Hatton, Jordan Spieth and Sepp Straka) 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

Course Notes

• This will be the 23rd time that the Tour Championship has been staged at East Lake;

• 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 two and a half 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 from 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;

• Following this year's tournament, Andrew Green will undertake renovation work at East Lake to be completed ahead of the 2024 Tour Championship.

Latest betting for this week's Tour Championship

East Lake Stroke Averages

Tour Championship: Latest betting for low 72-hole totals

Tour Championship Top Tips: Four To Watch

Tom Kim 125/1126.00: Bit of a gamble, as the young Korean makes his East Lake debut this week. An unlikely winner of the FedEx Cup trophy - as he starts eight strokes adrift - but could easily post lowest 72-hole total.

Rory McIlroy 7/24.50: A three-time winner at East Lake, so certainly knows his way around the course. Is on a run of nine straight top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour.

Xander Schauffele 33/134.00: Course specialist who has twice posted the lowest 72-hole total. An unlikely FedEx Cup winner as he starts seven strokes off the pace.

Scottie Scheffler 13/82.63: For the second year in a row heads to East Lake top of the FedEx Cup standings. Since winning at Sawgrass in March, he has posted six podium finishes without lifting the trophy. That could change this week, with the American taking a two-stroke advantage onto the first tee.

Betfair Sportsbook

Please Note: Course Positions for 2019-22 relates to a golfer's 72-hole total, rather than their position after handicap. Thus, in 2022, Scottie Scheffler posted the 13th lowest 72-hole total, but finished 2nd after his -10 handicap was taken into account.