FedEx Cup new rules

[Rainger99]

I was watching golf this afternoon and they had a commercial saying that the FedEx Cup rules have changed.

The big change is that they have eliminated the "Starting Strokes" format at the Tour Championship, which had been in place since 2019.

If I understand it correctly,
everyone will now start at even par and it is played like every other tournament. You don’t get any advantage for how well you played during the season. So hypothetically, someone could win every tournament during the season but if they lost the final tournament, they would not win the FedEx Cup.

I had always thought that the FedEx Cup was a season long competition. It appears to be season long in determining who qualifies but the final tournament is just a regular tournament.

[BrianL99]

I was watching golf this afternoon and they had a commercial saying that the FedEx Cup rules have changed.

The big change is that they have eliminated the "Starting Strokes" format at the Tour Championship, which had been in place since 2019.




The change was made last month and has been in the works for 2 years. Officially it's been attributed to the the PGA Tour's "FanForward" initiative, but it's really result of sponsor and player criticism ... it was a dumb format.

PGA TOUR announces enhancements to TOUR Championship format and FedExCup race (https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/latest/2025/05/27/pga-tour-announces-enhancements-to-tour-championship-format-and-fedexcup-race)

[golfing eagles]

The change was made last month and has been in the works for 2 years. Officially it's been attributed to the the PGA Tour's "FanForward" initiative, but it's really result of sponsor and player criticism ... it was a dumb format.

PGA TOUR announces enhancements to TOUR Championship format and FedExCup race (https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/latest/2025/05/27/pga-tour-announces-enhancements-to-tour-championship-format-and-fedexcup-race)

In addition, they interviewed Scheffler, McIlroy, Schauffle, Morikawa and other top players who would usually benefit from the staggered starting scores and they all were in favor of the change. But I don't think they can lead in to the TV coverage tagline of "part of the season long race for the FedEx Cup anymore, just the season long race to the top 30 :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

[BrianL99]

In addition, they interviewed Scheffler, McIlroy, Schauffle, Morikawa and other top players who would usually benefit from the staggered starting scores and they all were in favor of the change. But I don't think they can lead in to the TV coverage tagline of "part of the season long race for the FedEx Cup anymore, just the season long race to the top 30 :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

In 5 years, we won't recognize the PGA Tour. The plan is to reduced the number of fully qualified PGA Tour players, to 50-75. There'll be additional 25-50 revolving spots, based on other qualifying criteria.

One need only look at the Leaderboard at the Rocket Mortgage, to see why the Tour is in such flux. LIV Golf shed a spotlight on what the PGA Tour was missing from a fan perspective. Star Power drives TV Ratings. LIV may have made poor choices as to who was actually a "Star", but their concept was on target.

At the Rocket, in the Top 25, only Colin Morikawa has any star power. Most golfers aren't all that interested in watching a Lumpy Heron look-alike from South Africa, shoot 23 under Par.