Out of the Rough: TOUR Championship (2025)

The conclusion of the 2025 PGA TOUR season is here with one final stop at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia for this week’s TOUR Championship.

Across the last eight months, golfers on the PGA Tour acquired cumulative FedEx points each week with eyes on making the 70-man field for the FedEx Cup Playoffs beginning two weeks ago at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

From there, the top 50-golfers within the FedEx Cup Standings advanced to last week’s BMW Championship and now, just the top 30-golfers of the season-long FedEx Cup points standings remain for this week’s end-of-the-season TOUR Championship. 

Now, when it’s all said-and-done on Sunday, one man will stand on the 18th green at East Lake hoisting the FedEx Cup trophy and walking away with a lofty $10 Million check.

The event has gone-away with the staggered-stroke starting format, that would see the higher-seeded golfer within the FedEx Cup Standings receiving various starting-strokes respective of their placement.

Now, each golfer starts with a level playing field. The previous installments too would pay out the massive $25 million to the winner of this event but with the changes, the $25 million for the FedEx Cup Standings was spread out. 

Scottie Scheffler received $10 million for ending the regular season as the leader and received an additional $5 million for being the top-seed at the Tour Championship. The remaining $10 million was spread out, but that is bonus funds and not related to this event.

This event now has a $40 million purse, the largest in the sport, by a long shot. The winner will receive $10 million which too, is the largest in the sport. 

The Field

At this point, if you’re reading this article, you know who is in and who is not for this week.

It’s rare that I get to do this, so here is the complete field for this week’s TOUR Championship.

• Scottie Scheffler

• Rory McIlroy

• J.J. Spaun

• Justin Rose

• Tommy Fleetwood

• Ben Griffin

• Russell Henley

• Sepp Straka

• Robert MacIntyre

• Maverick McNealy

• Harris English

• Justin Thomas

• Cameron Young

• Ludvig Aberg

• Andrew Novak

• Keegan Bradley

• Sam Burns

• Brian Harman

• Corey Conners

• Patrick Cantlay

• Collin Morikawa

• Viktor Hovland

• Hideki Matsuyama

• Shane Lowry

• Nick Taylor

• Harry Hall

• Jacob Bridgeman

• Sungjae Im

• Chris Gotterup

• Akshay Bhatia

The Course

East Lake Golf Club was established in 1904 and features a rich history. It has served as the permanent final stop of the PGA TOUR season since the TOUR Championship’s inception in 2004.

Along with being the permanent home to this end-of-the-season event, East Lake has hosted the Ryder Cup in 1963 and the 2001 U.S. Amateur. East Lake also hosts the East Lake Cup, a collegiate match play series that has seen notable individual medalist honors such as Scheffler and Hovland

East Lake is Donald Ross designed and plays as a par-70 at 7,319 yards. This puts the course slightly above the TOUR average in distance.

The track features six par-fours over 450-yards and three par-threes over 200-yards. These holes offer a slight advantage to the longer hitters of the TOUR, especially those with strong long irons.

Driving will be a premium here at East Lake which features the most narrow fairways on TOUR and annually holds a top-three placement in missed fairway penalty of all courses played on TOUR.

With the narrow fairways, this track still rewards golfers with above-average distance off-the-tee.

Over 30-percent of all approach shots taken this week will come from 200-plus yards, going along with the three par-threes over 200 yards, those with strong long irons will get a leg up this week.

The green complexes featured this week are nuanced, just as we’ve seen at other Ross designs on TOUR (Sedgefield Country Club and Detroit Golf Club.) The greens are also Bermuda, taking away some of the importance of strong-putting.

Scrambling too will be of the utmost importance this week with these extremely narrow fairways and the force of golfers playing from the rough. With such implications on the line, being able to scramble and then in turn, avoid bogeys, will be the difference.

Reported earlier this year, the Tour set to adjust some holes to bring more risk-reward type of shots into play. The idea was to bring more excitement to this end-of-the-season event and along with the removal of the staggered-scoring start, the Tour is set to add some fireworks on the golf course and score cards along the way. 

Overall, East Lake takes a complete tee-to-green game to be successful. Any hopeful winner will require a well-balanced attack.

Annually, half of the holes played at East Lake field hold a scoring average above par.

The Weather

If the forecast is to hold true, we can expect mother nature to have her say in who wins this week. Thursday is currently calling for a 25-percent chance of precipitation. Friday is calling for a 40-percent chance of late-thunderstorms, Saturday a 40-percent chance of scattered thunderstorms and a 25-percent chance of precipitation Sunday. Temperatures will be at the highest on Sunday at 89-degrees before decreasing to 84-degrees on Friday and 82-degrees on Saturday before bouncing back to 86-degrees on Sunday. Winds will be minimal however. They’ll begin at five miles-per-hour on Thursday before increasing to six miles-per-hour for the rest of the week.

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Tee to Green (SG: TTG)

• Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (SG: OTT) / Average Driving Distance

• Good Drives Percentage

• Ball Striking

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Par Four Average Scoring

• Par Three Average Scoring

• Proximity to the Hole from 200-plus Yards

• Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermuda (SG: PUTT Bermuda)

• Scrambling

• Bogey Avoidance

• Birdie or Better Percentage

Betting Card

J.J. Spaun (+3300)

I was very tempted to roll out a Rory McIlroy single-bullet for the second straight week but I like the J.J. Spaun single bullet a bit better. Spaun is currently sixth on Tour in both SG: TTG and SG: APP, 23rd in both ball striking and par-four average scoring, 33rd in bogey avoidance, 38th in SG: OTT, 53rd in par-three average scoring, 56th in birdie-or-better percentage, 57th in good drives percentage, 62nd in average driving distance, 82nd in scrambling, 107th in SG: PUTT Bermuda and 131st in proximity to the hole from 200-plus yards. He placed 23rd last week at the BMW Championship and prior to that placed second at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and 23rd at The Open Championship. He missed the cut at the Genesis Scottish Open but prior to that placed 14th at the Travelers Championship and won the U.S. Open.