Photo Credits: Bryan Berlin. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Authored By: Ryan Smith

The Top 30 players on the PGA Tour take on East Lake Club in Atlanta, GA for the TOUR Championship. It has been the permanent home of the TOUR Championship since 2005. The Course is a Par 70 course with a total yardage of 7,440 yards. 

Here are the Top 8 players in the field:

Scottie Scheffler| 1st in Fedex Cup Standings|+350

Scottie won the TOUR Championship in 2024 under the old strokes format. Last week, he finished T12 at the BMW Championship while battling hand, foot, and mouth. He struggled with a 72 on Thursday but had much improved play after Thursday. Scottie just needs to be healthy and he will definitely have a chance.

Rory McIlory|11th in Fedex Cup Standings| +950

Rory had a much improved week after his disastrous showing at the St Jude Championship. He finished solo 3rd at the BMW Championship and was once tied for the lead. If he can put together a showing like last week, Rory definitely has a chance. He has won the 2016,2019, and 2022 TOUR Championships so he loves this course.

Xander Schauffele| 12th in Fedex Cup Standings| +1200

Xander never got going last week at the BMW Championship he finished T26. It has just been an inconsistent season for him. The good news is he loves this golf course. He won the TOUR Championship in 2017 as a PGA Tour Rookie. He has never shot an over par round at East Lake. His last four appearances at East Lake he has finished T5 or better. Maybe Xander can put together a decent week at a course he loves.

Wyndham Clark| 3rd in FedEx Cup Standings| +1600

Clark has had a strong playoff run. He finished T5 at St Jude and last week he won the BMW Championship. He is tied for the most wins on TOUR this season with Chris Gotterup and Matt Fitzpatrick. Clark has had good success here in limited starts. He has two top ten finishes at East Lake. Clark needs to improve his driver to have a chance to win at East Lake. East Lake has a tricky 1st hole and it is the most difficult hole at the course.

Patrick Cantlay| 19th in Fedex Cup Standings| +1600

Cantlay made a huge jump in the standings from 43rd to 19th to book a return to Atlanta. He finished 2nd last week at the BMW Championship. He also had a T12 finish at St Jude. Cantlay was the runner up last year at the TOUR Championship. He lost by 3 strokes to Fleetwood. He also won the 2021 TOUR Championship. Cantlay has a history of strong play at this course and he will be in front of his home fans as he is a member of the TGL Atlanta Drive. 

Ludvig Aberg| 10th in Fedex Cup Standings| +1800

Aberg has quietly had a strong playoffs. He finished T16 last week at the BMW Championship and at the St Jude Championship he finished T7. Aberg also had strong weekend numbers last weekend shooting 69s on both days. That is a huge step for a guy who always seems to have a bad weekend round. Unfortunately, Aberg has struggled at East Lake. He has made two starts here and his best finish is 16th out of 30 golfers. Aberg needs to put together his complete golf game to have a chance at winning and have a good tournament of putting.

Sam Burns| 8th in FedEx Cup Standings|+1800

Burns didn’t have his best last week at the BMW Championship as he finished T28. The week prior he finished T3 at St Jude Championship. Burns has mostly brought it in the big events but yet he always seems to fall just short of getting a win. Burns has a strong recent history at East Lake finishing T12 or better in his last 3 TOUR Championships. Burns could use improvement of the driver if he wants to win at East Lake. 

Matt Fitzpatrick| 2nd in FedEx Cup Standings| +2000

Fitzpatrick is tied with Gotterup and Clark for most wins on TOUR this season at three wins. Fitzpatrick had a strong opening round of 65 at last week’s BMW Championship but he basically disappeared from the tournament after that and finished T28. Fitzpatrick needs to get his driver and putter going where he ranks 55th and 60th in those categories. He is making his first TOUR Championship appearance since 2023 where he finished T9. 

Expert Picks:

Ryan Smith – 15 points (1-2-0)

My pick this week is Patrick Cantlay. He loves this golf course and he is coming off of a huge week last week to qualify for the TOUR Championship. Cantlay has plenty of huge moments in his career so I think he is built for this moment. Cantlay has finished T12 and solo 2nd in his two playoff starts. He needs to have a really great week of putting to win. He ranks 95th in putting.

Jonathan Hutson- 8 points (0-3-0)

My pick to win this week is Sam Burns. Burns has had many close calls and I think he gets it done this week at East Lake to win his 1st career TOUR Championship. Burns has one runner-up finish, 2 third place finishes, 4 top fives, and 6 top ten finishes.

Adrian Rosati- 6 points (1-0-2)

My pick to win this week is Scottie Scheffler. He is the worlds number 1 player and when his game is on it is very hard to beat him. Scottie already has 1 win in these playoffs. He has won the TOUR Championship before. Scottie is a strong factor no matter the course setup or style.

Check back in this Sunday evening or early next week to see how all the experts did and we react to the last golf tournament of the season!