Thirty Golfers Started the Tour Championship on Level Par and the Winner Takes Twenty-Three Million Dollars
East Lake has dropped the staggered start for a second year, so the FedEx Cup is decided over 72 holes from scratch. Scottie Scheffler arrived with 4,986 points and one regular-season win.
All thirty players at the Tour Championship began the week on level par. For a second year East Lake has dropped the staggered start that used to hand the points leader a head start, so the FedEx Cup is settled over 72 holes of ordinary stroke play from 27 to 30 August in Atlanta.
The money
| Prize | Amount |
|---|---|
| FedEx Cup bonus, 1st | $23,000,000 |
| FedEx Cup bonus, 2nd | $13,000,000 |
| FedEx Cup bonus, 3rd | $8,000,000 |
| Tour Championship purse | $40,000,000 |
| Tournament winner's share | $10,000,000 |
| Tournament runner-up | $5,000,000 |
The FedEx Cup postseason bonus pool is $137.875 million in total. The bonus is paid on top of the tournament purse, so the winner of both collects $33 million.
Who is in it
The field is the top thirty from the regular season and the first two playoff events. Scottie Scheffler came in as points leader on 4,986 despite a single win during the regular season, a lead built on finishing position rather than trophies.
Rain during Thursday's opening round forced preferred lies across all eighteen holes. The early leaderboard had a group at one under including Tom Kim, Ryan Fox, Adam Scott, Robert MacIntyre, Viktor Hovland and Alex Smalley, with Justin Rose, Min Woo Lee and Patrick Cantlay among those at level par.
What settles it
The final round is on Sunday 30 August, with the weekend rounds on CBS and Paramount+. Because everybody started level, the FedEx Cup champion is simply whoever posts the lowest 72-hole total - there is no separate points calculation left to run.
Following it on Playdash
Playdash prices the FedEx Cup finale with outright winner, top five and top ten finish, first-round leader, three-ball and two-ball matchups, and round-by-round in-play pricing. Atlanta tee times fall in the Southeast Asian small hours, so the market that tends to get used most locally is the outright, priced through Sunday.
Format, field, purse and bonus figures as published by CBS Sports and Golf News Net. The first-round leaderboard cited above is a snapshot from early in Thursday's play, not a completed round. Correct at the time of writing on 28 August 2026.