Would Tommy Fleetwood Have Won The Tour Championship Under The Starting Strokes Format? The Surprising Numbers Tell A Different Story

Like previous years, the Tour Championship marked the end of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but things were a little different at the 2025 edition, thanks to a tweak to the format.

Between 2019 and 2024, starting strokes were given to the 30 players in the field determined by their FedEx Cup ranking at the beginning of the tournament.

For example, a year ago, Scottie Scheffler was at the top of the rankings ahead of the event, meaning he began on 10-under, with the man in second, Xander Schauffele, two strokes back on eight under.

That number reduced the further down the standings you went, with the final five beginning on even par.

However, the format was not without its critics, with Scheffler describing it as “silly” and confusion among fans over who actually took the honors at the tournament.

For example, a year ago, helped by his advantage at the start of the tournament, Scheffler was credited as the winner of the event even though Collin Morikawa was the 72-hole victor.

It was all change in 2025, with starting strokes scrapped, meaning players knew from the outset that the man who shot the lowest score over 72 holes would win the event and be named FedEx Cup champion.

That meant even the player in 30^th in the FedEx Cup standings at the start of the event, Akshay Bhatia, theoretically had as much chance of becoming FedEx Cup champion as Scheffler in first.

In the end, Tommy Fleetwood finally claimed his maiden PGA Tour win and in doing so was named FedEx Cup champion, but had the starting strokes system been in place, it would have been another heartbreaking close call for the Englishman.

That's because Scheffler, who finished in T4 on 14-under, would have instead been on 24-under for the tournament with starting strokes of 10-under.

Fleetwood's shot advantage at the beginning of the event would have been five, so his finish of 18-under for the tournament would have left him one short of Scheffler on 23-under.

In the end, Fleetwood won't care about that, as the record shows that he has finally broken his long run of winless PGA Tour events.

It will be all the sweeter for him given his runner-up at the Travelers Championship and two more close calls at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and BMW Championship.

Here is how the final leaderboard would have looked had the old format been in place at the 2025 Tour Championship.

Alternative Tour Championship Final Leaderboard (With Starting Strokes)

• 1^st -24 Scottie Scheffler
• 2^nd -23 Tommy Fleetwood
• 3^rd -19 Russell Henley
• T4 -17 Cameron Young
• T4 -17 Patrick Cantlay
• T6 -16 Corey Conners
• T6 -16 Justin Thomas
• T6 -16 Ben Griffin
• T9 -15 Sam Burns
• T9 -15 Keegan Bradley
• 11^th -14 Rory McIlroy
• T12 -13 Justin Rose
• T12 -13 Harris English
• T12 -13 Robert MacIntyre
• T15 -12 Brian Harman
• T15 -12 Viktor Hovland
• T15 -12 Chris Gotterup
• T18 -11 JJ Spaun
• T18 -11 Shane Lowry
• T20 -10 Ludvig Aberg
• T20 -10 Maverick McNealy
• T20 -10 Akshay Bhatia
• T23 -9 Harry Hall
• T23 -9 Collin Morikawa
• T23 -9 Nick Taylor
• 26^th -7 Andrew Novak
• T27 E Sungjae Im
• T27 E Jacob Bridgeman
• 29^th +2 Hideki Matsuyama
• 30^th +3 Sepp Straka