After his heartbreak in Paris, Rory McIlroy returns to action this weekend, as the FedEx Cup playoffs get underway.
The playoffs will crown the 2024 PGA Tour champion, with three successive weekend playoff tournaments gradually whittling down the field.
First, the top 70 players on this year's tour will take part in the St. Jude Championship in Tennessee, before the field is culled to 50 for the following week's BMW Championship. Another 20 players are cut before the decisive Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia.
A relatively new format was introduced in 2019 which sees the FedEx Cup points leader enter the first round of the Tour Championship on -10, with the second-placed player beginning their opening round at -8, gradually decreasing until the last five players begin on even par.
It is a format which keeps the race for the FedEx Cup alive right until the very end of the season - though Rory McIlroy and hot favourite Scottie Scheffler were split on whether it is a positive for the game of golf ahead of this week's action.
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Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler have very different take on FedEx Cup format
4 August 2024; Rory McIlroy of Team Ireland on the 18th green during the men's individual stroke play final round at Le Golf National during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Rory McIlroy enters the FedEx Cup in third place on the PGA Tour's overall standings, behind both Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele. Both men have been in electric form this year, while McIlroy has tasted disappointment at both the US Open and the Olympics this summer.
Scheffler enters the tournament as the regular season leader by an enormous margin, finishing almost 2,000 points ahead of Schauffele and a further 1,500 ahead of McIlroy.
Rory McIlroy spoke to the press on Wednesday ahead of the St. Jude Championship, and had a brilliant one-liner summing up why he enjoys the format so much.
I love this format because if it wasn't this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he's so far ahead. He's so far ahead, and you don't expect Scottie to finish outside the top five, either.
But...I think it makes the Tour Championship more exciting from a consumer standpoint.
It was, of course, a tongue-in-cheek remark, but it was in stark contrast to Scheffler's response when he was asked on the same topic.
The three-time Major champion said that he felt the format did not crown the right champion for a season-long tour, and also shared his belief that luck may play too much of a role in determining the FedEx Cup champion.
I think it's silly. You can't call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament.
Hypothetically we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn't heal the way it did at The Players, I finish 30th in the FedExCup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No.
It is what it is. It's a fun tournament. I don't really consider it the season-long race like I think the way it's called. But you've got to figure out a way to strike a balance between it being a good TV product and it still being a season-long race.
Right now, I don't know exactly how the ratings are or anything like that, but I know for a fact you can't really quite call it the season-long race when it comes down to one stroke-play tournament on the same golf course each year.
In fairness to McIlroy, the three-time FedEx Cup champion did acknowledge some of Scheffler's concerns, admitting that the format was more in the name of "entertainment."
Is it the fairest reflection of who's been the best player of the year? Probably not.
But I think at this point we're not in for totally fair, we're in for entertainment and for trying to put on the best product we possibly can.
After the excitement of the final round in Paris, the prospect of having the world's best golfers facing off for the next three weekends is certainly an enticing one.
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