2022 Tour Championship: Picks and Predictions for East Lake
The 2021/22 PGA season draws to a close this week after nearly 12 months of action.
What started last September in California at the Fortinet Championship will conclude with the FedEx Cup finale this week, the 2022 Tour Championship at East Lake.
After two weeks of this year’s FedEx Cup playoffs, 125 has been whittled down to 30 as the best in the world head to Atlanta, Georgia, for a shot at an 18 million dollar prize and the opportunity to become the FedEx Cup champion.
The top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings at the end of last week’s BMW Championship earned the right to play at East Lake this week, but that number has since been reduced to 29 following Will Zalatoris’ unfortunate withdrawal on Tuesday.
The Tour Championship employs a staggered stroke system and as a result, Scottie Scheffler will begin the week at 10-under-par after the world number one reclaimed the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings last week in Wilmington.
Here is how the rest of the 29-man field will begin the week behind Scheffler on the leaderboard:
Scottie Scheffler -10
Patrick Cantlay -8
Xander Schauffele -6
Sam Burns -5
Cam Smith, Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Sepp Straka, Sungjae Im -4
Jon Rahm, Scott Stallings, Justin Thomas, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick -3
Max Homa, Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth, Joaquin Niemann, Viktor Hovland -2
Collin Morikawa, Billy Horschel, Tom Hoge, Corey Conners, Brian Harman -1
K.H. Lee, J.T. Poston, Sahith Theegala, Adam Scott, Aaron Wise – E
East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, has played host to the season-ending Tour Championship for each of the last seven years now. The Donald Ross designed gem first welcomed the event back in 1998 and it has held the event on numerous occasions since.
The Par 70, 7,300 yard plus layout is another course that provides players with a complete tee-to-green test. East Lake’s fairways are narrow and challenging and its’ Bermuda grass greens, in typical Donald Ross fashion, are tricky and fast.
With the staggered stroke start, many sites are offering two different markets this week when it comes to outrights, both with and without strokes. Below is a look at the top 5 favorites in both categories over on WynnBet.
2022 Tour Championship Top 5 Favorites
(All odds courtesy of WynnBet)
Including starting strokes
- Scottie Scheffler (+210)
- Patrick Cantlay (+375)
- Xander Schauffele (+650)
- Rory McIlroy (+900)
- Jon Rahm (+1300)
Without starting strokes
- Rory McIlroy (+650)
- Jon Rahm (+800)
- Patrick Cantlay (+850)
- Xander Schauffele (+850)
- Scottie Scheffler (+1100)
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Pick To Win: Xander Schauffele (+650)
(With starting strokes)
Schauffele will head into the Tour Championship four shots behind leader Scottie Scheffler but with a better track record around East Lake than arguably anyone else in the entire field.
Xander has finished outside of the top 5 at East Lake just once in his last six starts and he was a winner here back in 2017.
Schauffele showed a bit of rust at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in his first start since the Open Championship at St. Andrews, but last week he started to resemble the player who won three times this season once again.
His 3rd place finish at last week’s BMW Championship shows his game is sharp at the right time as he heads into the PGA season finale. It has been a fantastic year for Xander and I like his chances of capping it off in style with this year’s FedEx Cup title when all is said and done.
Pick To Win: Collin Morikawa (+2500)
(Without starting strokes)
I’ll take a shot with Collin Morikawa in the without starting strokes market this week to compile the best 72-hole score at the 2022 Tour Championship.
It has been a somewhat disappointing season for Collin Morikawa after his incredible run over the past couple of years, but after a couple of missed cuts, the 2021 Open Champion has started to piece things together during the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Collin was 5th at the FedEx St. Jude Championship two weeks ago and last week at the BMW Championship he was right in the mix all week before a disastrous Sunday, 79, soured what had otherwise been another fantastic week.
Morikawa has made two appearances at East Lake thus far in his career with finishes of 6th and 26th respectively. It is a locale that should suit his game perfectly with Morikawa’s excellent combination of accuracy and elite ball-striking.
Next. 2022 Tour Championship: Top 10 power rankings at East Lake. dark
I’m willing to write off his disastrous Sunday round and instead look at his overall performance over the past couple of weeks. He is too far adrift of Scheffler in the overall scoring to have a chance at the FedEx Cup it would seem, but I like Morikawa’s chances of racking up the best score over 72 holes this week.