2023 Tour Championship: Top 10 power rankings at East Lake

The third and final leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs is at the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

The 2022-23 PGA Tour season comes down to this.

The top 70 players who made the FedEx Cup Playoffs were whittled down to 50 last week and now 30. This lucky final group qualified for the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.

Since 2019, the Tour Championship has used a net scoring system.

In this system, the tournament winner is the FedEx Cup champion by virtue of winning the Tour Championship.

First place in the FedEx Cup standings after the BMW Championship gets a head start at 10-under-par. It continues with second place starting at 8-under, third at 7-under, fourth at 6-under, and fifth at 5-under.

SIxth through 10th are at 4-under, 11th-15th at 3-under, 16th-20th at 2-under, 21tst-25th at 1-under, and 26th-30th at even par.

Here’s where everyone will begin the 2023 Tour Championship:

1. Scottie Scheffler (-10), 2. Viktor Hovland (-8), 3. Rory McIlroy (-7), 4. Jon Rahm (-6), 5. Lucas Glover (-5), 6. Max Homa (-4), 7. Patrick Cantlay (-4), 8. Brian Harman (-4), 9. Wyndham Clark (-4), 10. Matt Fitzpatrick (-4), 11. Tommy Fleetwood (-3), 12. Russell Henley (-3), 13. Keegan Bradley (-3), 14. Rickie Fowler (-3), 15. Xander Schauffele (-3), 16. Tom Kim (-2), 17. Sungjae Im (-2), 18. Tony Finau (-2), 19. Corey Conners (-2), 20. Si Woo Kim (-2), 21. Taylor Moore (-1), 22. Nick Taylor (-1), 23. Adam Schenk (-1), 24. Collin Morikawa (-1), 25. Jason Day (-1), 26. Sam Burns (E), 27. Emiliano Grillo (E), 28. Tyrrell Hatton (E), 29. Jordan Spieth (E), 30. Sepp Straka (E).

East Lake hosted the 1963 Ryder Cup and the Tour Championship in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004- present.

The course is a Donald Ross design that opened in 1904. It measures 7,346 yards and plays to a par 70.

Key stats this week are strokes gained tee-to-green, proximity from 150-200 yards, and performance on Bermuda greens.

Hitting fairways is at a premium, as well as length.

This tends to be one of the tougher venues annually on the PGA Tour schedule.

Barring the grounds crew going heavy on the sprinklers, conditions could be firm and fast this week.

Let’s see who can handle the heat and haul in gobs of cash:

Sungjae Im has an eight-shot hill to climb. That’d be the biggest deficit erased since the Tour Championship adopted the staggered start format in 2019.

I don’t see him pulling that off, but I like him to improve his standing in the FedEx Cup. Im almost won it all last year, carding the second lowest gross score and finishing T-2nd in the FedEx Cup after rounds of 67-65-66-66.

"“The key to having a good score here at East Lake is hitting the fairways,” Im was transcribed by ASAP Sports in 2022. “Although I wasn’t able to do that up to a level during round 1, overall I think my tee shots were pretty accurate, which led me to good scores.”"

The South Korean who now resides in Atlanta wasn’t a lock to play in his adopted hometown. Im entered the BMW Championship 28th in the standings.

He not only punched his ticket into the top 30, but he’s still got an outside chance of making noise this week thanks to a solo seventh (68-68-68-66) last week at Olympia Fields.

The 25-year-old continues to be one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour. He’s made his fifth straight Tour Championship.

Im ranks 15th in total strokes gained per round (1.15), is gaining strokes in every SG category, and is top-22 in all but one. There are no flaws in his game.

The next step is to win at a higher clip. Two wins this far into his career seems low.

That day may not come today, but Im can build momentum heading into 2024.