On Tuesday, ahead of this week's Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, the PGA Tour announced it will eliminate the starting-strokes format from the Tour Championship.
Instead of starting at varying scores based on their positions in the FedEx Cup standings, the 30 players fortunate enough to make it to East Lake will all begin the tourney with the same score, just as they would any other week, and battle it out on an even playing field for the $25 million payday.
Although this new layout is an upgrade from the lopsided, gimmicky starting-strokes format, the PGA Tour continues to miss the mark when it comes to the Tour Championship.
The race to the FedEx Cup is a season-long trek in which every stop on the PGA Tour schedule matters for standings. Obviously, the players who performed the best all season deserve an advantage in the playoffs, similar to the byes top seeds earn in the NFL and MLB playoffs.
The PGA Tour attempted to manufacture an advantage for the top players by implementing the starting-strokes format in 2019, but the head start made it too easy for the No. 1 player to cruise to a victory.
Last season, Scottie Scheffler began the Tour Championship at 10-under, shot 20-under at the tournament to finish at 30-under, ultimately winning by four. It wasn't too entertaining for fans, considering Scheffler's win was seldom in doubt.
Returning to a four-round format with no head starts makes the Tour Championship more enticing for fans, but it completely eliminates the advantage the top players deserve.
A player like Scheffler could win 10 times in the regular season, but if he has an off week at East Lake, he could easily miss out on the $25 million bonus to a player who didn't win once in the regular season.
If this season's tournament started today, Taylor Pendrith, who sits in 30th place in the FedEx Cup standings with zero wins this year and just two finishes better than 38th in his last 10 starts, would have the same chance as Scheffler to win the $25 million.
There's a middle ground here, and it's staring Jay Monahan right in the face.
Instead of a stroke-play format at the Tour Championship, the PGA Tour should take a page out of the March Madness book and make the season finale a match play event.
It's the best of both worlds.
Not only is match play a more entertaining product for fans with only 30 players in the field, but it also gives the Tour options to create advantages for the top players in the standings.
The PGA Tour could create a 30-man bracket with two first-round byes for the top two players in the FedEx Cup standings. Top seeds get to play lower seeds in the early rounds to give them a better chance to make a deep run in the tournament and increase their payday.
Match play is an enthralling format for players and fans, and PGA Tour viewers haven't been able to scratch that itch since the WGC-Match Play event ended in 2023. Switching to a one-on-one tournament would cater to the fans while giving the top players an edge that isn't too unfair to the rest of the field.