Golf world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler hopes to cap off a historic year with a career-first FedExCup title this week in Atlanta.
Scheffler will start the Tour Championship with a two-stroke advantage over world No. 2 Xander Schauffele and the rest of the field, giving him a significant advantage over his rivals. However, Scheffler will be hoping to bring an end to an unwanted streak in the Tour Championship.
This year is the third time that Scheffler has started at the Tour Championship in the lead - but he's never won it. A FedExCup title would cap off an incredible year for Scheffler, who has won six tournaments on the PGA Tour this year, including The Masters and Players Championship, as well as Olympic gold in Paris earlier this month.
Scheffler has indirectly made his feelings clear on who has been the best golfer on the circuit this year by summing up how the best can be determined. The 28-year-old believes a playoff at the end of the year is not a good indicator as to who is the best, stating the performance across the whole year should be taken into account.
"If you want to just have a player that's playing the best at the end of the year, I think the Playoffs will definitely identify that player. In terms of the season-long race, it's maybe not always going to be the guy that plays the best the whole season; it's going to be the guy that plays the best in these Playoff events," Scheffler told Sky Sports .
"That's really what you're identifying is the guy that plays the best in these last three events. It's a format that's changed a bunch or a few times over the past few years," he continued.
"In terms of when it first got started you had a year where I think it was Padraig Harrington won two majors and maybe didn't make the BMW, and I know he didn't make this tournament. So arguably it wasn't really a great set-up then.
"I think it provides a little bit of volatility, which is good for the fans, and I think it's also good for some players that didn't have their best years leading up to get into the Playoffs, and all of a sudden turn a year that's not their best into somewhat of a career year in terms of winning the FedExCup.
"A lot of volatility, but at the end of the day, golf is golf. The easiest way to solve an issue that you don't like in the game of golf is to play better. That's really all it comes down to in our game. At the end of the day, if you play good enough golf, it will take care of itself."
Since the 2019 format change, no player who has started the Tour Championship at the top of the leaderboard has gone on to win it - Scheffler has refused to tread on the side of caution but recognizes the position he's in. "It's obviously everybody's goal at the beginning of the year to have a chance, and going in the first spot, no better opportunity than where I'm sitting," he admitted.
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