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Quirky Tour Championship format aside, here are two long shots to back this week at the PGA Tour finale

Can anybody catch up to Scottie Scheffler at East Lake?

Sepp Straka watches his shot from the tenth tee during the second round of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities on July 28, 2023 in Blaine, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
Sepp Straka watches his shot from the tenth tee during the second round of the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities on July 28, 2023 in Blaine, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)Read moreDavid Berding / Getty Images
    by Michael Leboff, Action Network
    Published 

The PGA Tour season will come to a dramatic conclusion this weekend.

The Tour Championship, which is held at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, is a no-cut event with a field of just 30 players. But the real kicker is that each player in the field is assigned a starting score before Round 1 based on their place in the FedEx Cup Standings before Round 1 on Thursday.

Scottie Scheffler, the FedExCup points leader after the first two playoff events will begin the TOUR Championship at 10-under par, giving him a two-stroke lead over Viktor Hovland, the No. 2 player, who will start at 8-under. Defending champion Rory McIlroy, currently in third-place, will begin at 7-under and from there it goes until we get to a handful of players starting at even par.

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Tour championship starting scores

Here’s a look at the full field with their starting score:

  1. Scottie Scheffler -10

  2. Viktor Hovland -8

  3. Rory McIlroy -7

  4. Jon Rahm -6

  5. Lucas Glover -5

  6. Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Wydham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick -4

  7. Tommy Fleetwood, Russell Henley, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele -3

  8. Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Tony Finau, Corey Conners, Si Woo Kim -2

  9. Taylor Moore, Nick Taylor, Adam Schenk, Collin Morikawa, Jason Day -1

  10. Sam Burns, Emiliano Grillo, Tyrrell Hatton, Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka Even

While the format has its critics and doesn’t make for great betting, bookmakers still do post markets for lowest total score without the FedEx Starting Strokes. Simply put, you’re betting on which player shoots the best score across the four rounds this weekend.

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Tour Championship picks (without FedEx Starting Strokes):

Sungjae Im (+2200, BetMGM)

It was a pretty quiet season for Sungjae Im, but the South Korean may be peaking at the right time. Im has posted consecutive top-7 finishes in the first two FedEx Cup Playoff events and he’s finished inside the top 20 in four of his last five outings. The omnipresent Im also should feel pretty comfortable at East Lake given this is the fifth time he’s played here and he’s coming off a runner-up performance (both with and without the bonus strokes) to Rory McIlroy in 2022.

Sepp Straka (+8000, BetMGM)

It would take a miracle for Sepp Straka to win the Tour Championship given his starting position (he’ll begin at even par, 10 strokes behind Scheffler), but if you wipe away the starting strokes there are some signals pointing to the 30-year-old being a feasible longshot bet. Not only is Straka having a splendid summer — he won at the John Deere Classic and finished T2 at the Open Championship — but he played his college golf at Georgia and should be used to the conditions he’ll be facing at East Lake. That showed last year when the Vienna, Austria native finished sixth and shot 12-under across four rounds.

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