FedEx Cup Finale: Tour Championship 2020 Preview

In this the strangest of PGA Tour seasons, finally and mercifully, the world's best golfers head to East Lake Country Club in Georgia for the annual money-spinning Tour Championship finale.

Come Monday, one man will be crowned FedEx Cup champion and, in the process, will bank a cool $15M. Nice work if you can get it, right?

To help build-up to what promises to be four days of great golf, we've pulled together a rundown of all you need to know about the final event on the 19/20 PGA Tour calendar.

THE VENUE

Course: East Lake Golf Club

Yardage: 7,346 yards (Par 70)

East Lake Golf Club has played host to the Tour Championship since the inaugural FedEx Cup Playoffs in 2007 and we head to Georgia once again to round off the PGA Tour season. The course's two nines were reversed back in 2016 to give for a more dramatic conclusion to the tournament with the 18th now a lengthy par-5 rather than the previous heavily guarded par-3.

Tree-lined fairways will require accuracy from the tee, and the decision to switch to Bermuda grass greens has led to higher winning scores over the years. Certainly, even with the staggered leaderboard, we don't expect the 23-under total Tiger Woods posted back in 2007 to be under much threat.

LAST YEAR'S BATTLE

Last year, Rory McIlroy entered the Tour Championship seeded fifth meaning he started with a score of 5-under yet he went on to claim the overall prize. His -13 tournament total was added to his starting score to give a final -18 winning mark.

Despite finishing a full four shots back, Xander Schauffele took the runner-up spot, while Justin Thomas started the week as the favourite on -10 but could only manage a -3 tournament score to finish T-3.

Check out the final round highlights below.

THE FORMAT

Like it or loathe it, the staggered leaderboard start is in play for the second year running. The man out in front in the FedEx Cup standings, Dustin Johnson, will tee off on Friday at -10 - two shots clear of his nearest challenger.

The main benefit of the new system is that we end up with a 'winner takes all' scenario as the same golfer who wins the Tour Championship will also be crowned FedEx Cup champion.

The starting scores for the entire field are below.

-10 Dustin Johnson
-8 Jon Rahm
-7 Justin Thomas
-6 Webb Simpson
-5 Collin Morikawa
-4 Daniel Berger, Harris English, Bryson DeChambeau, Sungjae Im, Hideki Matsuyama
-3 Brendon Todd, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Reed, Xander Schauffele, Sebastian Munoz
-2 Lanto Griffin, Scottie Scheffler, Joaquin Niemann, Tyrrell Hatton, Tony Finau
-1 Kevin Kisner, Abraham Ancer, Ryan Palmer, Kevin Na, Marc Leishman
E Cameron Smith, Viktor Hovland, Mackenzie Hughes, Cameron Champ, Billy Horschel

OUR PREDICTION

Can anyone truly write DJ off when he already has a two-shot lead in the bank? If they do they're braver than we are. We expect the 2016 U.S. Open champion will land the spoils this week, and he probably deserves to.

Dark horse: It's likely Daniel Berger won't make it to The Masters later in the year despite his recent impressive play. Back in April he was ranked outside the top-100 and therefore wouldn't have been invited. If he were to spring a surprise this week from 6 shots back, it could force the hand of the organisers at Augusta National.