The PGA Tour’s final event of the season kicks off Thursday with the 2022 Tour Championship set to be decided by 29 of the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup after Will Zalatoris withdrew following a back injury. The FedEx Cup Playoffs will play their third and final event with a staggered starting leaderboard headlined by the No. 1 player in the field, Scottie Scheffler.
Already a four-time winner on the PGA Tour this year, Scheffler will start at 8 under with everyone else chasing him at East Lake as he tries to become the first golfer since Justin Thomas in 2017 to win five times on the PGA Tour in a single season. With $18 million at stake for first place, the four-day event should be a fascinating race. Scheffler is coming in off a top five last week at the BMW Championship, but his company at the top of the board — Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Smith, Rory McIlroy and others — is going to be difficult to outlast over 72 holes of the Tour Championship.
Scheffler (or Smith) could cap what has been an all-time year so far but the battle down the stretch as a tough golf course with the best players in the world playing for more money than has ever been played for at a golf tournament before should be tremendous. Keep it locked here as CBS Sports will be keeping track of everything with live updates and analysis throughout Round 1 of the 2022 Tour Championship on Thursday.