Signature Scroll: Top surprises of season; changes coming for TOUR Championship

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We’ve reached the end …

Surprise, surprise

ATLANTA – The range at East Lake Golf Club occupies a sliver of unused land in the middle of the property. To the player’s right sits the 18th green, where, in a few days, the season-long FedExCup champion will be crowned. To the left is the 15th green, a perilously small patch of grass that offers little reprieve for misses on the 215-yard par 3.

The range would struggle to house a full field or Signature Event, but for the 30-man season-ending event, it’s perfect. I’ve found its also a perfect place to sit and reflect on the year that was.

As players pass, the mind races on what they did to get here. Jacob Bridgeman walks by and I’m reminded of his incredible week at Riviera, keeping the field – led by Rory McIlroy – at arm’s length to win for the first time. Kristoffer Reitan is here, too. In an exciting rookie class, he wasn’t expected to stand out, yet he’s one of only two rookies here and he has the best win of any: a convincing Truist Championship victory.

It’s a reminder of the lengthy season about to finish. So much has happened it’s hard to remember where we started. It sparked me to think of exactly that.

What were my expectations to begin the year? Who would I be most surprised to see here at East Lake now? That feels like a worthy exercise at this time. A moment to reflect before another TOUR champion is crowned and we move on again. Looking through the FedExCup standings, these are my surprises of the season.

• Gary Woodland: He hasn’t been to East Lake since 2019 and he realistically didn’t believe he would be back. Not after all the health struggles he has and continues to battle. One of the best, most improbable stories this season.
• Si Woo Kim: It’s less surprising that he’s here than how comfortable it has been to get here. Kim’s talent has been evident for a decade, but he has never put it together as consistently as he has this season. He’s so much better than previous versions and arrived to East Lake at fifth in the FedExCup. His 11 top 10s are more than double his next best season and the three runners-up are a career high.
• Alex Fitzpatrick: He wasn’t on anyone’s radar to begin the year. He didn’t even have a TOUR card. Now Fitzpatrick is a TOUR winner and fighting for Rookie of the Year honors with Reitan. Nobody has changed their career circumstances more this season than the younger Fitzpatrick brother.
• Wyndham Clark: Clark’s career looked like it was heading the other way after a poor 2025 on and off the golf course. That he’s now at East Lake and one of the favorites to win it and Player of the Year, is a complete shock from where he began in January.
• Tom Kim: Similar to Clark, Kim was in a spot of bother to finish last year. The South Korean was at risk of missing the Presidents Cup International Team and his career trajectory was in peril. He turned his game around with Sean Foley’s help and won the Genesis Scottish Open. This is only his second TOUR Championship.
• Min Woo Lee: Like Si Woo Kim, Lee’s position in the FedExCup has not been in doubt for months. The high-powered Australian made a concerted effort to tame himself this year, settling for steady over sexy strategy. That paid off with his first appearance at East Lake and a much more complete version of himself.

Playing through

• 🎞 "Chasing Sunday" is out! Watch it here. Tons of good stuff for the casuals and sickos alike …
• 🤝 Match play is coming to the TOUR Championship in 2028. Here are the details …
• 🏆 Who will win the TOUR Championship? Our experts are split …

TOUR Championship changes

Before the golf begins, let’s also touch on the big news announced by PGA TOUR CEO Brian Rolapp earlier this week.

The TOUR Championship is undergoing significant change in 2028. In tandem with the new competitive model that will feature two tracks – PGA TOUR Championship Series and PGA TOUR Challenger Series – the TOUR Championship will also take on a completely new look with the introduction of match play.

The new season-ending structure will have three different components: the PGA TOUR Championship Series Finale, TOUR Championship Week 1 and TOUR Championship Week 2.

Played first, the PGA TOUR Championship Series Finale will be made up of the 90 players who retained their cards and will crown both a tournament champion and the No. 1 finisher on the season-long points list. The tournament will be played as a traditional 72-hole, stroke-play event. This event will also set the field for the TOUR Championship, with only the top 32 players in the standings advancing.

Here’s where things get fun. Those 32 players will compete in the two-week standalone TOUR Championship. The first week will whittle the field down to 16 by creating eight groups of four players for three days of group match play. Each participant will face the other three players in their group in separate matches, with the top two players from each group advancing to Week 2. From there, Week 2 will be contested at a different venue and will feature a bracket-style competition with only one player left standing and undefeated, the TOUR champion.

Player support so far has been widely positive.

“I think all the incentives are there,” McIlroy said. “The regular-season champion is going to be adequately rewarded after that final stroke-play event, and then the TOUR Championship, match play, is going to be completely different. But I think it’s sort of a departure from what we’ve had the last few years, and I do think it’ll be a great thing.”

“It’s completely different than anything we have in golf,” added Adam Scott.

Parting shots

• 🫤 Rory McIlroy is making fewer birdies at par 5s this year than nearly any other in his career. Typically one of the TOUR’s best on par 5s, McIlroy is making birdie or better on only 50.6% of attempts. That’s his lowest rate since 2013. I asked him about it last week and he said his decision-making hasn’t been strong. Then it bit him on the 17th hole at Bellerive and cost him a chance to win the BMW Championship.
• 🤕 Scottie Scheffler said he is feeling 95% healthy after dealing with hand, foot and mouth disease last week in St. Louis. Scheffler had blisters on his hands that made it difficult to grip the club. He said those are gone.
• ❓While there’s plenty of intrigue on the U.S. Presidents Cup side of things, there’s less for the Internationals. The top six in the standings are the only six Internationals in the field. So there won’t be any last-minute pitches for International Team Captain Geoff Ogilvy to consider.
• 🧢 This feels like a big week for Patrick Cantlay. He comes in with great form, to a golf course he loves, needing one more standout week to solidify a Presidents Cup spot. It’s as good a time as any to snap his four-year winless drought. He might have the most to gain at East Lake this week.
• 🪾 Is there any chance Woodland could challenge for one of the Presidents Cup spots? It’s a thought that popped into my head last week. He would likely need to win, or come close, to have any argument. He’s already a captain’s assistant.
• 🧓 There are only three players in this field over 40 years old: Woodland, Justin Rose and Scott.