2024 TOUR Championship Preview: Everything To Know About East Lake Golf Club

The TOUR Championship is the final stop of the 2024 golf season, as the top-30 remaining players in the FedEx Cup Standings on the PGA TOUR head to East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia for the TOUR’s Finale. Find longshot golf odds at the best golf betting sites to increase your potential TOUR Championship payouts. Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele are the favorites for this year’s TOUR Championship.

Just 30 golfers remain for the final PGA TOUR event of the 2024 season. The TOUR heads to Atlanta to wrap things up at East Lake Golf Club for the 2024 TOUR Championship. As always, we begin our weekly preview with a look at TOUR Championship odds.

Considering the limited field and nuanced staggered scoring system, the TOUR Championship doesn’t offer the most favorable conditions for golf betting. But some shadow leaderboard and finishing prop markets do offer value. With that said, let’s get into the key facts and info about East Lake Golf Club for the 2024 TOUR Championship. Click on the odds below to bet now.

TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS: THE FAVORITES

To Win The FedEx Cup (Bonus Strokes Applied)

Here are the odds for the five players who begin the tournament with the most starting strokes based on their FedEx Cup standings ranking. All other players start at 4-under-par or worse.

A new Fanatics Sportsbook promo is offering up to $1,000 in bonus bets. Plus, the longer the odds of the golfer you bet, the higher percentage of FanCash you get back on that bet, up to 10% back.

Shadow Leaderboard (Best 72-Hole Score Without Bonus Strokes)

Here are the three favorites to have the best 72-hole score with odds shorter than 15-1. This is not a bet on who will finish atop the leaderboard with bonus strokes added. To browse more longshots, click on the odds and navigate to the sportsbook’s golf section.

THE FIELD AT A GLANCE

The field is now officially set with the top 30 remaining players in the FedEx Cup Standings. For the third straight week, there will be no cut in this four-day event. Unique to the TOUR Championship, there will be a staggered scoring start based on FedEx Cup ranking points, so players who begin with a 10-stroke deficit to Scottie Scheffler may simply be motivated by the gaudy purse that awaits them at East Lake.

An eventful BMW Championship led to quite a few changes to the TOUR Championship field. Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood, and Chris Kirk were on the outside looking in, but each had punched their tickets to East Lake on the heels of top-10 finishes at Castle Pines. They’ll take the place of Jason Day, Brian Harman, Davis Thompson, and Denny McCarthy, who were inside the top 30 prior to the BMW Championship. Keegan’s ascent is the most notable, jumping from the last man in the BMW Championship field (No. 50), to No. 4. He’ll start with just a 4-stroke deficit to Scottie Scheffler despite a fairly mediocre 2024 season which includes just five top-20 finishes in total.

Viktor Hovland looks to defend his 2023 TOUR Championship title after parlaying a BMW Championship win into back-to-back victories to chase down Scottie Scheffler. Additional past TOUR Championship winners in the field this week include Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, and Billy Horschel.

Below is a breakdown of how the staggered strokes will apply for all 30 players in the field, as well as the payouts from first to 30th.

STAGGERED-START FORMAT EXPLAINED

A great paradox exists when applying the traditional playoff format to golf. As the playoffs go on, only the top-ranked players advance round by round until the best remains. Unfortunately, it creates a very anti-climactic finish to the season when the TOUR Championship features only 30 players. The staggered start format effectively eliminates 75% of the field from serious contention. Fans are understandably unhappy with the end product.

The TOUR Championship is not about keeping the fans happy, however. It rewards the body of work over a long wraparound season and provides an advantage for the players who have earned it.

Amidst the TOUR’s pushback against LIV as a competitive golf product, it’s fascinating that the most prized event has a severely limited field, no cuts, artificially applied starting strokes, and a boatload of prize money at stake. Of course, a pretense of meritocracy exists for the TOUR Championship in that players have earned their way here over the course of an entire season. But that doesn’t make fans any less annoyed about its lack of drama or betting appeal.

Can This Be Fixed?

It doesn’t require much effort to dissect a 30-man no-cut event, complete with the best remaining players on TOUR. As a result, the discourse in TOUR Championship week centers on debating ideas for a superior format. I actually don’t think the format requires changing. The staggered-start format does reward the body of work while still giving opportunity to players who peak late to make a run.

The average players who’ve just snuck into the top 30, like Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Tom Hoge, and Chris Kirk, have effectively no chance to overcome Scottie Scheffler and his 10-stroke advantage this week. Which is as it should be, in my opinion. Hideki Matsuyama and Keegan Bradley stand as examples of opportunities earned in the playoff format for those who can peak at the right time. No one would argue they’ve been top four on the PGA TOUR in 2024, but with new life in the playoffs, they’ve played themselves into shouting distance of Scheffler. Scheffler has had a historically dominant season from tee to green, and even if Xander Schauffele has made a compelling Player Of The Year case with multiple Major wins in 2024, a format that sets him up Scheffler well to be the TOUR Champion would seem one that works.

A Happy Medium?

I can understand this removes the drama from the playoffs at the expense of fairness. But while the format hurts viewers’ value, the TOUR Championship is about the players, not the fans. Even still, we can’t help but wonder if a happy medium exists.

If I were the czar of the PGA TOUR, my modifications to the TOUR Championship would better acknowledge the fans while keeping the format exactly the same. So many easy ways to do this exist.

Experiment with new broadcast features like the NFL has tried at the Pro Bowl. Add new camera angles and more hot mics for player-caddy conversations. Incorporate more fan engagement via live tweets during the broadcast. Work with DraftKings as a league partner to interview some Milly Maker winners. Or even carve out $1M from this gargantuan purse and give it back to players in a free Single-Entry Milly Maker contest on DraftKings or Pool Contest.

In the PGA TOUR’s defense, they have begun to embrace the spirit of “Growing the Game” by introducing the Creator Cup this week, hosting a tournament for the most influential YouTube golfers. That’s a pretty good start to add intrigue into what is meant to be the TOUR’s grand finale, but it seems there is plenty more the TOUR could be doing with its money than handing over a $25M grand prize to this week’s winner.

And no offense to East Lake, a beautiful and challenging course. But if we’ve committed to a limited field and staggered scoring, it would be nice to shake things up on a rotating course basis, whether as a preview of upcoming major venues or by leaving it up to a player or fan vote.

Any acknowledgment of the fans within all the dead air that comes with a 30-man field would put the audience’s concerns at ease and surely win over any younger demographic considering hitching their wagon to other Tours.

INTRODUCTION TO EAST LAKE GOLF CLUB

Established in 1904, East Lake Golf Club has rich history in Atlanta. East Lake has served as the permanent final stop of the season since the TOUR Championship’s inception in 2004. In addition to hosting this event, East Lake has also hosted the 1963 Ryder Cup and 2001 U.S. Amateur. It has also hosted the East Lake Cup, a collegiate match play series with notable individual medalist honors to Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland.

East Lake joins Sedgefield CC and Detroit GC as the three regular Donald Ross stops on the PGA TOUR schedule. While sharing the commonality of nuanced greens complexes, East Lake clearly provides the sternest test of the three. It rewards above-average distance off the tee and a complete tee-to-green game. Zach Johnson holds the course record of 60 (10-under par), but the low four-day score has typically fallen in the modest -13 to -15 range.

2024 Restoration

Similar to what we saw earlier this season with Colonial CC, East Lake GC has undergone a complete overhaul since we were here this time last year. Famed architect Andrew Green led the ambitious restoration project, which was much needed for a course and event that has lost its juice over time.

Green’s motivations for the restoration project were to bring back the layout and design Donald Ross had originally intended while feeling an obligation to the Atlanta community to create a golf course worth celebrating. Below is a recap of the most notable changes made to East Lake since last year:

• Lengthened the course from a 7,346-yard Par 70 to a 7,490-yard Par 71
• Converted the fairways to a new strand of Zoysia grass, playing firm for increased rollout
• Converted the greens to TifEagle Bermuda
• Redesigned the size, shape, contouring, and surrounding runoff areas of each greens complex
• Added new bunkers (inspired by the original Ross design) to force more strategic tee shots

It remains to be seen which style of player will benefit the most from this restoration, but if the Colonial CC updates were any indication earlier this year, a restoration project should not alter the course fit nearly as much as a complete renovation would. If anything, these changes should help place a bit more accuracy on control off-the-tee, as more rollout and strategically placed bunkering should mitigate the advantage of pure bombers. More details on the course changes can be found here.

For East Lake course specs, hole-by-hole breakdown with yardages, and past TOUR Championship winners with their pre-tournament odds, visit our TOUR Championship betting odds page.

Event HISTORY AND COURSE COMPS

To have experience at East Lake would inherently imply a strong and consistent overall player. Only the top-30 players each PGA TOUR season can punch their tickets to Atlanta. In this week’s field, Rory McIlroy leads the way in terms of experience, as he is the only player with 10 years of TOUR Championship competition under his belt. East Lake has always suited McIlroy’s game well, as he ranks No. 1 in SG: T2G, SG: OTT, and SG: Short Game on this course.

But with that said, Xander Schauffele still holds the title of king of East Lake. Schauffele has finished no worse than T7 over seven career appearances, including a victory in his debut in 2017. He posted the low score in 2020, falling just short of Dustin Johnson’s head start to finish runner-up.

The top-10 players in SG: TOT at East Lake entering this week are Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Chris Kirk, Viktor Hovland, Wyndham Clark, Russell Henley, Billy Horschel, Sepp Straka, and Tom Hoge. Noticeably absent from that list is this week’s line leader, Scottie Scheffler, who has lost strokes to the field here in two of his last three appearances and lost a combined 17 strokes on the greens over four career appearances.

Looking at comp courses for this week, Quail Hollow makes the top of the list, considering McIlroy’s dominance, the overlapping Bermuda agronomy, and a premium on long iron approaches.

Donald Ross specialists like Kevin Na, Kevin Kisner, and Billy Horschel, who can lean on their short-game strengths, also tend to succeed. So, I’ll give a close look at recent performances at Detroit Golf Club, Sedgefield CC, Oak Hill, and Pinehurst No. 2 for that reason alone.

On a secondary tier, TPC Southwind and PGA National also feature a premium on total driving on Bermuda grass. Sheshan International, the former host of the WGC HSBC, has also produced similar overlapping leaderboards to East Lake, highlighted with wins by McIlroy and Schauffele over its last two years of hosting.

Combine that all together, and the top 10 in comp course history are Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy, Russell Henley, Justin Thomas, Sam Burns, Sungjae Im, Hideki Matsuyama, and Aaron Rai.

KEY STATS TO CONSIDER WITH tour championship ODDS

• Par 4 Scoring / SG: T2G
• SG: APP / Prox 200+
• Good Drives Gained
• Scrambling Gained
• Bogey Avoidance
• SG: Putting (Bermuda)
• Course History & Comp Course History

In a 30-man field of players who’ve earned their entry by way of sustained strong play or a hot streak to climb up the rankings in the playoffs, you can almost do no wrong by backing any given player. That has me leaning towards eyeballing the field for the best values rather than deep-diving into key stats. But they should still act as a helpful guide to whittle down a player pool.

The foundational stats I’ll prioritize for this week are the weighted recent form combination of Par-4 Scoring and SG: T2G. The top-10 players in this combined category are Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Aaron Rai, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau, Ludvig Aberg, Sungjae Im, and Corey Conners.

Looking at a weighted combination between the key stats of Good Drives Gained and Prox 200+, just six players rate out above average: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Billy Horschel, and Russell Henley.

Correlated Stats

Looking at the correlated stats to success historically at East Lake, SG: APP and Good Drives Gained make the most notable jumps in importance. That makes sense on a demanding course that penalizes erratic driving. Conversely, Par-4 450-500 and SG: OTT take the greatest steps back in importance compared to the TOUR average this week. Given the tight fairways and penal rough, it will be difficult for players to gain on the field with their first shots, again emphasizing the importance of the second shot at East Lake.

There are six players who rate above average in the top-10 correlated stats for East Lake: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, and Russell Henley.

2024 tour CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS: DFS PLAYER POOL

With all the course-fit profiles in mind, I’m leaning early toward the below player pool. Naturally, I’m looking their way in the 2024 TOUR Championship odds as well. I’ve broken the list down by projected pricing/odds tier for DraftKings.  

UNDERDOG GOLF DRAFT RANKINGS TIERS

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Tier 1

Xander Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler
Rory McIlroy

Tier 2

Viktor Hovland
Patrick Cantlay

Tier 3

Wyndham Clark
Sepp Straka
Russell Henley
Keegan Bradley
Billy Horschel

Tier 4

Taylor Pendrith
Aaron Rai

Tier 5

Chris Kirk

TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS: MODEL RESULTS & BREAKDOWN

2024 TOUR Championship Model Breakdown

For my model this week, I’m putting a premium on Recent Form (SG: T2G + Par-4 Scoring), SG: APP, Comp Course History and Good Drives Gained, followed by a balanced mix of Prox 200+, Bogey Avoidance, Scrambling Gained and SG: P (Bermuda).

Model Favorites

The No. 1 player in my model this week is defending past TOUR Championship winner, Xander Schauffele. While I firmly believe there should be no debate behind Scottie Scheffler’s claim to 2024 Player of the Year with wins across the Signature Events, a Major, a (5th) Major at THE PLAYERS, and a Gold Medal, Xander can make things very interesting with a win this week. In contrast to Scottie, Xander gets the benefit of playing the TOUR’s most consequential event from a prize purse standpoint at East Lake, where he leads the field in terms of Course History.

Rounding out the top 10 of the model after Schauffele, we have Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg, Russell Henley, Collin Morikawa, Ludvig Aberg, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, and Tommy Fleetwood.

I’ll look to take one or two shots at the shadow leaderboard while also eying some specialty props to keep things interesting. I’ll have my eye on Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel, and Russell Henley as potential values who fit the course well when odds open.

Check back in later this week for more updates, and best of luck navigating the 2024 TOUR Championship odds!

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TOUR CHampionship Odds Comparison Table