The Starting Strokes link at the top includes the bonus money reserved for golfers who qualified for the TOUR Championship. The winner will pay $18 million, tenth place pays $1 million, and last place promises $500,000. (Earnings are unofficial.) For the fourth consecutive TOUR Championship event, Starting Strokes sets the initial leaderboard. It is designed to reward performance through the BMW Championship and you can think of its impact as the result of a round already completed. Only the score in relation to the contribution of Starting Strokes matters. Last year, Patrick Cantlay opened as the leader at 10-under. He shot an 11-under 269 over four rounds to post a 21-under total and win by one over Jon Rahm. The Spaniard opened as the fourth seed at 6-under and shot 14-under 266. In 2019 and 2020, exactly six golfers climbed outside the top 10 upon arrival to record a top 10 at the tournament. Five did it last year, including Billy Horschel, who opened at par and finished T9 at 10-under. His jump from 29th place is the best since Starting Strokes was introduced. A dozen of the qualifiers are experiencing Starting Strokes for the first time, 10 of whom are tournament debutants overall. The learning curve at East Lake flattens out a bit from the opening slot, but the story-influenced course management on it can serve as speed slots on the season’s smallest leaderboard. East Lake is the same stock par 70 played by recent participants. It measures 7,346 yards and the greens are essentially average in size at just over 6,000 square feet. Speeds are set at a fast 13 feet, so as usual, it requires the full bag for the final exam. That said, classic Hotland summer weather could soften the turf any day, so the score could be lower than usual. (The field checked 68,805 last year.) Rain and the possibility of thunderstorms draw attention throughout, but the overall effect should be minimal given the size of the field. Wind won’t be a factor and daytime temperatures will comfortably climb into the 80s. While the FedExCup Playoffs are now old enough to drive, East Lake always serves this tee. The par 5s are among the most rated on the program. In his four trips to Nos. 6 and 18, Cantlay birdied each time. Speaking of the defending champion, he’s in an unprecedented spot twice. After becoming the first to successfully defend a FedExCup Playoffs event at last week’s BMW Championship, not only can he become the first to win back-to-back playoff events for a second time (2021), but he would also be the first to successfully defend the FedExCup itself. Of course, if he did that, then he would also become only the second to successfully defend a FedExCup Playoffs event after last week’s feat. Whoever claims the title will be credited with an official PGA TOUR win. With that comes an invitation to the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions for which a third of the field is not yet eligible. Rookies Cameron Young and Sahith Theegala not only and will likely decide who votes Rookie of the Year, but they are the only two non-winners on TOUR in the field. The champion will also extend its membership to a maximum of five seasons until 2027. By the way, it was announced in January that Andrew Green and his design firm will renovate East Lake after next year’s TOUR Championship. If you like his work, you don’t have to look far to find more. He was also responsible for the updated South Course at Wilmington Country Club prior to last week’s BMW Championship.

THE ROB BOLTON PROGRAM

PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews each tournament from multiple angles. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power rankingsTUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & FadesWEDNESDAY: Select ‘Em Preview’.SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Rebuild, Rookie Ranking

  • – Rob is a member of PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks panel for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which is also published on Tuesdays.