Rory McIlroy makes his final PGA Tour start of the year with the Northern Irishman among the favorites to lift the FedEx Cup title.
McIlroy is the only three-time champion in the FedEx Cup’s short history and has the same chance as all other 29 men this week with the controversial starting strokes format removed for 2025.
The Masters champion addressed the media at East Lake ahead of the PGA Tour finale getting underway, which will mark his penultimate US appearance of 2025 prior to the Ryder Cup at the end of next month.
As well as the format changes, the World No.2 also touched on his 2026 plans after the new 2026 PGA Tour schedule was released, his thoughts on PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and just how many Masters flags he signed after Augusta…
Tour Championship format
(Image credit: Getty Images)
McIlroy admitted he was in the “minority” of not hating the starting strokes format, while he also explained why match play did not prevail as the format for the season finale.
“I’m maybe part of the minority. I didn’t hate the starting strokes. I thought that the player that played the best during the course of the season should have had an advantage coming in here,” he said.
“But the majority of people just didn’t like the starting strokes. Whether it were players or fans – I was on the PAC when we were trying to go through that, and really it was just a way to try to simplify the advantage that the top players were going to get over the course of the week instead of Steve Sands doing calculations on a white board.
“But you could also argue if it was starting strokes this week, Scottie with a two-shot lead, it probably isn’t enough considering what he’s done this year and the lead that he has in the FedExCup going into this week.
“Look, there was a lot of other stuff on the table. Match play was on the table, and that got canned for this year.
“That might be brought back up in the conversation for next year or the year after. I think it’s just hard for the players to reconcile that we play stroke play for every week of the year but then the season-ending tournament is going to be decided by match play.
“I think it was just hard for the players to get their heads around that. I don’t know, maybe that will be on the table again, who knows.
“Yeah, look, it’s a 72-hole…
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