Seed No.1 10-Under Par "How to Calculate PO Stroke Bonus?"

Since Last Year, Winning the 3rd Match Immediately Crowns the PO Final Champion, Differential Application Based on Point Ranking Right After the 2nd Match

Rory McIlroy started as the 5th seed at last year's Tour Championship and overcame a 5-stroke deficit to become the FedEx Cup champion.

[Asia Economy Kim Hyun-jun, Golf Specialist Reporter] 'Stroke Bonus.'

On the night of the 4th (Korean time), at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia, USA (Par 70, 7,280 yards), the final third round of the PGA Tour Playoffs (PO), the Tour Championship, takes place. The PO was introduced in 2007 to prevent world stars from skipping the tour at the end of the season. Since last year, the scale has grown even larger. According to the regular season points ranking, the top 10 players, including the first place who receives $2 million, share the 'Wyndham Rewards' totaling $10 million (?11.85 billion) in advance.

The PO consists of three consecutive tournaments: The Northern Trust, the BMW Championship, and the Tour Championship. Until 2018, there were four tournaments: The Barclays, Dell Technologies, BMW Championship, and Tour Championship, but Dell Technologies withdrew in 2019. Points are accumulated with 500 points for each tournament winner (550 points for World Golf Championships series, 600 points for majors), and 125 players advance to the first round, 70 to the second, and exactly 30 to the third round in this 'survival game.'

The key point is that after the second round, the BMW Championship, the number one seed starts the Tour Championship at 10 under par. The second place starts at 8 under, third at 7 under, fourth at 6 under, fifth at 5 under, sixth to tenth at 4 under, eleventh to fifteenth at 3 under, sixteenth to twentieth at 2 under, twenty-first to twenty-fifth at 1 under, and twenty-sixth to thirtieth at even par. This staggered scoring system ensures that the winner of the Tour Championship automatically becomes the PO champion. This is directly linked to an astronomical bonus of $15 million (?17.8 billion).

The PGA Tour had long struggled with the fact that the Tour Championship winners and PO champions were different, such as Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas in 2018, and Tiger Woods (USA) and Justin Rose (England) last year. This was because points were recalculated after the third round. Thomas finished second in the 2018 PO and entered the fourth round, but Schauffele, ranked 26th, won the surprise victory and took the PO title, while Rose became champion last year without winning the PO.

This is the background for the creation of the 'Stroke Bonus.' Jay Monahan, PGA Tour Commissioner, at the time said, "We focused on simplicity," and expressed confidence that "the PO would become more interesting with a format that golf fans can easily understand." Although some criticized that "it eliminated the possibility of all 30 players winning," those concerns have already disappeared. Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), seeded fifth, achieved a dramatic come-from-behind victory last year, which rather enhanced the excitement.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.