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00:03 >> Scotty Shuffler Davis starts at 10 under par.
00:06 It is the starting strokes format we have seen for
00:09 the past few years at the tour championship.
00:12 Where your starting strokes correlate with your position in the FedEx Cup standing.
00:16 Scotty is first, he starts at 10 under.
00:19 A two stroke advantage over Victor Hovland who is second,
00:23 he starts at eight under par.
00:24 Rory McIlroy sits in third, he starts at seven under.
00:28 So Davis, in the simplest of terms, if you can,
00:32 how do you explain the format of the tour championship?
00:35 >> Very simple terms.
00:37 Basically, you are rewarded for your prior 32 tournaments.
00:41 This is the 33rd tournament taking place on the PGA Tour this year.
00:45 You are rewarded for your performance in the largest cash prize pool of the year.
00:51 I believe the winner, now this might be different because of the negotiations
00:55 between the PGA Tour and the Live Tour, but first place at the tour championship
00:59 gets $10 million in cash.
01:01 So it really is a pretty great reward for
01:03 how well you have played over the preceding 32 events.
01:07 Now obviously, Hovland got a huge boost last week
01:11 from winning the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
01:14 So, Scotty Shuffler starts 10 under par and so on and so forth.
01:18 These guys are rewarded.
01:20 To be honest, Ben, I think that this is very good for the golfers.
01:24 Certainly, John Rom, Rory, I mean, really, Lucas Glover is definitely not
01:28 complaining about starting this tournament five under par, right?
01:30 He can go out and play a bunch of even par golf and pretty much pay for his year.
01:35 Right, I mean, he sets himself up really nice.
01:38 We've seen guys like Billy Horshall have really strong performances in these
01:41 events, make themselves a bunch of money,
01:44 to basically change their lives with a good three weeks of golf.
01:47 However, it's pretty good for the golfers, not so great for us.
01:52 I mean, there's been some awesome Tour Championship moments.
01:56 Rory and Brooks going out in 2019 together, all on the line.
02:01 Those guys were, I believe they were three strokes up on everyone else to start
02:04 the day.
02:05 Brooks has one of his worst rounds as a professional.
02:07 Rory just totally takes his soul.
02:10 Obviously, Tiger returning to play the Tour Championship.
02:13 There's a great photo of him with the entire gallery crowding in around him.
02:18 And you know what?
02:19 It's just not really possible in this day and age.
02:22 I mean, these guys who are starting three under par, Tommy Fleetwood, Zander, Ricky.
02:27 I mean, these guys can't win this tournament.
02:29 They would have to fire multiple 62, 63s.
02:32 At what, by the way, is not a super easy golf course.
02:35 Maybe if they played this, if they removed some trees, and
02:40 the greens weren't too fast, and the pin placements were all really kind, and
02:44 it would be possible to go out and shoot a 62,
02:47 then maybe it would be a little bit different.
02:49 But this is a difficult golf course.
02:50 I mean, I'm not really expecting a ton of five under,
02:53 six under rounds from these guys this weekend.
02:56 So while I think it is cool for
02:59 the guys who play as a television spectacle, it's really not that good, right?
03:04 It just, it really is not.
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