ATLANTA – The crowning event of the PGA TOUR season tees off Thursday from historic East Lake Golf Club as the TOUR Championship begins.

The TOUR Championship is the final of four FedEx Playoff events which places the top 30 players in a tournament to crown the golf season’s champion and recipient of the FedEx Cup.

After the playing of all four of the season’s major tournaments, the PGA invites the top 125 players (based on points) to begin a 4-tournament playoff.  At each tournament, the field is paired down further, resulting in the final 30 playing for 4 days at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club.

Thanks to 3 victories this season, including 2 of the 3 playoff tournaments, Bryson DeChambeau enters the tournament with the most points and the best position to win the FedEx Cup.  He is trailed by new World Golf Number One Justin Rose of England, American Tony Finau, and major winners Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas.  The field will also include Tiger Woods, who finished a great comeback season playing himself back to the leaderboard in many tournaments in 2018.

Last year’s tournament saw an upset victory by Xander Schauffele claim the TOUR Championship trophy, allowing Justin Thomas to earn the FedEx Cup.  This year’s tournament will award the winner a check for $1.62 million.  The winner of the FedEx Cup earns an astounding $10 million for their season-long effort.

East Lake Golf Club was established in 1904 as the Atlanta Athletic Club.  The club is not only the oldest course in Atlanta, but the home of golf legend Bobby Jones, who learned to play on the course as a young man, on his way to dominating golf as an amateur in the 1920’s and ’30’s. After years of inattention, the PGA and local developer Tom Cousins rescued the course, and neighborhood, and established the TOUR’s annual finale at the course, first hosting the event in 1998 before hosting it permanently since 2004.

Valdosta Today will have exclusive coverage of the tournament all weekend, giving you a behind the scene look at the action.