Thomas questions FedExCup format

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The best of the action from the final round of the Tour Championship at East Lake

The Tour Championship produced a thrilling climax to the PGA Tour season, although several players questioned whether the new FedExCup format was a success.

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A new system was put in place for this year’s contest, with a strokes-based advantage given to players based on their FedExCup position and the winner being champion of both the Tour Championship and the season standings.

Justin Thomas started the week on 10 under as FedExCup leader and with a two-shot advantage, although finished in a share of third after Rory McIlroy claimed the $15million jackpot with a four-stroke victory.

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“I personally like when everyone starts the same.” Thomas said. “It was really weird and hard teeing off on Thursday ahead of everybody.

“I don’t know how everybody else feels, but I had a pretty hard time playing the normal way that I play. It’s hard to just imagine everybody starts at zero when you don’t. So that was tough.”

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The previous system saw FedExCup points reset ahead of the Tour Championship but saw all 30 players start the week on the same score, with Finau suggesting the new format doesn’t give players a fair advantage.

“I think it’s a little strange,” Finau said. “I don’t mind that it’s very easy to keep track of, and I do think that’s biggest reason for it.

Finau ended seventh in the FedExCup standings

“I think just coming in, for me, playing as well as I have leading up to this tournament, I had only a few-shot lead on the guys that just barely got in here, and then I’m seven back against the guys that have already played the best all year.

“I think this was a good start. They’re trying some different things. But as an elite tournament, it’s hard to already be behind the eight-ball, seven shots back for me with 72 holes to go.”

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McIlroy came through a final-round tussle with world No 1 Brooks Koepka to register his third victory of the season, with the Northern Irishman believing that changes to the event were a success.

“If you look at the way it all played out, you had the No 1 and No 2 in the regular season FedExCup standings playing in the final group this week, so I think it worked out well.

McIlroy and Koepka went out together in the final group

“I was part of that decision to go with the staggered format. I talked about it in meetings and debated it and all sorts, and it definitely simplifies it for us playing and also for the fans.

“I think golf is very averse to change sometimes, so it’ll take a while to get used to, but I think for the first run of it, I think it went well.”