On the PGA Tour, winning a tournament doesn’t just come with a big shiny trophy and the generous prize money. Players also scoop up FedEx Cup points. It’s usually distributed to players in a descending order of their finish, and ultimately, throughout the season, they stack up on a leaderboard. And to those of you who have wondered what happens with the points, it leads to the FedEx Cup playoffs and is the golden ticket to being crowned as the ultimate champion. Earlier this year, there was a change in the format for the playoffs. And now, the PGA Tour has decided to alter the disbursement paid out to players from the $100M bonus pool.

The FedEx Cup playoffs are a series of three blockbuster events: the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the BMW Championship, and the Tour Championship. As cemented, the top 70 players on the FedEx Cup points table make it to the playoffs, and there’s a twist. With each event, there’s a progressive cut of 20 players, and only 30 elite players will make it to the Tour Championship. Last year, when Scottie Scheffler was crowned the FedEx Champion, he received $25M in a single, glorious payout. But things are going to be different this year.

Instead of receiving $25M at the Tour Championship, the $25M will be spread across the points leaders of all three events. So it means the leader in points after the regular season ends will receive $10M, followed by $5M at the BMW championship, and then $10M at the culminating, the 2025 Tour Championship. The runner-up in the points ranking will earn $4M, $3.5M, and $5M, respectively, in each of the three events. Basically, the money is now flowing all the way through.

This new three-tier payout system is an effort to create a fair opportunity and distribute the bonus accordingly. It was altered to make sure that players grinding out through the season were rewarded fairly, and didn’t face the brunt of just having a bad week towards the end.

The playoffs will begin in August, after the last regular season tournament, the Wyndham Championship. The regular season is played from January through August, and it features 36 FedEx Cup events, including major championships and signature events. While winners in full-field events earn 500 points, players who win signature events are awarded 700 points, and 750 points are awarded to winners of majors and the Players Championship.

Things will not be as easy this year because of the change in the format.

Change in format this year

“We want the Tour Championship to be the hardest tournament to qualify for and the FedEx Cup trophy the most difficult to win. Shifting the Tour Championship to a more straight-up format with a tougher course setup makes it easier for fans to follow and provides a more challenging test for players—which brings out the best competition,” Scheffler said earlier this year, when the format was changed.

The ‘starting strokes’ format was in place from 2019, where the points leader entering the Tour Championship at East Lake started the round at -10 under par, with second-place starting at -8 and going down to even par for the last five players in the field. So, even if players shot the lowest score over 72 holes, there was no guarantee that they would win. There were high chances that the person leading the points table at the beginning of the playoffs would also win at East Lake, and that’s exactly what happened with Scottie Scheffler.

But as he leads the FedEx Cup points this year with 3976 points, there’s no guarantee that the 29-year-old will win at East Lake after the ‘starting strokes’ format has been scrapped. It will now be a regular stroke play format, with players starting at even par, and all 30 competing over 72 holes.