World No 1 Scottie Scheffler will start with a two-shot lead over Viktor Hovland, and three over Rory McIlroy, as the battle to be 2023's FedExCup champion and claim the $18m jackpot reaches its dramatic finale at the winner-takes-all Tour Championship.
The FedExCup Playoffs field has been whittled down from an initial cast of 70 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship a fortnight ago to a final 30 following last week's BMW Championship, where a late birdie blitz from Hovland saw him beat England's Matt Fitzpatrick and FedExCup points leader Scheffler by two strokes.
That all sets up a dramatic final four days of action from Thursday, live on Sky Sports Golf, with all to play for in the season-ending event at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
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How the Tour Championship works and who starts where
The Tour Championship features a starting strokes system and the score the players hold off the opening tee reflects their position in the year's FedExCup rankings.
Ten strokes separate the 30 players at the start of the event.
The leader - in this case Scheffler, for the second year in a row - starts on 10 under par with the second-placed player (Hovland) on eight under and the third (McIlroy) on seven under.
The fourth-highest player (Jon Rahm) tees off on six under and the fifth-highest (Lucas Glover) on five under.
The players ranked from sixth to 10th, which includes Matt Fitzpatrick, are at four under, while 11th-15th, a group featuring Tommy Fleetwood, are at three under.
The next four players to 20th begin at two under, and 21-25 are at one under, while the final five players start the tournament as normal at even par.
At the end of 72 holes on Sunday, the player with the lowest stroke score when combined with his starting strokes will be crowned the FedExCup champion and be the winner of the Tour Championship.
Speaking on Wednesday in the pre-tournament press conference, Scheffler said: "This tournament is a little bit weird because there's starting strokes and I wouldn't say that it is the best format to identify the best golfer for the year.
"Jon Rahm played some of the best golf of anybody this year and he's coming into this tournament fourth and he's four shots back. And, in theory, he could have won 20 times this year and he would only have a two-shot lead.
"I feel like I've joked a decent amount about being (world) number one meaning you don't get any extra strokes and you show up this week and I do get some extra strokes. So it's a bit strange, but it should be a fun week."
Will McIlroy come from behind to win again? And what about in-form Hovland?
With three overall wins since the season-ending playoffs were introduced in 2007, no one has won the FedExCup more often than McIlroy.
He started last year's Tour Championship six strokes adrift of Scheffler but rounds of 67-67-63-66 were enough to take the crown and bumper prize fund by one shot.
Asked what he learned about losing his six-shot lead in the space of seven
holes in last year's final round, Scheffler said: "I don't know if impatient is the right word, but I just didn't get off to a good start and after that, I played really well.
"I remember walking down number eight and kind of just having a talk with myself about, you know, this is why you practice, this is why you prepare, just kind of give yourself a little pump-up speech, and then after that I snapped right back in."
Scheffler and McIlroy will inevitably start as favourites, but Hovland's sensational surge to victory at the BMW Championship last Sunday - which was achieved via a course-record 61 final round - has certainly put the Norwegian into serious contention too.
Asked about Hovland's chances this week, fourth-ranked Rahm said: "I mean, that's an incredible round of golf. If you told me that Scottie was going to shoot five under on Sunday, I would have said there's no chance that doesn't win.
"I would have not expected somebody to come out and shoot nine under. He went off. Yeah, I have a lot of respect for that round of golf.
"He broke the course record that had been broken twice on that week, and to do it to win a golf tournament, it's impressive.
Rahm added: "He's a hell of a player and he showed it."
Who will win the FedExCup? Watch the Tour Championship throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage begins on Thursday from 5pm on Sky Sports Golf. Stream the PGA Tour and more for £26 a month for 12 months with NOW.