The PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs will come to a close this week in East Lake as the Tour Championship is set to tee off Thursday morning. World No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, will of course start the tournament with a lead in the structured format. There are only a handful of golfers with a realistic shot at catching him. One of them is Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama.
However, Matsuyama is dealing with a back injury that forced him to withdraw from last week's BMW Championship. Following Tuesday's practice round, Matsuyama addressed the injury saying that his lower back only feels about 50 to 60 percent healthy, according to the Golf Injury Report on X, formerly Twitter.
He went on to say that he planned on testing it out Wednesday, but thus far has not addressed the media.
Matsuyama won the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, capturing the FedEx St. Jude Championship two weeks ago. It was his second win of the year. Matsuyama previously won Tiger Woods' Genesis Invitational in February.
His win at St. Jude vaulted him up the FedEx Cup standings. He is slated to begin the Tour Championship at 7-under par, three shots behind Scheffler. Considering Scheffler's historical dominance in 2024, his slight edge on the field feels insignificant and somewhat unfair.
Scheffler himself called the format “silly.” Meanwhile, Matsuyama fell just short of calling it unfair, but did acknowledge he is happy that it opens up the Tour Championship to a number of players.
Xander Schauffele will start in second at 8-under, followed by Hideki Matsuyama. BMW Championship winner Keegan Bradley is fourth at 6-under with Ludvig Aberg five back of Scheffler. The rest of the 25 players in the field are staggered in groups of five, progressively further back.
Justin Thomas and Christiaan Bezuidenhout will tee off at 8:16am Eastern Thursday to begin play.
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