Golf's season-ending Tour Championship could be held under a bracket-type competition involving stroke and match play as the PGA Tour looks at options to improve its playoff format, a source confirmed to ESPN on Friday.
Adjusting the format to the Tour Championship is among a handful of potential changes under consideration, the source said, adding that "everything is on the table."
Any changes would ultimately require PGA Tour board approval.
"I'd like to see something the players are excited about and the fans are excited about," said Patrick Cantlay, one of six players on the board. "There has been some talks around it, but nothing definitive."
The Tour Championship is the final event of the three-tournament FedEx Cup Playoffs, with 30 players advancing to play for the $25 million year-end top prize that Scottie Scheffler won in 2024.
Under the current format, the top-ranked players in the FedEx Cup standings enter the Tour Championship with a scoring advantage. Though that can be just two strokes for the top-ranked golfer over No. 2, a format Scheffler challenged as "silly" in August.
"You can't call it a seasonlong race and have it come down to one tournament," Scheffler said. "Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn't heal the way it did at the Players. I finish 30th in the FedEx Cup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the seasonlong race? No, it is what it is."
Rory McIlroy, on the other hand, said last season that he liked the way things were, though he acknowledged it might not be the best way to determine the best golfer over the course of a season.
"I love this format because if it wasn't this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he's so far ahead," McIlroy said. "So I really like this format."
Any changes could begin as early as the 2025 season. The Tour Championship is set for Aug. 21-24 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
The Athletic first reported on the potential changes to the Tour Championship, with sources calling them "advanced discussions."
Adam Scott, who also serves on board, urged caution when it came to what he referred to as a "legacy" event, which he considers the Tour Championship. He won it in 2006 the first week of November. The FedEx Cup began the next year. He said the Tour Championship has "kind of gotten lost in the wash" because of so many iterations since 2007.
Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley described the current format as "clunky." The idea of some form of head-to-head competition got his attention.
"I think that would be certainly interesting, because the pressure you feel at the Tour Championship ... if you're going to win the FedEx Cup and win whatever amount of money is at stake, that's real pressure," Bradley said. "So to watch two guys go out and play for it would be pretty cool."
Tony Finau said he felt head-to-head would be out of place with so much riding on the outcome.
"To put all the chips on the table for match play, I think that would be the wrong move," he said. "We play too many stroke-play events, and we don't even have one match play. I get that could create more drama, maybe something head-to-head. As a player, I don't see how that would be the most fair. Whatever the format is, there's a lot of money at the end."
ESPN's Mark Schlabach, The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.