Jon Rahm starts Tour Championship four back of Patrick Cantlay; still not a big fan of system

ATLANTA – During the playoff opener two weeks ago at Liberty National, Jon Rahm spoke for many when asked his thoughts on the post-season format, which features a strokes-based start at the Tour Championship for the third year.

“I don’t like it,” he said before going on to explain, as many others have, that strokes-based scoring at East Lake is a poor way to identify a season-long champion.

On Tuesday at East Lake, where the world No. 1 will start the week 6 under and four shots behind points leader Patrick Cantlay, the Spaniard was again asked his thoughts on the format at the finale.

Full-field tee times from the Tour Championship

“I know my words are going to be possibly, let’s say, muddled to the extreme, but I’m not the biggest supporter of the full format itself,” Rahm said. “What I do like is the fact that you understand what’s going on and what’s going to happen and who is in the lead and what you have to do to win, but I don’t agree with every part of the format this week.”

To Rahm’s point, the strokes-based scoring has simplified the process and ridded the finale of the countless projections that used to make the week one of the year’s most confusing. Instead, Cantlay begins Thursday’s opening round at 10 under followed by Tony Finau at 8 under and all the way down to Nos. 26-30 on the points list at even par.