Collin Morikawa did his best to keep up with Scottie Scheffler on Saturday and even came within two strokes of the world number one.

But when it felt like Morikawa had taken a step forward, Scheffler took two.

Scheffler made birdies on four of the final five holes at East Lake to finish the third round of the Tour Championship five strokes ahead of Morikawa and nine ahead of everyone else.

But that’s with starting shots. Without them, Scheffler would be one point behind Morikawa.

This is the sixth year of the Tour Championship’s Starting Strokes format, which translates FedEx Cup finishes into starting points for each of the 30 players who make it to the final event of the season. If you want to see how everyone started the week, click here for the full breakdown.

Scottie Scheffler entered this week as the FedEx Cup leader for the third year in a row, two strokes clear (10 under par), but he has yet to win the season finale and the FedEx Cup title.

In fact, he had a larger lead (six strokes) over Rory McIlroy in 2022, but shot a final round 73 to allow McIlroy to overtake him.

This year it’s Collin Morikawa chasing him, and without the starting shots it’s a much closer battle. Morikawa and Scheffler are 17 and 16 under par this week without their starting shots, two shots better than anyone else in the field.

Coincidentally, Morikawa began the week at four under par, the same course from which McIlroy began his winning week in 2022. So anything is possible, really. But as we all know, this is a very different Scottie Scheffler than in 2022.

And the lead-off ranking isn’t entirely meaningless. The Official World Golf Ranking will use it to allocate points from this week’s event. So while Scheffler could win the FedEx Cup title and the $25 million that comes with it while extending his huge lead in the rankings, Morikawa could end up with a bigger lead.

Read below to see what the full Tour Championship leaderboard would look like without Starting strokes.

Tour Championship leaderboard without strokes

(Official score by par)

1. Collin Morikawa, (-17) 196 (-21)

2. Scottie Scheffler, (-16) 197 (-26)

3. Sahith Theegala, (-14) 199 (-17)

4. Adam Scott, (-12) 201 (-15)

5. Wyndham Clark, (-11) 202 (-15)

T6. Sam Burns, (-10) 203 (-14)
Shane Lowry (-13)

T8. Xander Schauffele, (-8) 205 (-16)
Sungjae Im (-11)
Viktor Hovland (-10)
Russell Henley (-10)
Taylor Pendrith (-9)
Justin Thomas (-8)

14. Rory McIlroy, (-7) 206 (-11)

T15. Ludvig Aberg, (-6) 207 (-11)
Matthieu Pavon (-7)

T17. Hideki Matsuyama, (-5) 208 (-12)
Tommy Fleetwood (-6)
Aaron Rai (-5)

T20. Bye Hun An, (-4) 209 (-6)
Sepp Straka (-5)

Patrick Cantlay, (-3) 210 (-7)
Tony Finau (-6)
Akshay Bhatia (-5)

Robert MacIntyre, (-2) 211 (-4)
Chris Kirk (-2)

Bill Horschel (E)213 (-1)
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (F)
Tom Hoge (F)

30.Keegan Bradley, (+1) 214 (-5)

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Publisher

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. Jack is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Penn State University in 2020 with a degree in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program as head coach. Jack also continues to try to stay competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack worked for two years at a television station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a multimedia journalist/reporter, but also as a producer, anchor, and even a weather reporter. You can reach him at [email protected].