The final PGA Tour event of the 2016-17 season is here, and there is a lot of money on the line. Thirty players will play the Tour Championship this weekend at East Lake, and just under $34 million is at stake between the Tour Championship purse and FedEx Cup bonus money.

Jordan Spieth is the favorite to win this week (it would be his second in three years), but he'll have loads of competition. One of the quirky nuances to the Tour Championship is that the FedEx Cup points players have been earning since last fall get reset this week. 

The reason for this is to create a little bit of drama in case one or two players are way out in front. The PGA Tour wants everyone to have a mathematical chance of winning the FedEx Cup if they win the Tour Championship, thus the reset. Their points earned at the Tour Championship are then added to the reset points to determine a FedEx Cup winner.

Here's how we stand right now.

2017 FedEx Cup Standings

RankingPlayerReset FedEx Cup Points

1

Jordan Spieth

2,000

2

Justin Thomas

1,800

3

Dustin Johnson

1,520

4

Marc Leishman

1,296

5

Jon Rahm

1,280

6

Rickie Fowler

1,120

7

Hideki Matsuyama

960

8

Justin Rose

800

9

Brooks Koepka

640

10

Paul Casey

480

11

Pat Perez

384

12

Matt Kuchar

368

13

Charley Hoffman

352

14

Daniel Berger

336

15

Jason Day

314

16

Webb Simpson

293

17

Jhonattan Vegas

272

18

Kevin Kisner

251

19

Kevin Chappell

231

20

Brian Harman

219

21

Adam Hadwin

206

22

Kyle Stanley

194

23

Patrick Reed

182

24

Tony Finau

170

25

Sergio Garcia

161

26

Xander Schauffele

151

27

Russell Henley

142

28

Gary Woodland

133

29

Patrick Cantlay

124

30

Jason Dufner

115

2017 Tour Championship point distributions

PlaceFedEx Cup Points

1st

2,000

2nd

1,200

3rd

760

4th

540

5th

440

6th

400

7th

360

8th

340

9th

320

10th

300

11th

280

12th

260

13th

240

14th

228

15th

220

16th

212

17th

204

18th

196

19th

188

20th

180

21st

172

22nd

164

23rd

156

24th

148

25th

142

26th

136

27th

130

28th

124

29th

118

30th

112

So you can see the player in 30th (Jason Dufner) has to win the Tour Championship and basically have the field finish in the opposite order of its ranking (i.e. Spieth in 30th, Thomas in 29th, etc.) for him to win the FedEx Cup. Let's say Dufner won this week. He would finish with 2,115 FedEx Cup points. If Spieth finished even 29th, he would surpass Dufner with 2,118 points. 

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The margin is thin for players at the bottom. It's not that they can't win, it's just that it's incredibly unlikely. The top five are guaranteed a FedEx Cup win if they win the Tour Championship. The players just outside of that have a great chance of taking home the $10 million first prize by winning the Tour Championship as well. Take Rickie Fowler, for example. All he has to do to win the FedEx Cup is win the Tour Championship and have Jordan Spieth finish third or worse. Fowler would finish with 3,120 points, and Spieth would finish with 2,760 with a third-place finish.

Over $25 million in bonus prize money is distributed for the FedEx Cup after the dust settles this weekend (and this doesn't include the $8.8 million purse for the Tour Championship!). All told, $35 million of FedEx Cup money is distributed to players who make the FedEx Cup playoffs. Those who got cut in previous weeks receive a little bit of the $35 million pot, and even those who finished Nos. 125-150 in the standings receiving $32,000 each. Here are distributions for the final 30.

2017 FedEx Cup payouts

PlaceFedEx Cup Payouts

1st

$10 million

2nd

$3 million

3rd

$2 million

4th

$1.5 million

5th

$1 million

6th

$800,000

7th

$700,000

8th

$600,000

9th

$550,000

10th

$500,000

11th

$300,000

12th

$290,000

13th

$280,000

14th

$270,000

15th

$250,000

16th

$245,000

17th

$240,000

18th

$235,000

19th

$230,000

20th

$225,000

21st

$220,000

22nd

$215,000

23rd

$210,000

24th

$205,000

25th

$200,000

26th

$195,000

27th

$190,000

28th

$185,000

29th

$180,000

30th

$175,000

There is a lot at stake this week at the Tour Championship. The winner of the tournament walks away $11.5 million richer if he also wins the FedEx Cup. Interestingly, eight of the 10 champions of this event (including Rory McIlroy this year) did not make it back to East Lake to defend, and only Tiger Woods has ever won the FedEx Cup twice (something Spieth could accomplish this week). 

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Past FedEx Cup Champions

  • 2016: Rory McIlroy
  • 2015: Jordan Spieth
  • 2014: Billy Horschel
  • 2013: Henrik Stenson
  • 2012: Brandt Snedeker
  • 2011: Bill Haas
  • 2010: Jim Furyk
  • 2009: Tiger Woods
  • 2008: Vijay Singh
  • 2007: Tiger Woods

We should be in for a tremendous week of golf in Atlanta. All of the playoff events have been strong so far, but throw in the juice of $34 million and you start to ratchet up the intensity from 30 of the best players on the planet.