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The 2024 Tour Championship is set to kick off Thursday at East Lake Golf Club with the top 30 players from the PGA Tour season vying for the FedEx Cup crown. Many of those major names will be paired together in the first round as tee times are based on the staggered start on the leaderboard, and CBS Sports has taken an extended look at the field with our Tour Championship predictions and expert picks as play begins Thursday.

For the third straight tournament, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele will be by one another's side in the first round. Coming into the week respectively ranked first and second in the FedEx Cup standings, the top two players in the world will duke it out across four days for the season-long race. They will be the last of 15 tee times and get underway at 2 p.m. ET.

The Americans follow the two playoff victors thus far: Keegan Bradley (BMW Championship) and Hideki Matsuyama (FedEx St. Jude Championship). Ahead of them, a pair of European Ryder Cup teammates, Ludvig Åberg and Rory McIlroy, share a spot on the tee sheet. McIlroy is looking for his record fourth FedEx Cup trophy, starting at 4, under while Åberg is making his Tour Championship debut from one stroke closer to the lead.

There are plenty of good pairings in the early stages of the first round as well. Billy Horschel draws Tommy Fleetwood at noon with the all-lefty pairing of Akshay Bhatia and Robert MacIntyre following at 12:16 p.m. Reigning FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland will need a big week to successfully defend his title and starts at 12:27 p.m. with Russell Henley.

All times Eastern

2024 Tour Championship tee times, Thursday pairings

  • 11:16 a.m. — Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Justin Thomas
  • 11:27 a.m. — Tom Hoge, Aaron Rai
  • 11:38 a.m. — Taylor Pendrith, Chris Kirk
  • 11:49 a.m. — Sepp Straka, Matthieu Pavon
  • 12:00 p.m. — Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood
  • 12:16 p.m. — Akshay Bhatia, Robert MacIntyre
  • 12:27 p.m. — Viktor Hovland, Russell Henley
  • 12:38 p.m. — Tony Finau, Byeong Hun An
  • 12:49 p.m. — Shane Lowry, Adam Scott
  • 1:00 p.m. — Sungjae Im, Sahith Theegala
  • 1:16 p.m. — Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay
  • 1:27 p.m. — Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark
  • 1:38 p.m. — Ludvig Åberg, Rory McIlroy
  • 1:49 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley
  • 2:00 p.m. — Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele