Best of the best contest Tour Championship

The 2015 FedEx Cup will be decided this week in the Tour Championship at East Lake in Georgia. Jason Day heads the standings but any of the top five will take the Cup if they win this event.

The five men who will win the FedEx Cup and the $10 million bonus prize with victory at the Tour Championship are: Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson.

Theoretically anybody in the 30-man field could take the big prize but for 30th placed Harris English to do so, he would have to win at East Lake and the leading players would have to perform terribly. There are countless possible scenarios though and a great deal to play for, both in terms of prize money for this event and a share of the bonus pool.

Last year Billy Horschel took the title and the FedEx Cup by holding off Rory McIlroy and Jim Furyk. Horschel didn’t make the top-30 after the BMW Championship this year so he won’t be able to defend his title at East Lake.

East Lake Golf Club is one of the oldest in the USA and was the home club of legendary amateur Bobby Jones. The course has hosted the Tour Championship on 12 previous occasions and was the venue for the 1963 Ryder Cup.

In 2008 the course was closed for a few months with a view towards recreating the layout’s original, firm and fast playing characteristics. The overhaul was a success. It’s a challenging track although low scoring is not uncommon. The winning score has been around the 10-under-par mark since the changes were made. Last year Billy Horschel won at 11-under-par.

The weather forecast looks reasonable although showers are possible on Friday and Saturday. Wins should be light to moderate.

Venue: East Lake GC, Atlanta, Georgia Date: Sep 24-27 Course stats: par 70, 7,307 yards Purse: $8,250,000 Winner: $1,485,000 Defending Champion: Billy Horschel (-11)

TV Coverage: Thursday 24 – Sky Sports 4 from 6pm Friday 25 – Sky Sports 4 from 6pm Saturday 26 – Sky Sports 4 from 4pm Sunday 27 – Sky Sports 4 from 5pm

Player watch: Jason Day – He’s on fire at the moment and, if he continues to play the way he has been, it seems there can be only one winner at East Lake.

Rickie Fowler – He can win the FedEx Cup with victory here and he’d love to do it to solidify his position as one of the “big four” together with Day, McIlroy and Spieth.

Rickie Fowler swing sequence:

Dustin Johnson – He’s something of a forgotten man given the fantastic play of Day, Spieth and Fowler this year, but he’s still lurking in sixth in the standings and could just sneak in under the radar to take the big prize.

Key hole: 18th. A 235-yard par 3 with deep bunkers left and right of a two-tiered green. When the wind’s against, many will need a fairway wood to get up here. A par is a tough ask, particularly if it’s for victory on Sunday afternoon; even more so if it would be worth $10 million.

Skills required: Handling the pressure. With such vast sums of money on the line, the tension tends to be pretty high down the stretch in this event. The man who can put that pressure to one side will stand on top at the end this week.