Aug 26, 2026 Content Strategy
The 2026 TOUR Championship returns to East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta this weekend, bringing the season’s top players together for the conclusion of the FedExCup Playoffs. CBS Sports will be there for the finish, with third-round coverage on Saturday, August 29 from 3:00-7:00 p.m. ET and final round coverage on Sunday, August 30 from 1:30-6:00 p.m. ET on CBS, with live simulcasts available on Paramount+ Premium.
For Dottie Pepper, on-course reporter for Golf On CBS, the season finale brings plenty to watch — from a transformed East Lake to a close Player of the Year race. The historic course has undergone an extensive restoration led by golf course architect Andrew Green since CBS last broadcast the TOUR Championship from East Lake in 2023.
Pepper will also be keeping a close eye on Scottie Scheffler. “I’m interested to see if Scottie Scheffler can put an exclamation point on a great year after being startlingly good in Memphis a couple weeks ago,” she said.
With the focus on to East Lake, Pepper will bring four decades of familiarity with the course to CBS Sports’ coverage this weekend. Pepper first played East Lake in 1986, giving her incomparable institutional knowledge. Her preparation starts well before she arrives in Atlanta. Pepper plans to watch Thursday’s opening round from start to finish before flying to East Lake early Friday. Once on the ground, she’ll study the course, connect with players’ teams and spend time on the driving range looking for details that could become important once CBS goes on the air.
“By Friday evening, I’m usually reaching out to players' teams – their coaches primarily – to try to get any nuggets or trends that may be new or different from the previous week(s),” Pepper said. “And I’ll also make sure I’m spending time on the driving range to watch players warming up to learn whether they’re implementing any changes to the golf clubs in their bag or how they may be shifting their approach given the course conditions, weather, ecetera.”
The Race for Player of the Year
The FedExCup isn’t the only season-long honor still at stake.
Pepper sees the PGA TOUR Player of the Year race as a battle between Scheffler and Wyndham Clark, each with a compelling case heading into Atlanta. Clark has a major championship victory on his résumé this season, while Scheffler’s consistency across the calendar has set him apart.
“It’s a competition now for sure,” Pepper said. “If Wyndham has one thing in his favor, it’s that he’s won a major this season. For Scottie, you look at his consistency and full body of work from January through August, and that’s where he is so superior to everyone else. But it’s safe to say that we’re looking at a two-horse race.”
Looking Back on a Memorable Season
For a season that has already delivered its share of memorable performances, Pepper doesn’t have to think long about the one that stands above the rest for her: Rory McIlroy winning a second consecutive Green Jacket at the Masters.
“There were so many people who said he couldn’t sum up enough passion and energy with all that’s asked of the defending champion early in the week to win again, and he did it anyway,” Pepper said. “And he did it with an aerosol can in his hands off the tee on the par-5s – he played the par-5s horribly and still managed to walk away with a second-consecutive Green Jacket.”
A Strong Start to the FedExCup Playoffs
With one defining weekend left, Pepper bets the player that will be holding the FedExCup trophy is the one she’s been watching closely from the start. “I’m going with Scottie Scheffler,” Pepper said. “He had a very good weekend last week and I think the momentum will carry.”
The TOUR Championship arrives after a strong start to this year’s FedExCup Playoffs on CBS. The final round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship averaged 3.786 million viewers, making it the most-watched final round of the Playoffs’ opening event since 2013. The audience peaked at nearly 5 million viewers, while Saturday’s third round averaged 2.871 million viewers — the most-watched third round of the event since the FedExCup Playoffs began in 2007.
The strong viewership continued with the BMW Championship, which delivered its most-watched final round in 19 years. Sunday’s coverage averaged 3.849 million viewers, up 10% from last year and marked the event’s largest final-round audience since Tiger Woods’ win in 2007, its inaugural year as a FedExCup Playoffs event. The audience peaked at 5.504 million viewers and averaged more than 5 million viewers over the final hour of coverage.
The TOUR Championship airs Saturday, August 29 from 3:00-7:00 p.m. ET and Sunday, August 30 from 1:30-6:00 p.m. ET on CBS. Live simulcasts of CBS coverage are available on Paramount+ Premium.