Is the Tour Championship a major?

The four established majors of men's golf are the Masters Tournament, PGA Championship (not to be confused with the titular TOUR Champioship), US Open and the Open Championship. These tournaments are regarded as the most prestigious professional tournaments.

These tournaments bear the moniker of "major" because of the national open and amateur championships of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. These tournaments have a storied history with the youngest tournament in the current majors list being the Masters Tournament, which began in 1934.

The first TOUR Championship was played in 1987. It was started over five decades after the youngest major.

The TOUR Championship does have a good reason to be considered a major -- the field playing is extremely competitive with only the top 125 in the FedEx Cup rankings getting to play in the playoffs. Only the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings get to tee off at the East Lake Golf Course. It is the last event of the PGA Tour, and the winner of this year's event gets to take home a staggering $18 million.

Viktor Hovland at the Tour Championship (image via Getty)

Moreover, to make it to the playoffs, a golfer must have a consistent season leading up to th TOUR Championship, while one can win a major in just one good weekend. Majors do give way to the occasional Cinderalla runs, with the most recent being Clark's victory in the US Open this year. He won with a margin of one stroke against the then-third-ranked Rory McIlroy.

TOUR Championship current standings

The TOUR Championships are currently underway. Here are the current leaders before the last round is played:

Maybe there will be an underdog story that plays out in the final round of the TOUR Championship. Coming back from a deficit of over six strokes would be a run we cannot even fathom right now. Click here for the latest news about the TOUR Championship.