ATLANTA — With the PGA Tour’s top players making piles of money, its commissioner was grappling with how to keep his stars interested and invested in competitive golf after the conclusion of the majors season.

Noting that the stars’ absence made it difficult to procure title sponsors for tournaments in the late summer and fall, the commissioner, Deane Beman, posed a question in a 1985 interview with the Los Angeles Times: “How do we make that work when a player gets rich and wants to take some time off?”

The question became more vexing over the years as the $200,000 single-year bonanzas of Beman’s era gave way to seasons like this one, in which 54 players have earned at least $2 million and the last-place finisher at the Tour Championship, which begins Thursday, will receive $395,000.

Beman’s successor, Tim Finchem, started the FedEx Cup, a season-long competition culminating in playoffs, in 2007 to sustain the interest of players and fans after the last major had been played and to ensure attractive fields for title sponsors of dog-days-of-the-season events.