-
Mark Schlabach
The PGA Tour’s playoffs get underway on Thursday on the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee, the primary of three straight tournaments to find out the FedEx Cup champion.
Almost all the high 70 golfers within the seasonlong factors standings will probably be chasing world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler, who will try and develop into the primary back-to-back winner of the FedEx Cup on the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Aug. 21-24.
“It is the time of yr that everyone desires to be clearly peaking and taking part in their finest,” Justin Thomas mentioned.
Scheffler handled a hand wound early within the season and did not end first as usually as he did final yr, however his 4 victories this season embrace main championship wins on the PGA Championship and The Open.
The FedEx Cup playoffs tournaments
FedEx St. Jude Championship
When: Thursday-Sunday
The place: TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee
Purse: $20 million ($3.6 million to winner)
Defending champion: Hideki Matsuyama
The highest 70 golfers within the seasonlong FedEx Cup factors standings return to TPC Southwind for the primary leg of the playoffs — or not less than everybody however Masters champion Rory McIlroy, who’s skipping the event.
McIlroy is comfortably within the No. 2 spot within the factors standings and has all however locked up spots within the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. McIlroy has three top-10s in eight begins at TPC Southwind, however he completed 68th final yr at 9 over (26 strokes behind Matsuyama).
McIlroy advised The Telegraph of London in November that he would doubtless choose out of the primary playoff occasion to chop down on his schedule.
“I completed, principally, useless final there [last] yr, and solely moved down one spot within the playoff standings,” mentioned McIlroy.
There’s extra urgency for golfers simply inside or exterior the top-50 bubble, together with two-time main winner Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau, who’ve reached the Tour Championship in eight straight seasons, the longest streaks on tour.
Schauffele, who battled a rib damage early within the season, is No. 42 within the factors standings, whereas Finau is No. 60. Finau wants not less than a two-way tie for twentieth to crack the highest 50. Rickie Fowler (sixty fourth) wants not less than a two-way tie for seventeenth.
Different golfers on the bubble to qualify for the BMW Championship: Harry Hall (No. 44), Akshay Bhatia (No. 45), Si Woo Kim (No. 46), Jake Knapp (No. 47), Jordan Spieth (No. 48), Wyndham Clark (No. 49), Min Woo Lee (No. 50), J.T. Poston (No. 51), Kurt Kitayama (No. 52), Bud Cauley (No. 53), Joe Highsmith (No. 54) and Aaron Rai (No. 55).
Gary Woodland (No. 72), Adam Scott (No. 90), Tom Kim (No. 94), Max Homa (No. 111) and Sahith Theegala (No. 146) had been among the many most notable names to overlook the playoffs.
BMW Championship
When: Aug. 14-17
The place: Caves Valley Golf Membership, Owings Mills, Maryland
Purse: $20 million ($3.6 million to winner)
Defending champion: Keegan Bradley
The highest 50 golfers within the factors standings after the FedEx St. Jude Championship will advance to the second leg of the playoffs and can earn spots in every of the eight signature occasions in 2026.
The BMW Championship returns to Caves Valley Golf Membership for the primary time since 2021. The final time, Patrick Cantlay defeated Bryson DeChambeau in a dramatic six-hole, sudden-death playoff. Cantlay made a 20-foot birdie putt on the ultimate gap in regulation to complete 27 beneath and pressure a playoff; DeChambeau missed a 12-footer that might have given him the win.
On the sixth playoff gap, Cantlay sunk an 18-footer for birdie to win and transfer to No. 1 within the FedEx Cup factors standings. He additionally secured the sixth and ultimate computerized spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup crew.
Caves Valley Golf Membership, which is positioned about 20 miles northwest of Baltimore, opened in 1991. It hosted the 2002 U.S. Senior Open and 2007 Palmer Cup. The course put in a SubAir system on its greens lately and lengthened the No. 1 gap.
Seven golfers completed 20 beneath or higher 4 years in the past; Sungjae Im completed third at 23 beneath and McIlroy was fourth at 22 beneath.
Tour Championship
When: Aug. 21-24
The place: East Lake Golf Membership, Atlanta
Purse: $40 million ($10 million to winner)
Defending champion: Scottie Scheffler
For the primary time since 2019, the PGA Tour is abandoning its starting-strokes format for the Tour Championship, which will probably be a 72-hole, conventional stroke-play event with the highest 30 golfers all beginning at even par.
Final yr, Scheffler began the primary spherical at 10 beneath, not less than two strokes forward of the remainder of the sector. He was 20 beneath over 72 holes on his personal, and his 30-under complete was 4 strokes higher than Collin Morikawa to win the FedEx Cup for the primary time.
Scheffler has already collected $18 million for ending first within the factors standings in the course of the common season and the Comcast Enterprise Tour high 10. He’ll earn one other $5 million for being No. 1 within the factors standings heading into the BMW Championship.
The winner of the Tour Championship will earn $10 million, whatever the golfer’s place within the factors standings. The runner-up wins $5 million, third place will get $3.7 million, fourth takes residence $3.2 million and fifth walks away with $2.75 million. The last-place golfer within the Tour Championship collects $355,000.
Renovations at TPC Southwind
TPC Southwind underwent a large renovation after final yr’s event with 18 new inexperienced complexes and tee packing containers being resurfaced. There are additionally new chipping and placing follow areas.
Scheffler mentioned TPC Southwind did a great job of preserving its DNA and never making too many modifications in the course of the renovation.
“The brand new greens proper now are actually agency,” Scheffler mentioned. “I believe it is a golf course that is usually been fairly widespread on tour, so I appreciated they did not are available once they renovated it and simply fully modified the golf course. I believe they’d a extremely good base for a stable golf course the place ball-striking is vital. You have to hit it properly round this place.”
Harris English discovered the shaved banks on the Nos. 3 and 9 greens will trigger balls to roll again into the water if golfers are brief on their method photographs. The brand new again tee field on No. 5 left English hitting driver and 3-iron on the par-4 gap.
“I really feel just like the tough is up from years previous,” English mentioned. “Even in the present day, hitting some balls within the tough, it is onerous to seek out them. You get this gnarly Bermuda tough, it is so onerous to determine if it may soar, if it may come out useless.”
Golfers will once more battle steamy temperatures within the 90s over 4 days in Memphis.
What’s at stake for the Ryder Cup?
U.S. Ryder Cup crew captain Keegan Bradley is tenth within the FedEx Cup factors standings, so he’ll have a great alternative to gauge who’s taking part in properly and who is not in the course of the three legs of the playoffs.
The highest six golfers within the Ryder Cup factors standings after the BMW Championship will robotically make the U.S. crew. Bradley will make six captain’s picks after the Tour Championship.
Proper now, Scheffler, Schauffele, U.S. Open winner J.J. Spaun, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and English are within the high six. Every of these six appear assured of constructing the crew, no matter the place they end within the factors standings.
Thomas, who’s seventh in Ryder Cup factors, additionally appears to be good in form, though he is not taking any possibilities.
“I need to be in that high six,” Thomas mentioned. “Only for me personally, it simply would imply rather a lot to me to get that carried out as a result of having been picked or having to depend on a choose a pair occasions, I undoubtedly like the extent of low stress and simply the sense of calm, figuring out that you simply’re certified versus ready for that cellphone to ring.
“However I’ve loads of golf tournaments and loads of massive occasions between from time to time.”
Two-time main winner Collin Morikawa is eighth in factors, adopted by Ben Griffin, Bradley, Maverick McNealy and Brian Harman.
Cantlay, a Ryder Cup veteran, is 14th in factors. Cameron Young, who gained for the primary time on tour eventually week’s Wyndham Championship, is fifteenth, and Sam Burns is sixteenth. They could have to make some noise within the playoffs to guarantee themselves of a spot.
The highest six golfers within the European crew’s factors standings on Aug. 24 will qualify for the crew. McIlroy has already certified on factors, and Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka spherical out the highest six.
Rasmus Højgaard, Justin Rose, Ludvig Åberg and Jon Rahm is twenty first and can make the crew, that means Matt Wallace, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Thomas Detry and Aaron Rai is perhaps battling for one spot.