12 surprising players who failed to make the PGA Tour playoffs
Rickie Fowler last month at the Open Championship.
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Four PGA Tour winners from this year.
A member of last year’s winning Ryder Cup team.
One of golf’s most popular players.
As the PGA Tour’s regular season came to an end on Sunday, those were among the notable pros not to move on to its three-week postseason. This week’s Wyndham Championship marked players’ last shot to make a cut-off set at the top 70 in the season-long points standings, making for a frantic week — which was made even more so after storms washed out Thursday’s first round and players were forced to play at least 36 holes on Sunday.
What’s next for the Tour? For the 70 who advance, they will play in next week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, and the top 50 in the standings after that event will move on to the following week’s BMW Championship, along with securing spots in next year’s Signature Events. The top 30 in the standings after the BMW will then play in the Tour Championship that starts on Aug. 29.
And for those not in the top 70? They’ll likely play in the Tour’s fall events, where they’ll hope to improve their standing and hope to stay in the top 125, the cut-off for keeping full playing privileges.
But they won’t play for the next three weeks. With that, here are a dozen surprising players who failed to make the PGA Tour playoffs.
12 surprising players who failed Sunday to make the PGA Tour playoffs
Davis Riley (71st in standings) — Riley won the Charles Schwab Challenge and he finishes as the bubble pro. But, ahead of this week, the win was one of just two top 25s for him.
Andrew Putnam (72nd in standings) — The second bubble pro. He played well this year, but missed six cuts in 21 events entering this week.
Lucas Glover (77th in standings) — Around this time last year, he won the Wyndham and FedEx St. Jude in back-to-back weeks. This season? Here’s how he assessed things earlier in the week: “I just haven’t put much together this year. I hit it good for a week, not make anything, and then the next week, it would seem to be the opposite.”
Nicolai Hojgaard (81st in standings) — He was part of last year’s winning Ryder Cup team. But he finished in the top 25 only twice entering the week.
Harry Hall (86th in standings) — Hall won the ISCO Championship, played the same week as the Genesis Scottish Open. Missing four cuts in his first eight events was costly.
Brice Garnett (87th in standings) — Garnett won the Puerto Rico Open, played the same week as the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But he had only two other top 25s coming into this week, with one of them coming in the Zurich Classic, a team event.
Chris Gotterup (94th in standings) — Gotterup won the Myrtle Beach Classic, played the same week as the Wells Fargo Championship. But he missed as many cuts as he made coming into this week — 10 apiece.
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Matt Kuchar (103rd in standings) — Kuchar had been the only player to make the playoffs in every season since the FedEx Cup began in 2007. But this year, entering this week, he missed 11 cuts in 19 events.
Rickie Fowler (106th in standings) — Fowler returned to form last year, winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic and making the Ryder Cup team. But this year, one of golf’s most popular players had just two top 25s in 20 events entering this week.
Webb Simpson (149th in standings) — Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open winner, had one top 25 in 12 events entering this week.
Gary Woodland (153rd in standings) — Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open winner, returned this year after missing time due to a brain tumor.
Tiger Woods (220th in standings) — Still at least a little surprising the 15-time major winner won’t make the postseason. But he played in only five events.
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