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The post ‘Just revamp everything’: Pro critiques PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup points structure appeared first on Golf.

Jake Knapp has already accomplished a lot in his professional career. The 31-year-old notched his first PGA Tour win at last year’s Mexico Open, and has a propensity for going low, with 12 rounds of 65 or better in 2025 — one of which was an ultra-notable 59 at PGA National, long reputed as one of the Tour’s toughest tracks.

“I don’t think I get intimidated super easy by any second shot,” Knapp said on this week’s episode of Subpar. “I’m never scared to hit at a flag. I’m definitely not afraid to play aggressive, attack golf.”

In addition to revisiting the details of some of his low rounds, Knapp also discussed his take on PGA Tour policy, sharing his thoughts on the Tour’s schedule changes. As No. 55 on the FedEx Cup points list at the conclusion of the FedEx St. Jude, Knapp isn’t automatically qualified for the nine Signature Events in 2026, but can still get in to the first two Signature Events after the Sentry if he remains in the top 60 through the FedEx Cup Fall series.

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“Hopefully I’ll keep inside the top 60 going into next year, so I’ll be into AT&T and Genesis, so that’ll be good, but, yeah, I mean, the top 50 is huge,” Knapp told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “Not only for planning out your schedule, because then you really get to pick and choose what you’re playing and not, you can kind of get into a weird place if you do play well. Not that it’s a bad thing, but then you’re stuck in between — well, do I take a regular week off or do I play seven in a row because now I’m into this elevated event? It’s a lot more difficult.

“And not to mention, if you can just play halfway decent in like two or three elevated events, it’s ridiculous what it does,” Knapp continued. “Now they’ve changed the point structure and you get a lot of points if you just finish like top 12 or whatever it is. So a 10th or an 11th in an elevated event is like finishing 3rd in a regular event.”

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Six of the nine Signature Events in 2026 will not have cuts, and all of them will have elevated purses, making them especially lucrative for players. But Knapp said he isn’t a fan of all the changes.

“You have the one guy who maybe played his way into an elevated event and then kind of backdoors like a 7th-place finish and all of a sudden they’re 11th on the points list and you’re like, what the heck just happened?” Knapp said. “So I don’t know. I don’t think there’s like a perfect system. I don’t think we’ve quite found that, and I think that’s why it’s changing so much year to year. I just think we gotta like, almost look at it and just revamp everything and and really look at what we’re doing.”

For more from Knapp, including the story of how he linked up with veteran caddie Joe Greiner, check out the full episode of Subpar below.

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When the winner of Sunday’s Tour Championship lifts the trophy, he’ll have something in common with 2007 Tiger Woods: he’ll be walking away from East Lake Golf Club with a $10 million first-place FedEx Cup prize.

But a whole lot else has changed. The venues are different. The fields have shrunk. And it looks a whole lot different than it did at the beginning. Let’s buzz through a quick history of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. No prize money included.

2007 — FedEx Cup Playoffs 1.0

Prize fund: $35 mil
First-place check: $10 mil

Format notes: The PGA Tour first released its plans for a playoff in Nov. 2005, to be rolled out for the 2007 season. That first playoff year was a four-tournament setup; 144 players qualified for the first event, the Barclays, before cutting to 120 for the Deutsche Bank Championship, 70 for the BMW Championship and 30 for the Tour Championship.

Fun fact: Looking back, hosting these first three events outside New York (Westchester Country Club), Boston (TPC Boston) and Chicago (Cog Hill) before heading to Atlanta for the Tour Championship seems like a simple winning formula. Also it probably didn’t hurt that Phil Mickelson won the Deutsche Bank and Tiger Woods won the BMW and Tour Championship.

2008 — FedEx Cup Playoffs 2.0 and 3.0

Prize fund: $35 mil
First-place check: $10 mil

Format notes: In early 2008 changes were announced to the playoff points system, essentially juicing the points and punishing players who might be thinking of skipping the first event. (Woods had skipped the first-ever playoff event, the Barclays, the year prior.)

After the 2008 playoffs, further points changes were announced for the 2009 season to guarantee that what had happened in 2008 — Vijay Singh building such a big lead that the FedEx Cup was decided before they’d even teed it up at the Tour Championship — wouldn’t happen again. The field for the first event was reduced to 125 players, followed by 100, 70 and 30.

Fun fact: It’s comical looking back at the first two winners, Woods and Singh, who finished with 123,033 and 125,101 FedEx Cup points, respectively; nobody cracked the 5,000-point marker in the decade that followed.

2019 — FedEx Cup Playoffs 4.0

Prize fund: $60 mil
First-place check: $15 mil

Format notes: Here’s where everything changed. (Again.) The Tour reduced its number of events from four to three and moved the playoff’s dates up, finishing the final week of August and avoiding football in the process. That meant the Dell Technologies Championship (held in Boston) got axed. While 125 players still made the playoffs, they cut from 125 to 70 and then to 30.

This was also the beginning of the “Starting Strokes” era, in which the top-ranked player entering the Tour Championship earned an advantage to start the week, starting at 10 under par while second place would start at 8 under, third at 7 under, fourth at 6 under and on down to even par.

Fun fact: Remember when Tiger Woods won the Tour Championship in 2018 — and then that same night got on a flight to France for the 2019 Ryder Cup? That sort of thing doesn’t happen anymore, because the playoffs wrap up a month earlier.

2022 — FedEx Cup Playoffs 5.0

Prize fund: $75 mil
First-place check: $18 mil

Format notes: No significant format changes, but 2022 was notable because it was LIV Golf’s first season, players were defecting left and right and the PGA Tour responded with other format changes to its schedule (enter Signature Events) as well as various ways to get its players more money. That meant a bump to $75 million for the FedEx Cup, it meant increased purses and it meant ramping up the Player Impact Program (PIP) which would ultimately swell to $100 million on its own. (Also, for 2023, the field for the first playoff event was reduced to 70.)

Fun fact: Several of LIV’s players sued the PGA Tour for keeping them out of the FedEx Cup playoffs. Three players — Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones — tried to get a temporary restraining order to play the FedEx St. Jude Championship. It was ultimately denied.

2024 — FedEx Cup Playoffs 6.0

Prize fund: $100 mil
First-place check: $25 mil

Format notes: If you increase prize money everywhere else (as with the Signature Events) you’d better juice up the playoff money to keep pace. Thanks in part to the sunsetting of the Player Impact Program, the Tour jacked up its prize money even further, sending $25 million to winner Scottie Scheffler.

Fun fact: $25 million is just a lot of money for winning a golf tournament.

2025 — FedEx Cup Playoffs 7.0

Prize fund: $100 mil
First-place check: $10 mil (ish)

Format notes: The Tour ditched “Starting Strokes” and introduced a new FedEx finale format that was an awful lot like the pre-playoff edition of the Tour Championship: 30 players, low score wins.

But because the FedEx Cup is designed to reward season-long play, they spread payment across several tournaments instead of just dishing it out at the end of the season. That meant the No. 1-ranked Scheffler took home $10 million at the end of the regular season, plus $8 million for winning the Comcast Business Tour Top 10. Scheffler got another bonus of $5 million for remaining at that No. 1 spot after the BMW Championship. And he’ll have a chance at another $10 million if he can emerge the winner at the end of the Tour Championship.

Fun fact: Nice work, if you can get it.

A partial payout list is in the graphic below; you can see the entire Tour Championship purse here.

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The post Tour Championship Subpar picks: Favorite bets of the week appeared first on Golf.

There’s just one stop left in the PGA Tour season, and it’s the Tour Championship at East Lake with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler as the massive betting favorite.

Scheffler is coming off a win Sunday at the BMW Championship in Maryland, and he’s now +150 to win the season finale and take home the FedEx Cup title (and $10 million payday). Runner-up, according to Fanatics Sportsbook, is Rory McIlroy, who is +850 to win, followed by Tommy Fleetwood at +1400.

As for other prop bets for this week? GOLF’s Subpar podcast duo of Drew Stoltz and Colt Knost have those covered. Knost picked Ben Griffin to top 10 (+180) for his Fanatics Sportsbook bet of the week, and Stoltz picked Harris English to top 10 (+190).

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“[English] was T12 last week, and that’s with a bogey-bogey finish,” Stoltz said. “It could have been better than that. He’s got his Ryder Cup spot locked up, I think it’s a comfortable week and he’s heading back home to the state of Georgia where he’s played good golf before and looking to get into form before the fall and Ryder Cup.”

This year, it’s a more even playing field at East Lake, too. The Tour eliminated the Starting Strokes format, meaning all 30 golfers in the field will start the week at even par.

You can catch all the action on Golf Channel and NBC/Peacock. Click here for first-round tee times.

You can find complete Fanatics Sportsbook betting odds for the Tour Championship here, and you can listen to the full episode of the latest Subpar (with Old Dominion band members Brad Tursi and Trevor Rosen) here, or by watching the YouTube video below.

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The post The Tour Championship is broken. Here’s how we’d fix it appeared first on Golf.

For as long as there is a Tour Championship on the PGA Tour, there will be a debate over its format. At least, that’s what the last two decades would have you believe, as the Tour has waffled between FedEx Cup points, starting strokes, dreams of match play and, ultimately, what we see this year: a completely level playing field for 30 players.

That fluctuation has done little to create a lasting legacy and/or an exciting product for golf fans. Which is why you have press conferences every August filled with reporters asking players for their thoughts on the format, at least some of whom have had trouble keeping up with all the format changes. (Asked Tuesday about the tweaks for 2025, Tommy Fleetwood said, “In all honesty, I didn’t know until today or yesterday what the — obviously I knew it was a normal tournament, but I didn’t know everything evolving around it.”) It’s not perfect! And it may never be. But the Tour should be interested in making it as perfect as it possibly could be. 

The frequent format adjustments, while somewhat unproductive, do at least show one thing: The Tour is not afraid of change. The Tour’s Player Advisory Council has had numerous meetings over the last year where the format of a season-ending finale was among the main topics. And plenty that came from those meetings was positive! Removing starting strokes and pushing FedEx Cup bonus payouts ahead on the schedule are just two. But I’ve got some more ideas in mind, which you can watch (and read about) below.

How to fix the Tour Championship format

The most important thing you need to know about the Tour Championship — and how it will look in the future — is that it will need to appease and please at least five different parties: the Tour itself, the players, the TV rights holders, the sponsors (FedEx, chiefly) and the fans. Does that create a bit of a Rubik’s Cube, where solving for one impacts the others? Absolutely. But I think we make everyone mostly happy with what follows. 

1. 30 players, just as there always has been. The Tour is obsessed with having 30 players advance to the TC. Thirty is a great number. It’s the third stage of the playoffs, and everyone who gets there gets a bunch of other stuff, too. They’ll start their season in Hawaii at the Sentry. They’ll also all get invited to the Masters. If we have more than 30 players at the Tour Championship — or much fewer than that number — something is either lost or gained. Thirty is a good number, and it keeps the Tour happy. 

2. We begin with stroke play. Take it from Rory McIlroy, who spoke on the topic Tuesday: “I think it’s just hard for the players to reconcile that we play stroke play for every week of the year but then the season-ending tournament is going to be decided by match play. I think it was just hard for the players to get their heads around that.” 

It’s true. Numerous players on the Tour Policy Board and PAC have said it. You can’t play stroke play all year long and suddenly have only a match-play championship. So we begin with all 30 players at the TC playing two rounds of stroke play. 

3. Both ends of leaderboard matter. The top two performers after 36 holes will receive a first-round bye on Match Play Saturday. That’s what everyone is after: a much easier road to victory that is earned by solid play. The top 14 players will make the cut, but that is only after a possible playoff for the 14th and final spot. If four players are tied for 13th after two rounds, it’s a four-for-two sudden playoff, which brings us to another part of the puzzle…

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4. TV execs would love it. When you institute a 36-hole competition, the first 18 holes really matter. And what happens late in the second 18 holes really matters. In other words, that four-for-two playoff would play out late in the day on Friday, hopefully for primetime viewing on the East Coast. Right now, there is little reason at all to watch the second round of the Tour Championship. This would change that. 

5. Match Play Saturday. The sales team at the PGA Tour — to invoke an all-time comedy line — could sell (sponsorship of) a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves. With a nimble, made-for-TV Tour Championship, I am looking to give them new business opportunities, like Match Play Saturday. Where the 1- and 2-seed have byes into the quarterfinals, and where 4 plays against 13, and 5 plays against 12. 

To add some names to those numbers, using scores from the 2024 TC, Collin Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler would have received byes. Tommy Fleetwood (seeded 13th) would have sneaked past 4-seed Sahith Theegala, only to find himself matched up against (and losing to) 5-seed Xander Schauffele in the afternoon. We would have six matches in the morning, and then four in the afternoon, once again ending in primetime. Before anyone doubts match play as a viable TV product, my colleague James Colgan very literally got Sam Flood, NBC executive producer, to comment on that:

“There’s no question match play would work for the PGA Tour playoffs,” Flood said. “It would be dramatic for TV, and if it was done the right way, it could be one of the great moments in golf.”

That sound like an endorsement? 

6. Playoffs would feel like … playoffs! You’ve heard it countless times — that the FedEx Cup Playoffs need to feel more like actual playoffs. Where players/teams survive and advance from one stage to the next. This format would only lengthen the surviving and advancing period. We’d begin with 70 players, narrow down to 50, then to 30, then 14, eight and, after the quarterfinals, just four. This is where we check the sponsorship box, because for the entire month of August, it would feel like there is a more direct line between the start of the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the end. Between the divisional round and Super Bowl Sunday. That’s a win for the company that sponsors it all, and is probably the most important sponsor in all of pro golf. 

7. Building to a Sunday Shootout. Match Play Saturday would create a final four as we move back to stroke play for a neat and orderly shootout. 1 v. 1 v. 1 v. 1, 18 holes, low man wins. This solves for any concerns about a blowout championship match, or any flukey winners. If you have advanced to the final 30, made the top-14 cut after two rounds, advanced through two matches and then beat three other golfers who did the same? You are absolutely worthy of being the FedEx Cup champion. 

For those who can’t quite imagine it just yet, I used the scores from the 2024 Tour Championship to get us as close as possible. Last year’s Sunday Shootout would have pitted Peak Xander Schauffele against Peak Scottie Scheffler against Peak Collin Morikawa against the birdie machine known as Wyndham Clark. 

That kind of entertainment is how we check the box for fans. 

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It’s no real surprise that PGA Tour members lean in the direction of groupthink. As a collective, they are so similar that they might as well think largely the same way. They lead similar lives, live in the same few regions — tax-havens mostly — and will even cast similar votes whenever they visit the ballot box. 

Often it shows itself in the form of positivity — course is great, greens are great, gotta shoot lower scores — but it is most interesting in the form of non-positivity. Like this week, when some of the best players in the world can’t really be bothered to care much about the tournament as the penultimate stage of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. 

Take Rory McIlroy’s press availability after his first round Thursday, where he was asked if the altered format — sans “Starting Strokes” — changes his approach.

“I guess it would still be nice to finish second after this week just to get a little bit more cash, I guess,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, again, I guess you’re trying your best to win the golf tournament. Yeah, I guess you’re just not looking at the leaderboards as much because it obviously doesn’t really matter heading into next week where you are.”

Four times in that answer: I guess, I guess, I guess, I guess.

There was no guessing which “playoffs” meant more to McIlroy last week. He skipped the first leg of the FedEx Cup chase, and was meanwhile posting on Instagram promotion for the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai, events held three months from now. McIlroy admitted he wanted some extra rest, given how busy the end of his 2025 is going to be, and the annual sweaty grind of a mid-summer week in Memphis was easy to drop.

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Jason Day said he was more than ready for the Tour to take its playoffs somewhere besides hot and humid Memphis in August. The Tour used to ensure stops in the New York, Chicago and Boston markets at least every other year. The courses were more “iconic” in Day’s mind, than where the tournaments go right now, with Olympia Fields, Medinah, TPC Boston, etc. 

“At some point I hope we go back there because I think it would be nice to go back to some good memories, especially at a golf course I’ve enjoyed playing,” Day said. 

You can take almost the entirety of Scottie Scheffler’s post-round press time, where he hemmed and hawed and admitted the current system is just … fine.

“I think when you look at the FedExCup, I think it’s a greater discussion,” Scheffler said. “Like if you’re going to have a true season-long race, truly the best player every year wins, odds are it’s not going to come to that interesting of a conclusion in most years.”

This year’s format, for Scheffler, is better than Starting Strokes. If winning the FedEx Cup is your goal, it’ll take you a good season to get to the Tour Championship, “then it’s on,” Scheffler said. That aligns with anyone who wants to win a major knowing that they have to qualify for that major and then play well at the exact right time. 

But … Scheffler still liked the original system best — back when players received FedEx Cup Points all season long, even through the Tour Championship — even if he knows it was flawed, as it was difficult for fans to know exactly what it took to win. 

That understanding that the FedEx Cup Playoffs have been flawed is so ubiquitous, it demands the question: how long can we keep doing this without major change that is locked in place … forever? Or for at least a couple decades — long enough to ensure that it means something on the annual calendar. Or means something closer to what the Tour marketing staff tells you it means. 

Without consistency of format, visiting locales the players love, timing those events to the month of August exclusively and guaranteeing that thing that everyone is playing for feels extra special, the Playoffs conversation can end up leaning in a completely different direction. For that, our example comes back to Scottie Scheffler, whose pre-tournament press conference revolved more around the Ryder Cup than anything else. So much that Scheffler had to stop and remind reporters Hey, that’s not for another month.

“I love answering questions about the Ryder Cup, but this is ridiculous,” Scheffler said with a chuckle. “We’re at the BMW Championship. The Ryder Cup is over a month away. If you want to talk about this week, let’s talk about this week. If not, I’ve got practice to do. I’m getting ready for a golf tournament.”

Scheffler was light-hearted when he said it, but he meant it. You can’t blame him for not wanting to talk about anything but the BMW Championship. But then again, you can’t blame the reporters for wanting to talk about an event that is far more important. 

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Scottie Scheffler will play this week’s BMW Championship without regular caddie Ted Scott, Scheffler’s agent confirmed to the PGA Tour Communications team on Tuesday.

At last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, Scott carried the bag for Scheffler for the first three rounds before returning to his Louisiana home on Saturday night for a family emergency. Scheffler trailed third-round leader Tommy Fleetwood by two shots heading into the final round.

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PGA Tour chaplain and close Scheffler family friend Brad Payne drove to Memphis from his home in Dallas to caddie for Scheffler’s final round. It was the second time Payne had filled in for Scott in recent months, after he carried Scheffler’s bag in the third round of the 2024 PGA Championship while Scott attended his daughter’s high school graduation. Scheffler ultimately finished T3 after firing a final-round of three-under 67 in Memphis — one shot shy of making the playoff between Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun. Rose ultimately prevailed.

This week, Scott will remain at home with his family, and Scheffler is bringing in a new face: Michael Cromie, who regularly caddies for Chris Kirk, will take up Scheffler’s bag at Caves Valley.

Kirk finished T9 at last week’s FedEx St. Jude, but it wasn’t enough to push him into the top 50 in this week’s field. Instead, he ended up one shot shy at 51st. That means Kirk will have the next few weeks off until the start of the FedEx Cup Fall, a seven-tournament series which begins in September with the Procore Championship in Napa, Calif.

At this week’s BMW Championship, FedEx Cup points are worth quadruple their regular-season value. Once the tournament is complete, the top 30 players on the FedEx Cup points list will receive a FedEx Cup bonus payout from a $20 million purse, and they’ll move on to next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake, where every player will compete on a level playing field for a $40 million purse at the ultimate prize: the FedEx Cup trophy.

A win this week would mark Scheffler’s first PGA Tour victory without Scott on the bag.

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Congratulations to the top 50 players who are still alive in these FedEx Cup Playoffs: you just made a lot of money.

The top 50 was finalized at the conclusion of the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis on Sunday, and those 50 pros not only advance to this week’s BMW Championship in Maryland, but they are also guaranteed to be in all of next year’s lucrative Signature Events.

“It’s a grind,” said J.T. Poston, who tied for 22nd Sunday to claim the 50th and final spot. “I’m obviously not in contention to win a golf tournament out there, but it just felt like the same type of nerves. You just know what’s at stake getting into that top 50 and what that does for your year next year, and you’re one good week from making it to East Lake. It’s a big deal making it to the BMW, so hopefully it holds up. But it’s a stressful day for sure.”

Stressful indeed! And it’s only going to get more tense. Now comes the next cutoff, which is for the top 30 players to make it into the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, where there’s tons more money to be dished out (and some nice perks to be gained).

But first, here’s a quick recap of the bubble watch from Sunday, which includes the five players who kept their seasons alive by jumping into the top 50 — and the five who fell out of it and are heading home early.

INTO THE FEDEX CUP TOP 50

Kurt Kitayama (52nd to 37th)

What a run for Kitayama, who tied for ninth to not only jump into the top 50 but all the way to 37th to give himself a strong chance of making his first Tour Championship. Even when he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational two years ago, he still came up short and ended his season at the BMW. Now he’s got another shot and is playing well. In his last five starts he’s finished 14th or better four times, and one of those includes his win at the 3M Open.

Bud Cauley (53rd to 46th)

Cauley had just one birdie and one bogey on his card through 16 holes on Sunday, and he was still outside the top 50 after he hit an approach into a green-side bunker on the par-4 17th. But he holed that for an unlikely birdie, and after a par on 18 and T14 finish he was officially in at 46th in the standings. It’s been quite the turnaround for him — a 2018 car crash was followed by a few injury-plagued years, and all of a sudden he’s in all of next season’s Signature Events.

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Rickie Fowler (64th to 48th)

Does Rickie get enough credit for the longevity of his career? Perhaps not. He tied for sixth on Sunday to squeak into the BMW with just two spots to spare. He’s had only two top 10s this season but eight top 25s and just three missed cuts.

Jhonattan Vegas (56th to 49th)

Vegas made it interesting on Sunday with four bogeys and six bogeys, but he still shot 68 to tie for 14th and claim the second-to-last spot.

J.T. Poston (51st to 50th)

Poston needed to move up just one spot Sunday. After shooting three under on the front nine, he started the back par-par-bogey and then hung on with six straight pars to end his round and secure that final spot.

OUT OF THE FEDEX CUP TOP 50

Aldrich Potgieter (43rd to 52nd)

It’s been a wild, confusing season for Aldrich Potgieter, a 20-year-old PGA Tour rookie who last year became the Korn Ferry Tour’s youngest winner in its history. He missed four straight cuts in March, tied for 47th in Texas and then missed three more cuts. After that he tied for sixth and then won the Rocket Classic in a playoff. His next four starts: WD, MC, MC and, on Sunday, a T59 that bumped him out of the playoffs.

Jordan Spieth (48th to 54th)

Jordan! He birdied the 16th on Sunday to get to three under on his round and have a chance at making it to Maryland, but he dunked his second shot on the par-4 18th into the water, made bogey and tied for 38th. Season over. Spieth missed out on auto-qualifying for all the Signature Events this year but received a handful of sponsor’s exemptions. Will the same happen in 2026?

Jake Knapp (47th to 55th)

Knapp missed two straight cuts in May — he failed to break 70 in those four rounds — but went on a nice run afterwards, logging three mid-20 finishes and two top fives. But he missed the cut at the Wyndham and didn’t break par in any round at the St. Jude, tying for 62nd and falling from 47th to 55th in the FedEx Cup standings.

Wyndham Clark (49th to 56th)

The St. Jude put a bow on an eventful season for Wyndham Clark, although not always for the right reasons. He finished well by tying for 11th (Scottish Open), fourth (The Open) and 12th (3M Open), but he didn’t make a birdie on Sunday and shot five-over 75, which put him tied for 56th and dropped him out of one of the final spots.

Min Woo Lee (50th to 57th)

Min Woo Lee had the last spot secured heading into the week, but he opened with 76 in Memphis and shot 10 over on the week, tying with Daniel Berger for last.

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When Jordan Spieth returned to competitive golf in February at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after offseason wrist surgery, he took the long view when dissecting his goals for 2025 and beyond.

Spieth’s immediate goal was to play several events in a row and feel good from a physical standpoint. His “long-term goal,” at least for 2025, was one that he knew would take a lot of high-level golf to accomplish.

“And then maybe a lofty goal this year would be to make the Ryder Cup team,” Spieth said in February. “I don’t have a lot of points off of last season, so given the level of competition on the American side on the points list, I’m going to have to do some really, really good things in some really big tournaments. That would be kind of an ultimate kind of year-end goal for this year would be to make that team.”

While the Ryder Cup was his immediate target, Spieth’s main plan for 2025 was for it to serve as a launching pad for the rest of his competitive career. He needed to remain healthy, clean up some bad swing habits that crept in while he managed the wrist injury, and build toward the next version of Jordan Spieth, which would take time.

“A lot of this has been kind of a 10-year outlook,” Spieth said in February. “I think if I try to make this year coming back from this a ‘must play well,’ I’m just going to get frustrated because even though it was a while ago, I haven’t really been playing golf. Obviously, competitively, but even playing — I haven’t played many rounds since mid-August just because of the process. So I think looking at it from a long-term view as I step on the first tee, take it shot by shot, but let’s settle in, let’s get fully healthy and get some of these shots off these hanging lies.”

Spieth put himself in contention at the Waste Management Open, finishing fourth. He tied for ninth at the Cognizant Classic and tied for fourth at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson while Scottie Scheffler ran away from the field. Spieth also finished T7 at the Memorial but was not a factor in any of the majors and was inconsistent at best from a ball-striking perspective.

All of that led Spieth to play in the Wyndham Championship, the PGA Tour’s regular-season finale, as he tried to bank FedEx Cup points and author a strong closing Ryder Cup argument. He finished T31 at the Wyndham and followed that up with a T38 this past week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Spieth’s Sunday at TPC Southwind was a roller coaster as he tried to play his way inside the top 50 to extend his season and secure his spot in next year’s Signature Events. Spieth went out in one under on Sunday and made birdies at 13 and 16 to close the gap. But he needed a birdie on 18 and some help to advance to the BMW Championship. When his approach shot hit the bank on the left side of the green and bounced into the water, Spieth’s season was over.

Spieth’s lackluster showings in Greensboro and Memphis make a crowded Ryder Cup picture even murkier. Captain Keegan Bradley wants as much experience on his 12-man team as possible, and would have undoubtedly preferred it if Spieth stacked four good weeks together to cement his spot on the team. But now, picking Spieth over the likes of Cameron Young, Ben Griffin, Chris Gotterup and others seems unlikely, or at the very least, will be much harder to justify. Per Data Golf’s true strokes gained metric, Spieth ranks 15th on the PGA Tour this year in total strokes gained. That puts him as the 10th best American this season, ahead of Young, Gotterup, Harris English and Sam Burns. But Spieth doesn’t rank inside the top 20 in any of the individual stats (off the tee, approach, around the green and putting), isn’t peaking late like Young and doesn’t have the 2025 major record of English, who has two runner-up finishes and is currently inside the top six in Ryder Cup points.

After his T40 finish at the Open Championship, Spieth said he didn’t feel that he was currently one of the 12 best players, but he thought he could work his way into that group by playing well and making it to the Tour Championship. That didn’t happen, and it now feels like his Ryder Cup chances have evaporated.

While Spieth will await Bradley’s decision on how to weigh his experience and partnership with Justin Thomas against recent finishes, another question looms for the 32-year-old. Has the 2025 season, in which Spieth showed flashes but was overall inconsistent, been the launching pad he envisioned when he arrived at Pebble six months ago?

Per Data Golf, Spieth hasn’t lost strokes in an event since the Genesis Invitational, which was his third event back. Since then, Spieth has gained at least a shot on the field in nine of 15 events, with his showings at the Players Championship (+0.12 strokes gained) and PGA Championship (+ 0.40) being his low marks of the season post-Genesis.

All that has Spieth bullish about the trajectory of his game and his chances of returning to the elite level he once occupied.

“Next year’s going to be a really good year for me, I can feel it,” Spieth said at the Wyndham. “It’s all coming along. I’ll be healthy, and just structurally putting, the mechanics are all getting really, really close. One good offseason should get me nailed down to where I could be as good as I’ve been. That’s my goal.”

A month ago on Sunday at the Open Championship, Spieth went off early while Scottie Scheffler, Spieth’s friend who used to be chasing him, prepared for a celebratory 18-hole walk to his fourth major championship. Spieth was in neutral on the front nine before flipping a switch on the back nine, making five birdies to come home in 31. As Spieth walked off the 18th green after an eighth consecutive major season without a victory, he looked out into the Northern Ireland sky at nothing in particular. Perhaps looking forward to next year’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, the site of his last major win. Maybe looking back at the player he once was — the player he’s trying to recapture.

Either way, both felt far away that day. In a few months, we’ll find out if Jordan Spieth is closer than things appear.

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The post The FedEx Cup Playoffs’ most surprising season? You might have missed it appeared first on Golf.

There are few surprises in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. One look at the top 70 who made the trip to Memphis for this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, and you’ll see the expected.

There’s Scottie Scheffler amid another dominant season, looking to win back-to-back FedEx Cups. There’s Rory McIlroy, who skipped the trip to Memphis, at No. 2. Big names like Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele are fighting to stay on the right side of the top-50 bubble. For the most part, the names are the notable ones that grace weekend television screens from January through August on a consistent basis. To be inside the top 30, or near it, entering the playoffs means you have either won multiple times (Scheffler, McIlroy, Sepp Straka), won once and peppered the top of leaderboards (Justin Thomas, Russell Henley), or played consistently good golf without a trip to the winner’s circle. That last category is where your Tommy Fleetwoods and Collin Morikawas come in.

But there’s another name hovering around that 30 number that might surprise you — Jacob Bridgeman.

Last year, Bridgeman finished his rookie season ranked 113th after the FedEx Cup Fall season, which means he barely got to keep his card in the final year of the PGA Tour’s top 125 cutoff. Bridgeman’s rookie season saw him post 10 top-25 finishes in 27 starts, but he didn’t tee it up in any majors, Signature Events or the Players. That meant he had to scrap for every point he could find to keep his card. Bridgeman did that with three top-15 finishes in the fall and has made the most of his second season on the PGA Tour.

This season, the Clemson product has made 15 of 24 cuts, including a runner-up finish at the Cognizant Classic and a third-place finish at the Valspar. That runner-up at the Cognizant got Bridgeman into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he finished T15, and it also earned him a start at the Players, where he finished T50 in tough conditions.

Bridgeman parlayed his stellar March into a spot in the Truist Championship, another Signature Event, where he finished T4 at Philadelphia Cricket Club.

After grinding his way through a season in which he played in zero of the big events, Bridgeman teed it up in five Signature Events, two majors and the Players this season. All of that allowed him to arrive in Memphis ranked 33rd in the FedEx Cup. That spot virtually guarantees him a place in next week’s BMW Championship, which means he will be in all of next year’s Signature Events. And Bridgeman, who opened the FedEx St. Jude Championship with rounds of 69 and 64, is in position to get to East Lake and play in the Tour Championship.

“Not being in those at the beginning of the year was tough,” Bridgeman said Monday, via The Associated Press. ”I went through that last year. I knew how that was and played past all that and still kept my card. I felt like it was a disadvantage, for sure, but not that it was unattainable.

“I just knew if I played well I’d have a chance. That was one of my goals is playing a Signature Event early. I got in the Arnold Palmer and rode the wave all the way through.”

Bridgeman hasn’t won this season, but he has five top-10 finishes and is on the cusp of placing himself in all of the Signature Events next season.

Of those who made the top 50 last year, 14 didn’t make the playoffs this year. Eleven were due to subpar play, while Billy Horschel, Will Zalatoris and Alex Noren missed due to injury.

Making the top 50 doesn’t ensure you stay in the next season, but it certainly makes the road easier.

Bridgeman started the season with his card and a way to play the “regular” PGA Tour events. He missed three of his four cuts of the season but steadied himself with a T34 in Mexico and then fired a final-round 64 to finish T2 at the Cognizant and open the door to his first Signature Event and the Players. Bridgeman’s season has been up-and-down since his T4 at the Truist. He missed three of his next four cuts but then carded a T5 finish at the John Deere. He was also in position for a solid finish at the Memorial before a final-round 78 pushed him down to T31.

Bridgeman’s season hasn’t been perfect, but it’s an example of how all you need to unlock the door to the PGA Tour’s top level is a card, belief and a string of good play.

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The post Rory McIlroy’s playoffs skip isn’t a problem that needs solving appeared first on Golf.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs begin this week, and, as you might have heard, the PGA Tour’s biggest star, Rory McIlroy, opted not to spend a week in early August in Memphis at the St. Jude FedEx Championship.

McIlroy telegraphed this decision last fall in an interview with The Telegraph. He has won three times this season, including the Masters, and sits at No. 2 in the FedEx Cup Standings, so his spot at the Tour Championship is all but assured. In short, McIlroy, who has made enough money for several lifetimes playing golf — including just short of $70 million in career earnings in the FedEx Cup Playoffs — earned the right not to play this week. Tiger Woods did the same in 2007.

But as is normally the case with McIlroy, his decision has caused a stir.

In an interview with Golfweek’s Adam Schupak, Peter Malnati hinted that the PGA Tour could be coming up with a way to close the loophole that allows players like McIlroy to skip playoff events with little consequence. He didn’t elaborate, but the idea of a “Rory Rule” is at least being kicked about.

Malnati, it should be noted, is also not in Memphis because he failed to qualify, is speaking from the perspective of a PGA Tour member and a Player Director on the PGA Tour Policy Board. Malnati’s goal is to help the Tour continue cementing the legitimacy of the FedEx Cup Playoffs as a meaningful event, and to please FedEx, which not only sponsors this week’s event but the whole playoff race and the season-long contest. If you want to keep the sponsors happy, it’s probably beneficial if the sport’s biggest active star doesn’t ignore their tournament.

But the PGA Tour’s biggest issue isn’t with McIlroy passing on Memphis. It’s that the playoff system, which has been constantly tweaked and altered, still lacks any meaning outside of the dollars added to bank accounts at the end of August. Can they tweak the format further so points reset and everyone starts the playoffs at zero, thus forcing participation? They can try, but if they do that, they risk losing someone like McIlroy, who finished T68 in Memphis last year, for the remaining two playoff events if he has one bad week. Not having all of the best players at East Lake seems like an own goal worth avoiding. You also run into the sticky area of trying to force players who are supposed to be independent contractors to play certain events, and we saw how that went during the first year of the Signature Event model (if you’ll remember, McIlroy skipped more of those events than he was supposed to).

I’d contend that what the Tour might be “losing” by having McIlroy pass on a sweaty trip to Memphis is much less than what he has given the Tour this year and what he’s likely to bring in the future. He skipped Memorial and the RBC Heritage, where, like Memphis, all of the other top players showed up. But he teed it up in Houston, in New Orleans at the Zurich Classic and at the RBC Canadian Open. The benefit he brings those events shows up in eyeballs, TV ratings, tickets purchased, etc. Altogether, it’s a boon that is hard to quantify.

If you also look at the bigger picture of golf outside the PGA Tour, McIlroy’s remaining schedule after the Tour Championship includes the Irish Open, the BMW PGA Championship, the India Championship, the DP World Tour Championship and the Australian Open, along with the Ryder Cup.

As my colleague Sean Zak wrote, McIlroy talked about being a “global” player, and has followed through on those promises by building a global schedule. McIlroy skipping Memphis but playing in markets — both on the PGA Tour and around the world — that don’t normally witness stars of his caliber is a good trade-off for the sport as a whole.

In the end, McIlroy’s decision does not necessitate a rule. This is not a loophole that needs closing to prevent the entire playoff charade from crumbling on top of itself. In the end, it’s just the spoils of being an elite player with narrowing priorities outside of money.

McIlroy is one of the rare players — due to his standing and career accomplishments — who has the ability to skip an event with a $20 million purse and not mind doing so. Notice how all of the other top 70 players are in Memphis, including Scottie Scheffler. The stars aren’t all skipping. McIlroy hasn’t opened a Pandora’s box that the Tour needs to bolt shut. He earned the right, through his play for the last six months and 16 years, to skip the event. It’s no different than a bye week for top seeds in other sports.

Rory McIlroy gets to play by a different set of rules because of who he is and what he brings to the table. He created the “loophole” by being Rory McIlroy. That’ll be a hard one for 99.9% of the Tour to try and exploit, and it does not require a rule to close it.

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