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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.
Practically the entire high 70 golfers within the seasonlong factors standings might be chasing world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler, who will try and grow to be 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 enjoying their greatest,” 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 embody 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 at the least everybody however Masters champion Rory McIlroy, who’s skipping the match.
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 informed 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, lifeless 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 harm early within the season, is No. 42 within the factors standings, whereas Finau is No. 60. Finau wants at the least a two-way tie for twentieth to crack the highest 50. Rickie Fowler (sixty fourth) wants at the least a two-way tie for seventeenth.
Different golfers on the bubble to qualify for the BMW Championship: Harry Corridor (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) have 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 below and power 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 last automated spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup crew.
Caves Valley Golf Membership, which is situated 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 below or higher 4 years in the past; Sungjae Im completed third at 23 below and McIlroy was fourth at 22 below.
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 might be a 72-hole, conventional stroke-play match with the highest 30 golfers all beginning at even par.
Final yr, Scheffler began the primary spherical at 10 below, at the least two strokes forward of the remainder of the sphere. He was 20 below 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 through 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 house $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 match with 18 new inexperienced complexes and tee containers being resurfaced. There are additionally new chipping and placing follow areas.
Scheffler mentioned TPC Southwind did a superb job of retaining its DNA and never making too many modifications through the renovation.
“The brand new greens proper now are actually agency,” Scheffler mentioned. “I believe this can be a golf course that is usually been fairly standard on tour, so I appreciated they did not are available in once they renovated it and simply fully modified the golf course. I believe that they had a very good base for a strong golf course the place ball-striking is necessary. 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 quick on their strategy pictures. 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 at this time, 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 will bounce, if it will come out lifeless.”
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 superb alternative to gauge who’s enjoying properly and who is not through the three legs of the playoffs.
The highest six golfers within the Ryder Cup factors standings after the BMW Championship will mechanically 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 creating 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 isn’t 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 finished as a result of having been picked or having to depend on a decide a pair occasions, I undoubtedly like the extent of low stress and simply the sense of calm, figuring out that you just’re certified versus ready for that telephone to ring.
“However I’ve a variety of golf tournaments and a variety of huge 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 Younger, who received for the primary time on tour finally week’s Wyndham Championship, is fifteenth, and Sam Burns is sixteenth. They may must 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, which means Matt Wallace, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Thomas Detry and Aaron Rai may be battling for one spot.
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