The PGA Tour playoffs will start Thursday on the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee, and would be the first of three straight tournaments to find out the FedEx Cup Championship.
Virtually the entire high 70 golfers in seasonal level rankings will chase after the world’s No. 1 golfer Scotty Scheffler, who’s about to change into the primary consecutive winner of the FedEx Cup on the Tour Championships held in Atlanta on August 21-24.
“It is when everyone seems to be clearly at a peak and desires to do their finest,” Justin Thomas stated.
Schaeffler suffered a hand wound early within the season and did not end as typically as final yr, however his 4 victories this season embody a PGA Championship and a significant championship victory on the Open.
FedEx Cup Playoff Event
FedEx St. Jude Championship
When: Thursday to Sunday
Location: TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee
Pockets: $20 million ($3.6 million for winner)
Defending Champion: Matsuyama Hideki
The highest 70 golfers in FedEx Cup Factors rankings for every season will return to TPC Southwind within the first conflict of the playoffs. At the least everybody besides the Masters defends Rory McIlroy, who’s skipping the event.
McIlroy is comfy in second place within the factors rankings, locking within the spots of the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. McIlroy has received three high 10 in eight begins at TPC Southwind, however completed 68th within the age of 9 and above final yr (Matsuyama’s 26-stroke).
McIlroy advised London’s Telegraph in November that he’s prone to decide out of his first playoff occasion to chop his schedule.
“I principally completed my final loss of life (the final yr) however solely went down one place within the playoff standings,” McIlroy stated.
Golfers inside or outdoors the highest 50 bubbles are extra pressing, akin to two-time main winners Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau, who reached the Tour Championship in eight seasons, the longest streak on the tour.
Schaufele, who fought a rib harm early within the season, is forty second in factors and Fina is sixtieth. Finau wants at the least the twentieth two-way tie to interrupt the highest 50.
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 (47), Jordan Spieth (No. 48), Wyndham Clark (No. 49), Min woo (No. 50), jt poson (No. 49), Wyndham Clark (49), 52), Bud Cauley (No. 53), Joe Highsmith (No. 54), Aaron Rai (No. 55).
Gary Woodland (No. 72), Adam Scott (No. 90), Tom Kim (No. 94), Max Homa (111) and Sahis Tegara (146) have been some of the notable names to overlook the playoffs.
BMW Championship
Time: August 14th-Seventeenth
Location: Cave Valley Golf Membership in Owings Mills, Maryland
Pockets: $20 million ($3.6 million for winner)
Defending Champion: Keegan Bradley
The highest 50 golfers in level rankings after the FedEx St. Jude Championship will advance to Recreation 2 of the playoffs and earn a spot in every of the eight signature occasions of 2026.
The BMW Championship will return to the Caves Valley Golf Membership for the primary time since 2021. Lastly, Patrick Cantray defeated Bryson Deccanbeau in a dramatic six-hole sudden loss of life playoff. Cantray made a 20-foot birdie putt on the ultimate gap of the regulation and compelled the playoffs after 27 beneath. Deccanbo missed the 12 footer, which might have given him a victory.
On the sixth playoff gap, Cantray sank 18 footer to win by birdie and get first within the FedEx Cup Factors rating. He additionally secured the sixth remaining computerized spot for the US Ryder Cup crew.
Positioned about 20 miles northwest of Baltimore, the Caves Valley Golf Membership opened in 1991. The 2002 US Senior Open and the 2007 Palmer Cup have been held. This course has just lately put in a sub-air system on the inexperienced, extending the primary gap.
Seven golfers completed beneath 20 or older 4 years in the past. Sungjae im completed third with a 23 beneath, whereas McIlroy was fourth with a 22 beneath.
Tour Championship
When: August Twenty first-Twenty fourth
Location: East Lake Golf Membership, Atlanta
Pockets: $40 million ($10 million for winner)
Defending Champion: Scotty Scheffler
For the primary time since 2019, the PGA Tour has deserted the beginning stroke format for the Tour Championship. This can be a conventional 72-hole stroke play event, with all high 30 golfers beginning with par.
Final yr, Schaeffler started his first spherical at 10 beneath, beginning his strokes at the least two earlier than the 2 fields. He was 20 years previous with lower than 72 holes on his personal, and his whole 30 unders was higher than Colin Morakawa in 4 strokes.
Schaeffler has raised $18 million to complete first in factors standings through the common season, incomes the Comcast Enterprise Tour Prime 10. He wins one other $5 million as he’s primary within the factors place heading into the BMW Championship.
Tour Championship winners will win $10 million no matter golfer’s place within the factors rating. The runner-up received $5 million, third place bringing again $3.7 million, fourth place bringing again $3.2 million, and fifth place bringing again $2.75 million. The ultimate golfer of the Tour Championship will elevate $355,000.
Renovations at TPC Southwind
TPC Southwind acquired a significant renovation after final yr’s event with 18 new inexperienced complexes and t-shirt packing containers resurfaced. There may even be a brand new chipping and placing follow space.
Schaeffler stated TPC Southwind did a great job of sustaining the DNA and never making too many modifications through the renovation.
“The brand new greens now are actually strong,” Schaeffler stated. “I feel it is a golf course that was usually fairly fashionable on the tour, so I am grateful that they did not come after they renovated it and fully modified the golf course. I feel that they had a very good basis for a strong golf course the place ball strikes are vital.
Harris English found that when golfers are missing in strategy photographs, inexperienced shaved banks No. 3 and No. 9 will deliver the ball again into the water. The brand new again tee field in No. 5 left a driver who typing English from the PAR-4 gap and three irons.
“I really feel like I have been getting tough through the years up to now,” English stated. “Even at this time, while you hit some balls within the tough it is exhausting to seek out them. It is roughing this horrible Bermuda. It is very obscure whether or not to leap or not, whether or not it is going to die.”
Golfers will once more struggle steamy 90’s temperatures in Memphis for 4 days.
What’s in danger for the Ryder Cup?
Captain Keegan Bradley of the US Ryder Cup crew is tenth within the FedEx Cup Factors rating, so there is a good alternative to measure who performs properly and who does not measure through the playoff tripods.
After the BMW Championship, the highest six golfers within the Ryder Cup Factors rating will robotically kind a US crew. Bradley will choose six captains after the tour championship.
At the moment, Schaufferer, Schauffere, US Open Winners JJ Spawn, Russell Henry, Bryson Deccanbaugh and English are within the high six. Every of those six appears to ensure they are going to kind a crew no matter the place they end within the rating of factors.
Thomas, who was seventh in factors within the Ryder Cup, additionally seems to be in fine condition, however he has no probability.
“I wish to be in that high six,” Thomas stated. “For me personally, getting it achieved means getting it achieved as a result of I had to decide on and depend on a choose just a few occasions, so I undoubtedly just like the low ranges of stress and a way of calm.
“However I’ve a number of golf tournaments and a number of large occasions.”
The 2-time main winner, Morikawagawagawa, was in eighth place, adopted by Ben Griffin, Bradley, Maverick McNerry and Brian Herman.
Cantrey, a veteran of the Ryder Cup, is in 14th place. Cameron Younger, who received the tour for the primary time ultimately week’s Wyndham Championship, was fifteenth, and Samburns was sixteenth. They could must make some noise within the playoffs to make sure their very own spot.
The highest six golfers within the European crew’s level rankings on August Twenty fourth will qualify for the crew. McIlroy is already certified in factors, with Robert Macintyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka within the high six.
Rasmus Højgaard, Justin Rose, Ludvig Aberg and Jon Rahm will kind a crew on the Twenty first. So Matt Wallace, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Thomas Detry and Aaron Rai could also be preventing in a single place.
