Only four rounds remain in the 2024 PGA Tour regular season.
The Wyndham Championship isn’t a signature event with an eight-figure purse, but money isn’t the key currency this week anyway—it’s all about points.
The FedEx Cup playoffs, for the second straight year, will take just the top 70 in points into the first event, next week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. Then the top 50 advance to the BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Colorado, and the top 30 will end the season at the Tour Championship in East Lake in Atlanta, where a $100 million prize pool will be divvied up. The winner walks away with $25 million.
But the first order of business is getting within that top 70, and the majority of players in the 156-man field this week are looking to get inside that cutoff. Several are trying to stay inside.
One note: the late Grayson Murray was inside the top 60 in the standings and those behind him will be moving up one spot once the Wyndham begins. So for example Victor Perez, previously 71st in points, will tee at the cutoff spot, No. 70.
Here’s a look at some notable names on both sides of the top-70 cutoff.
Jordan Spieth (62nd when the Wyndham begins): Will be safe for Memphis but a big effort this week would help his chances for the second round of the playoffs. But once his season is over? He said Tuesday that wrist surgery is in the picture.
Nick Dunlap (65th): If this position sounds low for a winner of two Tour events this season, it is—but Dunlap was an amateur when he won the American Express in January and therefore received no money or points, otherwise he’d be on the doorstep for East Lake. Instead he’ll have to work harder to get there, starting this week.
Jhonattan Vegas (66th): The playoffs may have a Cinderella story already in the 39-year-old Venezuelan, who ended a seven-year victory drought two weeks ago at the 3M Open, vaulting from 139th in points to 66th. He not a playoff lock yet but he’s on the right side of the line with one week to go.
Victor Perez (70th): The Frenchman delighted the Olympic crowd with a fourth-place finish but he had to hop back across the pond quickly to Sedgefield and hope the good play continues at least one more week. He is all of three points ahead of the next man, who is …
Davis Riley (71st): Here’s a question: Should the PGA Tour be like NASCAR, where any regular-season win automatically puts you in the playoffs? Riley won the Charles Schwab Challenge in late May, but because he has no other finish higher than T14, he’s on the outside looking in with one event to go. One could say “play better” but one could also look at the signature event structure, with its elevated points, and wonder if this is fair.
Lucas Glover (75th): The South Carolina native was the success story a year ago in North Carolina, winning the Wyndham to make the top 70, then winning the first playoff event to sail all the way to East Lake, where he finished T18 (tied with Jon Rahm, by the way). But the momentum hasn’t carried over; he’s missed four of his last six cuts to fall out of the top 70.
Nicolai Højgaard (79th): The 2023 Ryder Cup rookie opened his PGA Tour season with a runner-up at the Farmers Insurance Open but earned more points there than the entire rest of the season combined. He’s 101 points behind 70th and will need a big week.
Rickie Fowler (103rd): This is the end of the line. The fan favorite opted not to play the Wyndham.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Notable Golfers on the FedEx Cup Playoff Bubble (Plus One Who Is Skipping It) at the Wyndham Championship.
