The year-long FedEx Cup race is nearing its conclusion as the PGA Tour finishes its regular season and gets playoff golf underway.
You hear about it all year long. The race to the FedEx Cup finals is about as ubiquitous on the telecast as pharmaceutical commercials, but at last we’ve finally arrived at the real deal. It’s playoff season on the PGA Tour as the game’s best jockey their way into position down the home stretch for a chance at FedEx Cup history. With progressively smaller fields in each of the next three playoff events, culminating in the 30-man Tour Championship, the proverbial wheat will be separated from the chaff to determine who will be crowned this year’s champ. How do the points work, who needs a late-season surge, and where are the playoff events being contended? We’ll cover all that and more as we preview what’s ahead on the PGA Tour.
The Rank and File
The first playoff event, The Northern Trust Open, has a maximum field size of 125 players, all of whom have officially qualified for the playoffs and thus secured full status for the 2021-2022 season. But as the playoffs intensify, so too does the pressure to keep pace and advance to the next round. The BMW Championship is the second playoff event, seeing the newly reordered top 70 players advancing, with the Tour Championship having just 30 golfers competing for the champion title and $15 million first place prize. Simply making it to the Tour Championship can be career changing in of itself, as a place in the final event doesn’t just guarantee a big payday but also provides major invitations, World Golf Championship starts and limited field invitational opportunities for the following year. Needless to say, there’s a lot at stake, including $60 million in prize money to be paid out during the last three events.
FedEx Faves
The number one ranked player in the FedEx Cup standings heading into the playoffs is Colin Morikawa, but he’s likely to be dethroned at some point over the next few weeks as the number of points awarded during playoff events is four times that of regular season tournaments. This back-loaded points structuring allows any player who performs well when it literally counts most to quickly ascend into contention. Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Harris English and John Rahm round out the top five positions, but again, it’s anyone’s playoffs from here on out.
Key Dates and Deets
The Northern Trust Open is the first FedEx Cup playoff event, running from August 19-22 at Liberty National Golf Club located in Jersey City, New Jersey. The BMW Championship will then see the reduced 70-player field head to Caves Valley Golf Club located in Owings Mills, Maryland from August 26-29. The grand finale is of course the Tour Championship, held at the historic Atlanta Country Club from September 2-4.
Tour Championship Scoring Format
When the FedEx Cup started in 2007 the actuaries at the PGA Tour hadn’t quite figured out how to ensure the whole playoffs weren’t a forgone conclusion before the Tour Championship even started. For example, Vijay Singh was crowned FedEx Cup Champion in 2008 without even having to tee it up in the final event, forcing the Tour to iron out some wrinkles with their method of points distribution. In 2019, the Tour settled on an obvious solution, reordering the Tour Championship field with pre-tournament scores. The first ranked man in the field starts the week at 10-under par, second at eight-under, and so on and so forth in descending order. This means that whoever wins the Tour Championship—wait for it—actually wins the FedEx Cup. Novel idea, eh?
Past Champions
2007: Tiger Woods
2008: Vijay Singh
2009: Tiger Woods
2010: Jim Furyk
2011: Bill Haas
2012: Brandt Snedeker
2013: Henrik Stenson
2014: Billy Horschel
2015: Jordan Spieth
2016: Rory McIlroy
2017: Justin Thomas
2018: Justin Rose
2019: Rory McIlroy
2020: Dustin Johnson