Jordan Spieth hasn’t had the season he is wished.
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It’s laborious to consider, however the PGA Tour common season ends this week on the Wyndham Championship.
For the second time because the PGA Tour created the brand new FedEx Cup playoff construction, simply 70 gamers will transfer on from the common season to the primary playoff occasion subsequent week, the FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis. Whereas Tour playing cards aren’t at stake this week, there are $100 million causes (the elevated measurement of the FedEx Cup bonus pool this yr) for gamers to wish to get into the Tour postseason.
Final yr on the Wyndham Championship, we noticed Justin Thomas, on the heels of his worst season as a PGA Tour member, come up inches brief of a playoff bid. It was a dramatic finish to Thomas’ season, and a reminder of golf’s elementary fact: Nothing is assured, even for golf’s most well-known gamers.
This yr, Thomas’ good pal Jordan Spieth is in Greensboro making an attempt to enhance on his standing. At No. 63 within the FedEx Cup standings, Spieth is a mathematical lock for the playoffs, however not near the place he pictured for himself initially of the yr. And with the underside 20 gamers getting dropped from the playoffs after the St. Jude (a bunch that presently contains Spieth), he would do effectively to submit a handful of low scores on the Wyndham, sending his rating rising together with it.
2024 Wyndham Championship odds: Former gold medalist is our long-shot choose
“Whether or not it’s the Playoffs or folks making strikes for eligibility, there’s lots at stake at this occasion,” Spieth mentioned Tuesday. “My purpose this week is to attempt to transfer up so far as I can within the FedExCup and head into the Playoffs on a excessive be aware.”
He recalled Thomas’ scenario final yr. The tip of the PGA Tour season brings drama in several methods, he mentioned.
“I believe it factors to what this occasion’s able to producing in the direction of the tip,” he mentioned. “There’s going to be a event to win and that will likely be a spotlight, however you virtually get to have double the joy on a number of the issues, guys making the playoffs, guys type of getting within the High-125 or making a giant push to the place they will get their jobs again via the remainder of the autumn.”
With that stress in thoughts, listed below are a number of the Tour gamers competing for his or her 2024 Playoff lives this week.
2024 FedEx Cup playoffs bubble
Close to the bubble, however locked into FedEx St. Jude Championship
No. 60 Peter Malnati, No. 61 Ben Griffin, No. 62 Min Woo Lee, No. 63 Jordan Spieth.
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On the bubble
No. 66 Nick Dunlap: Dunlap is a two-time PGA Tour winner this season, but when sure strikes don’t go his method, he might nonetheless fall out of the Playoffs altogether. That’s as a result of the star rookie’s first win, during which he grew to become the first newbie to win on the PGA Tour in additional than 30 years, didn’t award him any FedEx Cup factors. Dunlap’s second win in Tahoe final month (and first as an expert) dug him out of no-man’s land for the playoffs. With a five-player buffer between Dunlap and 71st place, he must be safely into Memphis.
No. 67 Jhonattan Vegas: Vegas broke a seven-year winless drought final month on the 3M Open and put himself in a main place to make the playoffs after a one-year absence.
No. 70 Brendon Todd: Todd is that this week’s bubble boy after a reasonably unspectacular season highlighted by a top-10 on the Arnold Palmer Invitational (one in all two such finishes all yr). Quite than climbing his method up the FedEx Cup rankings with wins, Todd has scrapped his method into competition the laborious method, lacking simply 4 cuts all season lengthy. He’ll seemingly must do higher than merely making the weekend on the Wyndham to safe his spot in Memphis.
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No. 71 Victor Perez: Final week’s Olympic home-country darling finds himself as the primary man out of the Playoffs getting into this week. His Sunday 63 and dramatic T4 end on the Paris Olympics didn’t rely for FedEx Cup factors, however it does rely for vibes. Perez has been trending in the precise course, with the Olympics being his second top-10 in three begins. One other top-10 ought to ship him onto the postseason in his first yr as a PGA Tour member.
No. 72 Davis Riley: Riley bought his first particular person PGA Tour win this season on the John Deere Basic, however that’s not sufficient to ensure a Playoff spot. The Deere was Riley’s solely top-10 this season after he made the Playoffs in his first two years on Tour.
No. 74 Kurt Kitayama: After successful the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2023 and enjoying in all the Signature Occasions in 2024, Kitayama hasn’t had the identical kind this yr and can want a stable week in Greensboro if he needs to earn invitations into all the 2025 Signature Occasions.
On the skin trying in
No. 76 Lucas Glover: If we’re basing these rankings off of final yr, Glover is in a terrific place. The 2009 U.S. Open winner was 112th within the standings when he gained the Wyndham final yr, catapulting him into the Playoffs the place he gained once more the subsequent week. In 2024, the 44-year-old Glover hasn’t recorded a top-10 this season and has missed 4 of his final six cuts coming into the week.
No. 79 Keith Mitchell: Among the finest drivers on the PGA Tour, Mitchell has had a Jekyll and Hyde 2024 season. He’s had three top-10s and 6 different top-25s, however he has six missed cuts, together with in 4 of his final seven begins. The 32-year-old has by no means missed the Playoffs as a PGA Tour member.
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No. 80 Nicolai Hojgaard: Hojgaard has carried out effectively on the Worldwide stage the final couple of years, together with ending seventh on the Olympics. He additionally briefly took the lead on the Masters earlier than ending T16. However since his solo second on the Farmers Insurance coverage Open, his first begin as a PGA Tour member, he hasn’t recorded one other top-10.
No. 86 Charley Hoffman: Hoffman turned again the clock together with his playoff loss to Nick Taylor on the WM Phoenix Open, however he completed fiftieth the subsequent week and promptly missed three cuts in a row. Whether or not he makes the playoffs or not, it’s his finest place within the FedEx Cup since 2021.
Longshots
No. 104 Rickie Fowler: Fowler had a weird follow-up to his resurgent 2023, touchdown no top-10s and simply two top-25s in 2024. He declined to enter the Wyndham Championship, that means his common season is over.
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Photos
No. 113 Matt Kuchar: Kuchar is the solely participant to play in all 17 editions of the FedEx Cup playoffs, however that streak is in severe jeopardy this week. He wants a win as a way to make the highest 70.
No. 117 Joel Dahmen: Like Kuchar, Dahmen additionally wants a win to qualify for the Playoffs, however he’s missed his final three cuts coming into the week.
