🏌🏻FedEx Cup: Everything You Need To Know

Good morning! The FedEx Cup Playoffs begin this week and here’s something interesting as we head into the season-ending dash - the only player in the last 40 years to have a PGA Tour season where they made bogey or worse on less than 10% of their holes played was Tiger Woods in 2000 (9.8%).

Xander Schauffele (9.4%) and Scottie Scheffler (9.5%) both enter the playoffs under 10%.

Fun Fact: Xander Schauffele has a 3-putt rate of 0.91% -- 11 in 1,206 holes. The only qualified player to finish a season under 1% in that stat since it was first tracked in 1992 was Greg Norman in 1994 (0.97%).

⛳ This day in history: On this date, the PGA Championship was won by Justin Thomas in 2017 at Quail Hollow, by Steve Elkington in 1995 at Riviera, Payne Stewart won in 1989 at Kemper Lakes, and Gene Sarazen won in 1933 at Blue Mound.

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Tournaments This Week

PGA Tour: FedEx St. Jude Championship

📍 When and Where: August 15-18, TPC Southwind
💰 Purse: $20 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy

LPGA Tour: Women's Scottish Open

📍When and Where: August 15-18, Dundonald Links
💰 Purse: $2 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Lilia Vu, Brooke Henderson, Rose Zhang

LIV Golf: LIV Golf Greenbrier

📍When and Where: August 16-18, The Old White at The Greenbrier
💰 Purse: $25 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann

DP World Tour: Real Czech Masters

📍When and Where: August 15-18, PGA National Oaks, Prague
💰 Purse: $2.5 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Francesco Molinari, Danny Willett, Jason Dufner

ALBATROSS
Stars Return To Action On The PGA Tour

The first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs kicks off this week at the St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind with the top 70 in the standings ready to ride over the next three weeks to the season-ending TOUR Championship.

The Playoffs start in Memphis, Tennessee, before heading to the BMW Championship at Castle Pines Golf Club in Colorado. Just the top 50 in the FedExCup standings will earn their way into the second Playoffs event.

Only the top 30 will qualify for the season finale at the restored East Lake Golf Club near Atlanta.

⛳️ Who are Favorites to Win? Scottie Scheffler returns to action on the PGA TOUR after his dramatic come-from-behind triumph at the Olympics at Le Golf National. He leads the FedExCup standings by nearly 2,000 points over Xander Schauffele. With 2,000 points available to the winner of this week and next week’s BMW Championship, anything can happen though.

Viktor Hovland’s run at defending his FedExCup title begins now - Hovland enters the first week of the Playoffs at No. 57 in the standings. Surprisingly, Hovland has just one top-10 finish this season, a solo third at the PGA Championship.

Three-time FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy is keen to make another run at the PGA TOUR’s biggest prize. McIlroy has two wins this season but called himself “golf’s nearly man” after the close call at the U.S. Open and a fifth at the Olympics.

Ludvig Åberg (No 6) and Shane Lowry (No 10) are in prime positions to make their first TOUR Championship while Patrick Cantlay starts the FedExCup Playoffs at No 11 in the standings.

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Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Why Matt Kuchar Lost $100,000 @ Wyndham Championship

While Aaron Rai won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday, August 11, Matt Kuchar was the only player who decided to go for a Monday finish - the decision eventually cost him around $100,000.

Kuchar entered the final round of the Wyndham Championship with Max Greyserman and Chad Ramey - as it was getting dark, most of the players had completed their rounds except for the trio.

Greyserman and Ramey decided to complete their rounds, but Kuchar opted for a Monday finish. At that time, he was on the second shot of the 72nd hole.

The following day, Matt Kuchar made a par on the 18th and finished T-12, eight spots lower than where he was after 54 holes. For his 12th-place finish, he took home $144,965, but a birdie on the final hole would have boosted his earnings by $100,000.

📍Kuchar's Streak Broken: The T-12 finish at the Wyndham Championship didn't help Matt Kuchar qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He entered the tournament at 113th in the FedEx Cup standings and only moved to 103rd after the final round.

The 46-year-old golfer had a disappointing season, missing 11 cuts in 20 starts. His T-3 finish at the 3M Open last month was his only top-ten finish.

He has been winless on the PGA Tour since his 2019 Sony Open victory. Kuchar made it to the last 17 FedEx Cup Playoffs but his streak is now broken.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news 

LIV Golf: As LIV Golf’s current agreement with the CW Network nears its end, the organization is exploring new broadcast partnerships, potentially moving away from traditional linear television toward a more digital, streaming-focused future.

Ryder Cup: Keegan Bradley has announced that Brandt Snedeker would join Webb Simpson as a Vice Captain for the 2025 US Ryder Cup team.

Sponsors' Corner: Virtual reality game Golf+ landed Mastercard as the presenting sponsor for its VR FedExCup Playoffs, which runs in sync with the PGA Tour competition.

Replacement: John Catlin will tee it up for Smash GC this weekend in place of the suspended Graeme McDowell, moving over from Bryson DeChambeau's Crushers GC - where he had been covering for the injured Charles Howell III.

New Venture: John Daly has ventured into the world of music - he has now released a country music album with 17 songs.

BIRDIE
FedEx Cup Playoffs: Everything You Need To Know

This is the 18th year of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, long enough that a generation of tour pros have no memory of a PGA Tour season that didn’t end with this postseason dash.

Here are some of the most notable numbers to help flesh out the history of the playoffs and offer a glimpse at what to expect over the course of the next three weeks.

📌 Rory McIlroy has earned $67,366,682 in tournament prize payouts and FedEx Cup bonuses, in his career. He ranks No 1 among all FedEx Cup money earners, having passed Tiger Woods five years ago when he won his second of three career FedEx Cup titles.

📌 Three tour pros who have been the No 1 seed entering the FedEx Cup Playoffs, have gone on to win the FedEx Cup title. Tiger Woods did it in 2007 and 2009 while Jordan Spieth was the last to accomplish the feat during the 2015 season.

📌 No golfer has ever qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs all 18 years. Matt Kuchar was the last holdout, making it the first 17 years, and tried his hardest at the Wyndham Championship last week to extend his streak but failed to do so.

📌 The most number of seasons any golfer has advanced to the Tour Championship is 13. Dustin Johnson played at East Lake every year from 2009 to 2021.

📌 Jon Rahm recorded a top-15 finish in 13 consecutive FedEx Cup Playoff starts, the longest streak of any player. The Spaniard's streak began with a T-11 finish at the 2018 Tour Championship and continued through the end of the 2022 Tour Championship.

📌 Since 2007, 15 PGA Tour rookies have played their way into the Tour Championship - notably, none made it in 2023.

The best FedEx Cup finish by a rookie was by Xander Schauffele, who placed third in the final standings in 2017 after winning the Tour Championship.

Read the full article.

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DRIVING RANGE
Gain Distance With Your Irons

In today's video, we explain how to maximize distance with irons, demonstrating a drill that helps improve your technique.

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