🏌🏻FedEx Cup Playoffs: Who's In Who's Out?

Good morning! The field for this week’s St. Jude Championship is all set - in addition to being fully exempt for the 2025 PGA TOUR Season and THE PLAYERS Championship, the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup qualify for all eight Signature Events in 2025.

Of the 50 players who advanced to the BMW Championship, 19 were not in the top 50 of the final 2023 FedEx Cup standings (38 percent).

Fun Fact: Rory McIlroy lost 3.99 strokes off the tee last week in Memphis. It's the 2nd-most strokes he's lost in a single 72-hole PGA Tour event in his career (2017 BMW, -5.32).

⛳ This day in history: The 1944 PGA Championship ended on this date, with Bob Hamilton an upset 1-up winner over Byron Nelson in the final at Manito Golf & Country Club in Spokane, Washington. The much more heralded Nelson could not get the edge on Hamilton; the two finished the first 18 holes tied.

NEXT ON THE TEE
Tournaments This Week

PGA Tour: BMW Championship

📍 When and Where: August 22-25, Castle Pines Golf Club
💰 Purse: $20 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy

LPGA Tour: AIG Women's Open

📍When and Where: August 22-25, Old Course
💰 Purse: $9 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Nelly Korda, Hannah Green, Lydia Ko

DP World Tour: Danish Golf Championship

📍When and Where: August 22-25, Lübker Golf Course
💰 Purse: $2.5 million
🏌🏻 Headliners: Rasmus Hojgaard, Nicolai Hojgaard, Thomas Bjorn

ALBATROSS
FedEx Cup Top 50: Who's In, Who's Out?

Hideki Matsuyama moved all the way up to number three on the FedEx Cup Playoff standings with 3,899 points after winning the St. Jude Championship last week. He trails only Scheffler and Schauffele and is more than 1,400 points clear of Collin Morikawa for fourth place.

The top 50 players have advanced to this week’s BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Denver. The top 30 left standing after this week will head to Atlanta for the Tour Championship.

⛳️ Who Are In? Of the golfers making their way to this par-72 track that’ll play 8,130 yards this week are 18 PGA Tour winners from the 2024 season. That list includes stars like Akshay Bhatia, Wyndham Clark, Rory McIlroy besides Scheffler, Schauffele and Matsuyama.

The nine PGA Tour winners from 2024 who didn’t qualify for the BMW field include Bryson DeChambeau, Jake Knapp, Nick Taylor, and Peter Malnati, among others.

⛳️ Which Stars Missed Out? Jordan Spieth is one of the biggest names who have been eliminated from the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Spieth managed just three top-10s in 2024 and a best result of third at The Sentry - ultimately ending 67th in the FedEx Cup standings. He also missed the cut in seven of his 22 starts as a disappointing campaign finally came to a merciful ending.

Australia's Min Woo Lee couldn't find the result he needed at TPC Southwind - a T- 22 finish left him 173 points adrift of 50th - and he ended the season 60th.

Justin Rose ended up 75 points away from featuring at the BMW Championship this week after a T-22 finish at TPC Southwind. Rose notably finished T-6 at the PGA Championship and a narrow runner-up at The Open this season.

Tom Kim also missed out on a spot in the FedEx Cup Playoffs Top 50 - just by 17 points. His T-50 finish at the St. Jude Championship was extremely disappointing for a player who almost bested Scottie Scheffler at the Memorial Tournament, only to lose in a playoff.

While Kim only missed four cuts from 23 starts, he did also only register one further top-10 in 2024.

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EAGLE
BMW Championship: Who Are Favorites To Win?

The BMW Championship returns to Colorado for the first time since 2014, where Castle Pines Golf Club hosts the TOUR for the first time since 2006 – at 6,200 feet above sea level and measuring more than 8,000 yards on the scorecard.

The top 50 in the FedExCup standings earned their way into this week’s field while only the top 30 will qualify for next week’s TOUR Championship and stay in contention for the PGA TOUR’s ultimate prize, the FedEx Cup.

📌 The Contenders: Hideki Matsuyama looks to go back-to-back to start the FedExCup Playoffs after winning the FedEx St. Jude Championship with birdies on his final two holes. Matsuyama withdrew from last year’s BMW Championship after the first round due to injury, but he is playing some of the best golf of his life now.

Viktor Hovland is hoping his fine Playoffs play continues at the BMW Championship as he enters as the defending champion. Hovland, who won the BMW Championship by two shots last year, hasn’t had his best season – and certainly not as compared to last year.

Patrick Cantlay’s name has become synonymous with the BMW Championship the last few seasons. Cantlay, who is ninth on the FedEx Cup standings, won this tournament in back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022.

Rory McIlroy finished at 9-over last week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and was second-to-last on the leaderboard. McIlroy enters the week fifth on the FedEx Cup standings - can he make a late charge?

With Xander Schauffele’s tie for second at the FedEx St. Jude Championship – and with the bonus points available for a win at the BMW Championship – he is finally within striking distance of Scottie Scheffler’s hefty FedExCup lead.

Schauffele, who is at 5,037.33 points, could technically jump Scheffler (at 6,532.75 points) for the No 1 spot heading into the TOUR Championship. Scheffler finished fourth in Memphis.

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LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news 

PGA Tour Champions: Ken Tanigawa completed an impressive two-day rally with a 6-under 64 on Sunday to win the Rogers Charity Classic in Calgary.

LIV Golf: Brooks Koepka defeated Jon Rahm on the first playoff hole to win the LIV Greenbrier title in White Sulphur Springs.

LPGA Tour: Lauren Coughlin recorded a 3-under-par 69 to win the ISPS Handa Women's Scottish Open by four strokes in Ayrshire, Scotland.

TGL: The soon-to-be-launched innovative golf league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, TGL, has splashed out around $50 million to enhance their SoFi Center base in Florida.

AIG Women's Open: The AIG Women’s Open caps off a thrilling major championship season this week at the Old Course at St Andrews - here are five things you need to know.

BIRDIE
These Caddies Bagged More Money Than Many Tour Pros

Xander Schauffele's caddie Austin Kaiser and Scottie Scheffler's ever-reliable bagman Tedd Scott have earned more money than many golfers in the 2024 PGA Tour season.

💰 Schauffele's Caddie: So far in 2024, Schauffele has earned over $17.5 million, although he is second to PGA Tour money leader Scheffler by about $11.5 million. And Kaiser - who has been Schauffele's looper throughout his entire PGA Tour career so far - has been extremely well compensated for his hard work, too.

The standard cut of a player's prize money the caddie receives out on tour will range from 5-10%, depending on how high up the leaderboard they end up. It is usually around 10% for a victory and drops to 7% for a top-10 finish - anything between 11th and making the cut could well be in the area of 5%.

Kaiser could well have collected an extra $1.4 million in 2024 alone. Kaiser's total bonus payment could well stand at $1,396,047 from 19 events.

💰 Scheffler's Caddie: Tedd Scott has taken home a bonus of $2.73 million so far this season. For context, that would put Scott 58th in the PGA Tour's money list for 2024 - two spots ahead of three-time Major winner Jordan Spieth.

It also means Scott has earned considerably more than the average PGA Tour player at this point in the season ($1,841,450) and around $1.3 million more than Xander Schauffele's bagman, Austin Kaiser may have brought in through bonuses.

So far this season, Scott's total bonus payment stands at $2,736,461 from 17 events.

DRIVING RANGE
Eliminate Early Extension

In today's video, we share a drill to help eliminate early extension in your golf swing.

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