Fitzpatrick doesn’t think the FedEx Cup Playoffs are fair, “but life isn’t fair.”
Matt Fitzpatrick isn’t losing any sleep over the PGA Tour’s battle for supremacy with LIV Golf.
The upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has fractured the Tour and taken some of its top talent, including three of the top seven players on the 2021 BMW Championship leaderboard. If you expand that number out, it’s seven of the top 21.
“Yeah, it’s still an incredibly fantastic field. The field this week is 70 of the best players in the world,” Fitzpatrick said ahead of the 2022 BMW Championship, held this year at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware. “Yeah, I think only three of them that aren’t here, it’s not a massive loss in my opinion.”
The 27-year-old hasn’t been bothered too often by the biggest story to hit professional golf in some time. He mainly just sees the discourse in the media.
“You just get fed up with talking about it,” he said. “My personal opinion, it’s like, right, let’s just get on with it now. Just want to play golf and concentrate on what you’re doing.”
Easier said than done for most, but not Fitzpatrick. In 18 starts this season, the Englishman has made 15 cuts with 13 finishes inside the top 25 and 10 inside the top 10, which ties him with Justin Thomas for most on Tour. Since earning his first major championship at the U.S. Open two months ago, Fitzpatrick hasn’t slowed down, finishing T-6 at the loaded Genesis Scottish Open, T-21 at the Open Championship and T-5 at last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the Playoffs.
He enters the week having never seen the golf course tied for the third best odds at +1500 with Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris.
“Fortunately this year, I’ve been guaranteed (a playoff spot) from the start. That was quite nice compared to last year, yeah, and the year before,” explained Fitzpatrick, who went on to critique the Tour’s season-long competition, noting how you can play well all year and still miss out on the final two weeks.
“I’m like a little bit uneasy with that. I think like if you’ve played well all year, you deserve to be, you know, kind of at the top or where you deserve to be. I think the Playoffs can kind of throw that out a little bit, which is a little odd to me.”
Fitzpatrick’s coach was texting him scenarios last week where had Sepp Straka won the playoff against Will Zalatoris, he would have jumped into one of the top spots in the playoff standings. Both had a laugh, especially after Fitzpatrick replied, “I won the U.S. Open, so I’m fine.”
“But yeah, it is difficult. In my personal opinion, I think I was laughing last year at the scenario that (Collin Morikawa) had such a fantastic season, and he finished outside the top 20 or something on the FedEx, and to me that’s like unfair,” he said. “And then likewise this year, (Scottie Scheffler) has won four times, (Cameron Smith) has won three times, and those seven events aren’t, like, small events. They are some of the best events in the world, and they are behind (Will Zalatoris) now.
“Not taking it away from Will, but I think it’s a bit too much. In my opinion, those two should be kind of running away with it and it’s kind of a two-horse race, and now there’s more people in the mix, which I get that’s the whole point, the Playoffs, it’s exciting. But as a player, when you’ve worked hard all season to then not be rewarded for the whole season performance, yeah, it is a tough one.”
“I don’t think it’s fair,” he added. “But life isn’t fair.”
Everything you need to know for the first round of the 2022 BMW Championship.
The FedEx Cup Playoffs are moving right along.
The second event of the PGA Tour’s 2021-22 playoffs is this week at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware. The course was originally designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1959, and Andrew Green completed a renovation last year. It is a par-71 course measuring at 7,534 yards.
Patrick Cantlay won the BMW Championship last year at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland. Cantlay won the next week, too, capturing the FedEx Cup.
Will Zalatoris, who won the FedEx St. Jude Championship for his first career victory, is looking to build on his win. Scottie Scheffler missed the cut last week and is looking to rebound. World No. 2 Cameron Smith withdrew from the BMW Championship on Monday.
Only the top 30 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings after the BMW Championship advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. There are 68 golfers in the field, with Smith and Tommy Fleetwood (personal reasons) not competing.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s what you need to know for the first round of the 2022 BMW Championship. All times listed are ET.
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“I play golf so I can be in those moments against the best players in the world.”
The legend of Patty Ice vociferously commenced in the soft hills of Maryland on the last day of rest in August 2021 at a place called Caves Valley Golf Club.
Matched against the Paul Bunyan character otherwise known as Bryson – some called him Bison – DeChambeau, calm, cool and collected Patrick Cantlay outlasted his muscular foe in front of thousands of fans testing the limits of their vocal cords to win the BMW Championship, the second of three legs forming the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
In an instant classic, Cantlay and his stoic, unflappable and unhurried ways outlasted the thundering force of DeChambeau to win a six-hole playoff by making a 17-footer for birdie on the 78th hole in the fading light.
But Cantlay dished up heroics before that, plenty of them, including rolling in a 21-footer for birdie on the 72nd hole to force the playoff, then staving off defeat on the first three extra holes with mid-range par putts. On the fifth extra hole, after DeChambeau knocked his tee shot to 6 feet on the par-3 17th, Cantlay watched his approach stop three feet from the cup.
After both found the fairway on the sixth playoff hole, Cantlay ended matters.
Throughout the finishing stages of regulation and the playoff, chants of “Patty Ice” whistled through the galleries, a takeoff on “Matty Ice,” the nickname of equally composed Matt Ryan, then the Atlanta Falcons quarterback.
“It was kind of the first time I had heard it ever, and I think it suits me – I think,” Cantlay said. “It rings a little true of my personality, and I think a moniker that really rings – that just has a partial bit of truth but maybe a larger exaggeration, or a larger – I don’t know what the right word is – but it tries to say almost too much but yet it just rings a little true.”
That week, Cantlay stuck to his own blueprint, stayed in his own quiet world, and unleashed his own style of fireworks in toppling his playing partner in a playoff. Cantlay gained 14.58 strokes on the field with his putting, the most strokes gained putting in a 72-hole event since tracking began on the PGA Tour in 2004. He made more than 537 feet of putts this week. And he was undaunted despite being outdriven all day – DeChambeau hit 48 drives longer than 320 yards for the week.
Both finished regulation at 27 under – Cantlay with rounds of 66-63-66-66, DeChambeau with rounds of 68-60-67-66. Cantlay made 31 birdies for the week while DeChambeau made 27 birdies and four eagles.
“If I look the way I do, it’s because I am locked in and focused, and I felt like that today,” Cantlay said. “My game feels really good. It has for a while now, since Memorial, and I’m finally starting to putt like me again.
“I’m as focused as I can be on every single shot, and I try not to let my mind get past the moment that I’m in, and maybe that’s why I come across a little sedated out there. But I’m locked in, and I’m as focused as I can be. Then I kind of let the chips fall where they do. Try not to get caught up in being out-driven 45 yards or whatever it is. I just try and lock in and do my absolute best in that moment, and my best is pretty good.”
Patty Ice
The following week, in Atlanta, of all places, which is where Matt Ryan played his entire NFL career before a 2022 trade sent him to Indianapolis, Cantlay got a Falcons jersey featuring his name and Ryan’s number. Then he won $15 million.
Because of the staggered scoring format used in The Tour Championship, Cantlay started the week with a two-shot lead at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Despite sleeping on the lead for seven nights, Cantlay never blinked. In the final round, where Cantlay and then world No. 1 Jon Rahm became a two-man race late in the day, basically playing for $10 million (the difference between the first-place prize money of $15 million and the second-place prize money of $5 million), the stoic Cantlay never buckled.
He and his magical putter canned a 6-footer for birdie on the 16th to get two clear of Rahm, the only player to ever get into a tie with Cantlay over the four days (and that came in the third round). Then Cantlay dug deep to make another 6-footer, this one for bogey on the 17th, to stay one shot ahead of Rahm. And on the 579-yard, par-5 18th, Cantlay had to step up after Rahm rifled a mid-iron from 232 yards to just 18 feet past the hole on the fringe.
Patrick Cantlay of the United States celebrates with a “Patty Ice” Atlanta Falcons jersey after winning during the final round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club on September 05, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Knowing he needed to make at least a birdie, Cantlay, after he hit his best drive of the day which went 361 yards, ripped a 6-iron from 218 yards to 11 feet. After Rahm scared the hole with his chip, Cantlay putted to six inches and tapped in for the winning birdie and the $15 million grand prize.
“I just kept telling myself to focus and lock in and I did a great job of that today,” Cantlay said. “It was tough (sleeping on the lead). It was the longest lead I’ve ever held. But I just tried to stay, day after day, in the present, and I did an amazing job of that this week because the last couple days I made some mistakes I don’t usually make and I was able to really center myself and hit a lot of good shots when I needed to.”
It was Cantlay’s fourth win in the 50 events played in the “super season” caused by COVID-19. In a campaign that included six major championships and 43 different winners, Cantlay was the only player to win more than two tournaments.
And his wins were big. He held off Rahm and Justin Thomas to win the Zozo Championship in the fall by one shot, defeated Collin Morikawa on the first playoff hole to win the Memorial, topped DeChambeau in the BMW Championship, and stayed ahead to better Rahm in The Tour Championship.
“I play golf so I can be in those moments against the best players in the world. It’s why I practice so hard. It’s why I’m in love with the game because it’s that great vehicle for competition. It maybe makes it a little sweeter knowing that the guys I played against are the best players in the world,” Cantlay said.
Ten days later, Cantlay received the Jack Nicklaus Award as the PGA Tour’s Player of the Year (voted on by his peers).
“I think the fact that it’s voted on by my fellow PGA Tour players, I think that means a lot to me and I’m very grateful,” Cantlay said. “I think it wasn’t something that I necessarily thought was on the radar middle of the year, but then I closed really well and played a lot of really nice golf towards the end.”
Long road back
Before Cantlay won $20 million in a three-month blitz to end his 2021 campaign, before he was part of the USA’s rout of Europe in his first Ryder Cup last fall, and long before people started shouting Patty Ice, Cantlay was among the game’s best players. He was a decorated amateur who spent nearly 60 weeks as the No. 1 amateur in the game. In 2011, the 19-year-old UCLA star shot 60 in the Travelers Championship, the lowest number ever posted by an amateur in PGA Tour history. After turning pro in 2012, he won twice before his 2020-2021 monster season despite battling a brittle back that sent him to the sidelines many times.
It also was a time Cantlay dealt with personal heartbreak and recovery.
Just a few weeks after he was told he needed to take nearly a year off to rest his ailing back, Cantlay was in Newport Beach on February 13, 2016, when his best friend and caddie, Chris Roth, was killed while crossing an intersection. Cantlay was less than 10 feet away from the accident and was covered in blood when he spoke to officers after the accident.
With the help of his family and a few friends closest to him, Cantlay got through the unimaginable trauma while healing his back.
“There is no question I’m a different person than I was back then, having gone through those experiences,” Cantlay said in 2020. “It certainly wasn’t easy. And I try not to think back to those days. It changed me and I like who I am now.”
That includes opening up a bit more with the media. While Cantlay, who turned 30 in March, still prefers to let his clubs do the talking, his press conferences and scrums with the media leave reporters with their notebooks full and excited to get to a laptop to start pecking away.
He can comfortably and astutely talk music, politics, world affairs, gin rummy, mathematics, the inner workings of the PGA Tour and so much more. He’s studious, prepared and doesn’t waste a word. His exchanges are educational.
“I only talk about something I know about,” he said. “Or if I’m trying to learn.”
He by no means is a nerd. He can give and take the needle, is pleasant and polite, and never lets anyone think he thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room.
“People probably don’t see it, but Pat can relax with the best of them,” said Xander Schauffele, who has struck up a tight bond with Cantlay since the two successfully partnered in the 2019 Presidents Cup and then in the 2021 Ryder Cup. The two and their significant others vacationed together in Napa, California, after the Ryder Cup. “It’s not easy to become friends out here on the PGA Tour because we want to beat everyone all the time. Yes, we’re competitive and we push each other, but we like each other. We enjoy talking and spending time together.
“And he has this incredible ability to focus. He took on the Ryder Cup and came away unscathed. And that’s the most stressful golf we play.”
Since his victory in The Tour Championship, Cantlay hasn’t been able to produce the magic of that three-month blitz where he was the best player in the world. While he began 2022 with four top-10s in as many starts, he has yet to add to his victory total in 13 starts through the Travelers Championship. It’s not that he’s played poorly – he has six top-10s, including playoff losses to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth. And he still has residence in the top 10 in the official world golf rankings. Unlike in 2020-21, he just hasn’t closed the door.
But just as he did walking alongside DeChambeau in the BMW Championship, he won’t panic. He’s Patty Ice, after all, just ready to close the door on more victories.
“It’s kind of hard to say ‘about time’ when it’s your second year on Tour, but about time,” — Zalatoris, who has 3 runner-up finishes this season
When Will Zalatoris opened the FedEx St. Jude Championship with a disappointing 1-over 71, his fiancée, Caitlin Sellers, phoned and innocently asked him, “What are your plans if you don’t make the weekend?”
“She meant that all in good fun,” Zalatoris said on Saturday.
And what did he tell her?
“I told her let’s cross that bridge when we get there,” Zalatoris said.
He did more than stick around for the weekend. After three runner-up finishes, including two at majors and two playoff defeats, Zalatoris was the victor of a sudden-death playoff over Sepp Straka to win his first PGA Tour title and vault into the top spot in the FedEx Cup point standings.
“It’s kind of hard to say ‘about time’ when it’s your second year on Tour, but about time,” Zalatoris said. “Considering all the close finishes that I’ve had this year, to finally pull it off, it means a lot.”
The 25-year-old reigning Tour rookie of the year shot a final-round 4-under 66 at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, and became the second player to win his first tournament in the playoffs, joining Camilo Villegas, who did so at the 2008 BMW Championship. Ranked No. 14 in the world entering the week, Zalatoris already had a fruitful season, which included eight top-10s, the most among players without a win. He had threatened to claim his first Tour victory on several occasions, narrowly missing a birdie putt at the last to force a playoff at the U.S. Open and suffered playoff losses at the Farmers Insurance Open and PGA Championship. This time he was on the right side of the playoff ledger, becoming the first player to win a sudden-death playoff with a bogey since Sean O’Hair did so at the 2011 RBC Canadian Open.
Will Zalatoris holds the trophy after winning the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis. (Photo: Christine Tannous/The Commercial Appeal)
First off, Zalatoris made sure he had weekend plans, rebounding with a bogey-free 63, his lowest round on Tour since the second round of the American Express in January. It didn’t take long for Zalatoris to figure out the reason for his sluggish start.
Zalatoris said he didn’t allow his new caddie, Joel Stock, to read the putts on the first day as they learn to get a feel for each other. Stock served as Zalatoris’s sidekick for the first time since Zalatoris and his longtime caddie, Ryan Goble, parted ways in the middle of last week’s Wyndham Championship.
Zalatoris posted a 65 on Saturday to climb within two strokes of the lead. He birdied the first three holes of the final round, including a 15-footer at the third, to take the lead. Zalatoris made a bogey at No. 7 but regained the lead with a birdie at 10. Straka, 29, who snapped a streak of six missed cuts and hadn’t played on the weekend since the Memorial in early June, made birdie at the 12th to tie Zalatoris for the lead at 14 under.
Both Zalatoris, a Wake Forest product, and Straka, a Georgia grad, converted short birdie putts at the par-5 16th to climb to 15 under. Zalatoris boomed a 310-yard drive at 18 into the right fairway bunker, came up short with his approach, pitched to 10 feet and canned the par putt. After being criticized for his unorthodox putting stroke, Zalatoris celebrated his clutch putt by referencing a Steph Curry line, exclaiming, “What are they going to say now?”
“I actually can’t believe I said that,” Zalatoris said, noting he’s a big Golden State Warriors fan and when Curry said that “it kind of related to kind of my journey so far…At least it wasn’t something worse, but yeah.”
Congrats @WillZalatoris 👏🏾 His resilience is a testament to his character and now he's a winner! He's been a rock solid dude through all the noise and I have so much respect for him because of that. Now watch him go! Bravo dude 🏆
Straka missed a 22-foot birdie putt to win in regulation as they tied at 15-under 265.
It was a wild playoff with Straka having to can a 6-foot par putt at 18 after his 24-foot putt for the win raced by at the first extra hole. Returning to 18 again, both players overcame poor tee shots to salvage par. And then it got really zany at the par-3 11th hole. Zalatoris had the honors and his tee shot bounced on the retaining wall multiple times, avoiding the water and settling between the wall and the rough.
Advantage Straka, except his tee shot bounced into the pond fronting the green. Following a drop, his third flew the green and landed in a bunker. After much deliberation, Zalatoris elected to take a drop, too, rather than risk hitting against the rock retaining wall.
“I couldn’t get the club on the ball,” Zalatoris said. “Considering where Sepp was and he had four feet for 5, there’s no reason for me to try that shot and make it bank right into the grass and go back in the water and all of a sudden I’ve lost the golf tournament.”
Zalatoris’s third shot from 94 yards stopped 7 feet from the hole and he lifted his arms to the sky when his putt dropped in.
With the victory, Zalatoris also earned quadruple points and unseated Scottie Scheffler, who missed the cut on Friday and had held the lead since March. But Scheffler remained World No. 1 as Cameron Smith was docked two strokes before the final round got underway for a penalty he committed on the fourth hole during the third round. Instead of trailing by two heading into the final round, Smith’s deficit bumped to four. He shot even-par 70 and finished T-13, six strokes back.
Lucas Glover, who started the week at No. 121 in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, made birdies at 16 and 17 to tie for the lead at 13 under, but bogeyed the last hole to shoot 66 and tie for third. He vaulted to No. 34 in the points standing and was among the top 70 to advance to the second playoff event at next week’s BMW Championship.
But this week belonged to Zalatoris, who won for the first time in his 56th start after many close calls.
“The first second at the Masters was life changing because it put me in position to play out here as much as I wanted to and put me kind of on the map,” Zalatoris said. “The second at the PGA was kind of affirmation that it wasn’t a fluke of a week, and the third one at the U.S. Open gave me that much more belief that I can win a major, I can win out here. It was just a matter of time and obviously this was my week.”
Zalatoris planned to celebrate, but he also was quick to point out that their was more work left to do.
“I think I’ve always had the attitude of the job’s not done and as great as it is to pull this off, I still feel like I’ve got some unfinished business going forward,” he said. “It’s obviously very satisfying, but this is the peak season for us obviously for the PGA Tour players and the grind continues.”
Rickie Fowler was in prime position to finish in the top 11 before he had one of the worst holes of his career.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Rickie Fowler, the last golfer to qualify for the FedEx St. Jude Championship, was poised to play another week in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Then he reached TPC Southwind’s No. 18 on Saturday afternoon.
Fowler carded a quintuple bogey 9 on the par-4 hole, tied for the highest score he has registered during a PGA Tour event. He finished with a 2-over 72 and sits at 2-under heading into the final round.
That means Fowler, at the moment things went off the rails, might have been one shot off from where he needed to be in order to qualify for next week’s second leg of the playoff at the BMW Championship. The Golf Channel said Fowler had to finish in the top 11 or better in Memphis to move on. A PGA Tour official clarified that Fowler would actually need to finish in at least a tie for 8th this week, based on its current projections.
Fowler took the gallery on No. 18 on quite the adventure.
He hit his tee shot into the water, then dropped 221 yards from the pin. He then hit his penalty shot into the water as well and took another drop 181 yards from the hole. He followed that up with a poor approach shot that landed 53 feet from the hole. His sixth shot, a chip from the fairway, landed in the rough. His seventh shot finally ended up on the green.
He missed a six-foot putt long before registering the second quintuple bogey of his PGA Tour career.
When Fowler walked off the course Saturday, he had gone from the top 20 of the leaderboard to tied for 60th in the tournament in a matter of one hole. Barring a dramatic performance on Sunday, his PGA Tour season will likely end in Memphis.
Contact Damichael Cole at damichael.cole@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @damichaelc.
Denny McCarthy has already posted an early candidate for shot of the day.
Denny McCarthy has already posted an early candidate for shot of the day during the second round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
His eagle on the sixth hole at TPC Southwind gave him the outright lead (9 unde). McCarthy’s second shot from 153 yards out on the par 4 sailed just past the flagstick and one-hopped back into the hole. McCarthy is the only golfer so far to eagle the sixth hole.
McCarthy is ranked No. 43 in the FedEx Cup standings, and his highest finish this season was tied for fifth at The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday.
He was tied for first with Sahith Theegala early Friday morning.
A hole-out eagle to take the lead 💪@_DennyMcCarthy is -5 thru 6 holes today.
The Rules of Golf are extensive and can be pretty confusing at times. On top of the rules, there’s golf etiquette, which can also be weird, but is common sense for the most part. Especially among professionals.
For instance, when your playing partner or opponent is reading a putt on the green, you walk around them. And if you do accidentally walk in front of someone while they’re lining up a putt, there’s an immediate apology, right?
The same situation played out between the top two players in the world during the first round of the PGA Tour’s 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, at TPC Southwind on Thursday. Except there wasn’t an apology, just a weird look that made it seem intentional (or maybe he just wasn’t paying attention).
Let’s have a little fun and think about this for a second: if it was intentional, why would Scheffler do something so petty?
Reports broke earlier this week that Smith would be one of the next players to leave the PGA Tour for the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series. When the 28-year-old Australian, winner of this year’s Players Championship and British Open, was asked about the report, he had “no comment.”
Maybe Scheffler’s walk-through was the start of the petty wars between Tour and LIV players. Or maybe it was just one of those socially awkward moments that the PGA Tour Live crew and a Twitter user just happened to catch on camera. After all, Scheffler did high-five Smith after his hole-out from the fairway earlier in the round.
Only time will tell, but either way it was weird.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
Check out the best photos of the week from Memphis.
It’s time for the playoffs.
The race for the PGA Tour’s biggest prize, the FedEx Cup, has transitioned from the regular season to postseason with this week’s 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.
The top 125 players from the season-long points list have qualified for the event, with the top 70 after this week advancing to next week’s BMW Championship at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware. The top 30 will then advance to the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.
Take a scroll through some of the best images of the week from the PGA Tour’s 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
“You have to play consistently good golf over the course of a season and then you have to get hot at the end of it again as well.”
During his pre-tournament press conference for the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Rory McIlroy was asked whether the FedEx Cup is the hardest trophy to win in golf. It was a not-so-subtle reference to a statement made by a lawyer for LIV Golf during Tuesday’s hearing for a temporary restraining order to allow three defectors to the Saudi-backed renegade tour to compete in the FedEx Cup Playoffs with its $75-million payout in bonus money. (The motion was denied).
McIlroy replied with an equally tongue-in-cheek response. “Is the Super Bowl the hardest trophy to win in football?” he said.
After 44 regular season events narrowed the playoff qualifiers to the top 125 in the point standings, the three-tournament FedEx Cup Playoffs are set to begin this week in earnest at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. McIlroy, who is bidding to become the first player to win the season-long race three times, enters the week No. 6 and agreed that claiming the FedEx Cup is no bargain.
“It’s a weird one,” McIlroy said. “It’s like you have to play consistently good golf over the course of a season and then you have to get hot at the end of it again as well. It is, it’s difficult to win. I mean, no one’s won more than twice.”
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland celebrates with the FedExCup trophy after winning during the final round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club on August 25, 2019, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
McIlroy and the rest of the field are giving chase to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who has won four times this season, including the Masters, and staked himself to a significant lead.
“He’s had one of the best seasons of all time,” Justin Thomas said. “I mean, the most money that’s ever been earned and (leading) the FedEx Cup by a mile.”
Scheffler received a $4 million bonus via the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 for holding the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings at the end of the regular season and a $1 million bonus for winning the Aon Risk Reward Challenge. The bonuses do not count towards his official money total of $13,176,910 million, the largest in a single season in Tour history. His total of 3,556 FedEx Cup points during the regular season was the second-highest since the points format changed in 2009 (most: 4,169 by Jordan Spieth in the 2014-15 season). Scheffler could bank another $18 million in bonus money if he goes on to win the FedEx Cup. But points for a victory are quadrupled in the playoffs (to 2,000 points), which means his lead could be in jeopardy. (The leader heading into the Tour Championship begins with a two-stroke lead over his closest competitor in a staggered start.)
“It feels like I have been leading for a while. I’ve had a big lead and I’m up by maybe 1,200 points or something like that, and I think now a win for some of those guys would help them pass me if I didn’t play so good this week,” Scheffler said. “But I still have a pretty strong lead even with the points being magnified now in the Playoffs, so if I continue to play good golf I should have a lead going into East Lake (site of the Tour Championship), which is definitely a good position to be in.”
Scheffler is making his third appearance in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, advancing to the Tour Championship in each of his first two seasons on Tour (No. 5 in 2019-20, No. 22 in 2020-21).
“Nothing’s really going to change for me,” he said. “I’m just trying to come out here, have a good start and put myself in position to win this tournament.”
Thomas, who won the FedEx Cup in 2017 during a breakout five-win season, brings fond memories to TPC Southwind. He won the 2020 WGC St. Jude Invitational on the par-70 7,243-yard layout. This season he’s added a second PGA Championship title to his resume and enters the week in eighth place in the FedEx Cup point standings.
Justin Thomas accepts the trophy after winning the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind on Sunday with a final score of 13 under.
“I can’t believe how fast it’s gone as always. We’re already here in the Playoffs and three weeks left and it’s another season down,” Thomas said. “Definitely feel like I have a great opportunity these last three weeks to turn it into a great season.”
Win or lose, Scheffler’s season has been a runaway success, and he’s taking an if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it approach to the playoffs.
“It’s fun, I like being No. 1 in the world, I like being at the top of the FedEx Cup,” he said. “Those are things that are fun for me, it’s enjoyable, so I want to just continue to improve on that.”
Hideki Matsuyama, who is 11th in the FedEx Cup standings, has withdrawn from the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, citing a neck injury.
“I am very disappointed to have to withdraw from this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship,” Matsuyama wrote in a statement, “but I felt it was the best decision to ensure my neck receives the treatment it needs for me to compete in the BMW Championship and Tour Championship.”
Matsuyama, who has two wins this season at the Sony Open and ZOZO Championship, has enough FedEx Cup points and is a lock to make both the BMW Championship (top 70) and Tour Championship (top 30), the second and final events of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He also withdrew earlier this year from the Valero Texas Open with a neck injury.
Matsuyama has made 15 cuts in 17 appearances this year, but he was also disqualified halfway through the first round of the Memorial Tournament because of an equipment violation.
