FedEx Cup Fall – Syndication Server

FedEx Cup Fall: Here’s what PGA Tour pros think of the seven-event series (and it’s not all good)

“It’s unfortunate for the events, for the fans and at least locally, it kind of sucks,” Doug Ghim said.

SAINT SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – In reviewing this new version of the FedEx Cup Fall, the PGA Tour has to be thrilled with some of its winners: Sahith Theegala’s debut win in Napa; Tom Kim’s repeat in Las Vegas; Collin Morikawa’s winless drought ends in Japan, the country of his ancestors; Erik van Rooyen’s back-nine 28 and emotional win in Cabo; Camilo Villegas’s feel-good story in Bermuda; and capped off by Ludvig Aberg’s 61-61 weekend here at the RSM Classic. The Sunday drama didn’t disappoint.

Underneath the surface, not everyone was so happy, particularly Jimmy Walker. who vented about how he had to keep battling for three additional months to keep his card. (He slipped out of the top 125 and will have conditional status playing out of the Nos. 126-150 category next season.)

Instead of the start to a new wrap-around season, the top 50 locked up their cards at the end of the regular season and no longer had to worry about falling behind in the full slate of tournaments. Rather, those without exempt status had to play on during a seven-event points chase to retain status for the 2024 season, which begins in January. (The Fall also lost two events — CJ Cup and Houston Open — both of which joined the FedEx Cup regular season, with CJ taking over title sponsorship of the Byron Nelson in Dallas and the Houston Open being promoted to a date in the spring.)

The top players finally got the off-season they’d been begging for and the rank-and-file still got several playing opportunities with purses of at least $8 million, full FedEx Cup points on the line and a chance to qualify for two early-season Signature Events for those who finishing in ‘The Next 10’ in the final point standings. As Peter Malnati put it, the FedEx Cup Fall was “fun and exciting, unless you’re one of the ones trying to keep your job and then it’s a strain.”

Peter Malnati lines up a putt on the third green during the second round of the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. (Photo: Marianna Massey/Getty Images)

In theory, there was something for players of all skill levels to play for – even the top 50 could earn additional years to their exempt status and qualify for tournaments such as the Masters and the Sentry with a win if not already in those fields – but was it a win-win for fans and sponsors too? Only a used car salesman could make that sell, and it begs the question: will the Tour continue to secure sponsors willing to foot the bill for tournaments where the big names barely played, if at all?

Several pros expressed their concern for the future of the fall schedule, which will become increasingly important for players fighting for status for the upcoming season.

“It’s tough for me to see how it’s going to be sustainable,” said Mark Hubbard, one of six players to compete in all seven fall tournaments. “For me, I think there was a noticeable difference in the tournaments and just like how much the course kind of rolled out the red carpet for us and whatnot, you know, just little stuff like courtesy cars or hotel room blocks or the food. Everything just kind of felt like they were probably trying to save a little bit of money because they’re not getting, you know, the turnout, they’re not getting the big names.”

He continued: “I feel bad for a lot of those tournaments like a Jackson (Mississippi, home of the Sanderson Farms Championship) that have worked so hard to become a great event and, you know, now they’re gonna get zero of the top guys coming to their event, ever. It’s just tough for me to see how those [$8 million] purses are going to stay high and, you know, those tournaments are going to want to continue to be big events and there’s just no one coming there.”

“We have a lot of great events this time of year and if they want to host a PGA Tour event they should be allowed and the membership should support it,” veteran pro Ryan Armour said. “A lot of the top guys were looking for time off and if this is what they want, they got it.”

The lack of big names was most pronounced in Las Vegas, where several local pros elected to skip this year, and a sponsor exemption given to the LPGA Tour’s Lexi Thompson brought some much-needed attention.

“More guys would show up for Vegas, for Napa, it’s unfortunate for the events, for the fans and at least locally, it kind of sucks,” said Doug Ghim.

“Vegas is one of the biggest changes. Last year I wouldn’t have gotten in and this year I was in by 20 or something,” said Kramer Hickok.

But Davis Love III, who has hosted the RSM Classic in the fall for the last 14 years, said he’s seen several iterations of the fall during his 30-plus-year career that landed him in the World Golf Hall of Fame, and expects the fall portion of the schedule to continue to evolve.

“It hasn’t looked the same in any five-year period for a long, maybe my whole career,” Love said last week. “Hopefully, it just continues to improve, they come up with new ideas … I think it’s just going to continue to improve, but I don’t know what that is.”

The Tour can only hope that whatever it dreams up next will generate a collection of stories and winners as good as this year.

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RSM Classic takes over role of ‘last chance saloon’ as final FedEx Cup Fall event

For the first time, the top 125 for 2024 will be finalized at the RSM Classic.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The view of St. Simons Sound from the driving range at Sea Island Resort is one of the most idyllic settings on the PGA Tour. Yet this week at the RSM Classic, tensions are high, jobs are on the line and not everyone will leave with a smile on their face.

“You don’t want to come in here worn out and grinding and trying to keep your job and not get to enjoy the islands,” World Golf Hall of Fame member Davis Love III, the tournament host, said Tuesday during a pre-tournament press conference.

The RSM Classic has a different feel this year. In the past, it has been the final tournament of the fall schedule before the Tour’s wrap-around season resumed in the first week of January, giving it a last-day-of-school feel. But the wrap-around season is no more and players outside the top 50 in the regular season have had seven tournaments in what was dubbed the FedEx Cup Fall to earn their way into the top 125. For the first time, the top 125 for the following season will be finalized at the RSM Classic.

“We’re the new Wyndham Championship,” Love III said, referring to the tournament that previously was the final opportunity for players to secure top 125 status, which gives players access to all full-field events and the Players Championship. (Numbers 126-150 will earn conditional status, unless otherwise exempt.)

‘Mini Q-School’

Players who finished Nos. 1-50 through the FedEx Cup Playoffs locked their position in the FedEx Cup, earned full exempt status for 2024 and qualified for all eight Signature Events in 2024. All players ranked No. 51 and beyond carried FedEx Cup points and continued to accumulate points through the FedEx Cup Fall.

All 20 players from Nos. 121-140 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings entering the week are in the field. Carl Yuan, a 26-year-old native of China who finished fourth last week at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, heads into the RSM Classic as the ‘Bubble Boy’ at No. 125.

“It’s almost like a little mini Q-School this week for those guys,” said Eric Cole, the leading candidate for Tour Rookie of the Year who already locked up his card for next season. “Depending on where you are, being right around that 125 bubble is tough.”

Veteran pro Zach Johnson, who has played in the RSM Classic 13 times, tied for the most appearances with Chris Kirk, has sensed a different vibe at his hometown event this week.

“It is the last week for some of these guys and they’ve got to make a dent. That’s golf, that’s competitive golf, that’s meritocracy, that’s PGA Tour golf and I think that’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “It’s also extremely brutal because it’s hard. Everybody’s really good and everybody essentially has the same goals and that’s to win.”

Patton Kizzire, who enters this week on the wrong side of the cutline at No. 130, said he spends too much time on Instagram and is trying to adopt the philosophical message of a Chinese proverb he read there and noted it may be for the best if he doesn’t keep his card.

“You know, the farmer’s horse dies and people come up to him and say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ He’s like, ‘Maybe.’ Then the next day seven wild horses come up. ‘Oh, this is great.’ He’s like, ‘Maybe.’ It goes on and on down the line,” Kizzire recounted. “I’m at peace either way. I think whatever happens, happens.”

Access to Signature events

There are other consequences set to be determined at week’s end, including the “Next 10,” an eligibility pathway to earn access into Signature Events. Numbers 51-60 in the final FedEx Cup Fall standings, not otherwise exempt, will earn spots into the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational with $20 million purses. Nine of the 10 players currently in position for one of the spots in The Next 10 are in the field – Beau Hossler, No. 51, has mathematically secured a place in The Next 10 and took the week off – as are seven of the players between Nos. 61-70. Sam Ryder is the bubble boy at No. 60 and knows what is at stake this week – a chance to have a head start on next season and play against the top fields.

“It’s been my very clear goal since the FedEx Cup Playoffs started,” said Ryder, who had his best regular season in six years on Tour, finishing the regular season at No. 61. “My schedule is subject to change depending how things go this week. I think it can really set me up for my whole year.”

The jockeying for position has forced Ryder to tee it up in six of the seven fall events.

“The nature of where I’m at, I felt like I had to (play),” he said.

It all comes down to this week. For those that come up short of their goal, all is not lost. This year, the Tour’s Q-School in December will offer cards to the top five and ties for the first time in over a decade. But no one wants to have to sweat out that pressure-cooker. Justin Lower, a 34-year-old journeyman pro who enters the week at No. 98, has been a poster child for the bubble boy role, and has endured the ecstasy of being on the right side of the cutline and the agony of his bubble bursting on too many occasions. Asked what he will miss about being on the bubble this week at the RSM Classic, Lower didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Absolutely nothing,” he said.

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FedEx Cup Fall update: Who’s up, who’s down with one PGA Tour event to go

The RSM Classic is the final event of the season and the last chance for players to make their move for 2024.

Time is running out for players to secure status on the PGA Tour for next season.

The FedEx Cup Fall consists of seven Tour events – last week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship was the sixth – which provide players an opportunity to lock up or improve their positions in priority ranking and secure additional playing opportunities for the 2024 PGA Tour season, which returns to a calendar-year format from January to August.

The top 125 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings through this week’s RSM Classic will be exempt into all full-field events and the Players Championship in 2024.

Nos. 51-60 in the standings at the conclusion of the RSM Classic will qualify for two Signature Events in 2024 via The Next 10 (AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational).

Here’s a closer look at who was up and who was down after the 2023 Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

Top 125 bubble watch: Which PGA Tour players are on the verge of losing their cards?

Some golfers are in danger of losing their status.

Some players have work to do to ensure themselves of a PGA Tour card come 2024.

With only three events left in the FedEx Cup Fall, numerous golfers will have to battle it out to remain inside the top 125 in the FedEx Cup Standings to ensure they keep their card for the 2024 season. The World Wide Technology Championship, Butterfield Bermuda Championship and RSM Classic could be the difference in someone playing on the PGA Tour next year or losing their card.

Plenty of FedEx Cup points remain up for grabs, and a win could even vault someone into the 51-60 spot, which earns spots in the first two signature events of 2024 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational.

Additionally, in a new change, players who finish 126-200 in the FedEx Cup Standings can accept full membership on the DP World Tour.

Here’s a look at which PGA Tour pros have work to do to retain their card for the 2024 season.

(Note: some golfers may be below the top 125 in the standings but are exempt because of career achievements.)

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly included Cameron Champ.

Sahith Theegala on verge of first win among third-round takeaways at Fortinet Championship

Sahith Theegala is closing in on his first PGA Tour win.

The first event of the FedEx Cup Fall is shaping up for a fantastic finish.

Following Saturday’s third round of the 2023 Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort’s North Course in Napa, California, there’s numerous names in contention to win a title, including Justin Thomas, who was using this week as a tune-up before the Ryder Cup in two weeks.

In the group near the top of the leaderboard includes numerous PGA Tour winners, but there are also many who are searching for their first Tour victory. With plenty at stake for the 2024 season and beyond, there’s bound to be excitement Sunday in wine country.

Here’s everything you need to know from the third round of the Fortinet Championship.

Jimmy Walker sounds off on the PGA Tour’s new FedEx Cup Fall

“It’s total bulls–t, that’s what I think of it,”

NAPA, Calif. — After Peter Malnati wrapped up shooting 66 at Silverado Resort’s North Course on Moving Day to rocket into contention at the Fortinet Championship, he summed up the new FedEx Cup Fall, a series of seven events where jobs for the 2024 season are on the line, as “fun and exciting, unless you’re one of the ones trying to keep your job and then it’s a strain.”

PGA Tour veteran Jimmy Walker won this event when it was played at CordeValle a decade ago for his first Tour title. On Saturday, the 44-year-old Walker shot 69, which had him projected to improve from No. 124 to No. 118, but Walker was none too happy that he’s still battling to finish in the top 125 for the better part of the next three months.

“They changed the rules. It’s been 125 forever. Then it’s like, no, it’s 50, or is it 70? It’s definitely not 125. It’s total bulls–t, that’s what I think of it,” Walker said. “I’ve been working for 11 months to finish 124 and it’s like, nope, keep playing. So, I’m going to give it all I’ve got. That’s all I can do.”

A year ago, Walker shut down his season after the Valero Texas Open, his hometown event, and at age 43 the former PGA Championship winner contemplated calling it a career. But then enough players jumped ship to LIV that Walker climbed to No. 50 in career earning on the Tour, which gave him access to a one-time exemption for the 2022-23 season.

Walker has played 25 events this season and ranked No. 124 after the Wyndham Championship last month, which traditionally served as the final event of the FedEx Cup regular season. This year, only the top 70 earned a playoff berth and locked up their cards for next season.

“I can’t tell you how many people texted me saying congrats on making the 125. I’m like, ‘No man, it’s different.’ I had to explain. They’ve done such a bad job communicating what is happening, partly because I don’t think they knew what was happening, honestly,” Walker said. “It’s been one way forever. LIV and the Saudis happen and a lot of things change and everybody freaks out and we sign an agreement that stops litigation. I don’t know what’s going on. They’re talking about a big payout for the players that have stayed. All of it is blowing my mind. The Tour is doing everything they can to take care of themselves and not for the players. I’m just out here grinding, giving it all I’ve got. I’ve given them 20-some-odd years out here, you know.”

Walker expressed disappointment that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan wasn’t at the Fortinet Championship to answer questions from players at the first event of the re-imagined fall schedule. Jason Dufner, another player who was able to take advantage of the top 50 career earnings one-time exemption, entered the fall at No. 172, and called the fall an opportunity.

“We’re all adjusting to it a little bit. It’s nice to have the opportunity to play and try to, you know, sneak back into that 125 category,” Dufner said. “I don’t want to say I lucked into, but I was able to use a career money exemption for this year, and on top of that I got last fall and this fall, so it’s kind of a bonus type of deal for me so I’m trying to take as much advantage of it as I can to continue to be out here in some capacity.”

Walker realizes he’s lucky, too, to have had a second chance to play last season, but he doesn’t like the way the LIV threat has been used to change the landscape so drastically.

“I’m back because of LIV and then it was like we’ve got to change everything. We have to pump more money into the PIP to keep our guys, make all these elevated events. I’m not going to get to play Pebble Beach next year, a field that’s always had 180 players and I’m a past champion. I said to Jay, what if San Antonio was an elevated event? You’re going to tell me I live there, I’ve done I don’t know how many pressers for you guys and everything you’ve asked me to do and I can’t play my hometown event? It’s really bass-ackwards right now.”

Another veteran Ryan Palmer said he will play as many fall events as necessary until he’s locked up his playing privileges for next year. Walker said he’ll do the same, noting “it’s not a strategy, it’s my job, my card.”

Malnati can relate. He entered the Fortinet Championship at No. 116 and had missed three straight cuts. But Malnati, who serves as a player director on the Tour Policy Board, disagrees with Walker’s claim that the Tour’s moved the goalposts on him.

“Of course people are going to say that, but we’re making changes. Things have to change. Whether they are better or not, you can argue that but this is the way it is,” Malnati said. “I never once thought I should have my card locked up. We all knew going into the season it was going to be (No.) 125 after Sea Island (RSM Classic) and not Wyndham. The cool thing is, yes, I’m playing to earn my Tour card for next season but I get six opportunities to qualify for Maui. I see it as opportunity.”

Lynch: The PGA Tour’s new fall schedule is designed to benefit the stars who won’t play in it

Like everything else on Tour these days, the new dispensation for the fall is designed to satisfy the biggest stars.

The season-ending Tour Championship usually signals season’s end only for the PGA Tour’s elite, those whose obligations post-East Lake are limited to hit-and-giggle cash grabs and comme il faut appearances on home circuits overseas. The finale hasn’t actually been a finale for everyone since 2006, when Atlanta concluded matters in November.

For the next half-dozen years, the Tour Championship was in September, followed by a handful of events held in the fall that generated less discussion than a fumbled pass in that week’s least-watched NFL game. Ten years ago, the fall stops were recast as the opening stretch of a wraparound schedule. As of this week, those tournaments become a hybrid of their prior iterations: a continuation of the season that was and a determinant of the one to come. Seven events between now and Thanksgiving will dictate the status of most Tour members for ’24, when a calendar-year schedule returns.

Through all of the changes to the fall line-up, one thing remained constant: the stars mostly stayed home, effectively rendering the autumn a Head Start program for journeymen, a chance to reap cash and FedEx Cup points before the best players returned in the new year. Now, this formerly nebulous period finally has something meaningful at stake. It’s still largely a playground for the proletariat on Tour, but the head start has morphed into a life alert system, its competitors not so much getting ahead as catching up.

Like everything else on Tour these days, the new dispensation for the fall is designed to satisfy players who seldom darken locker rooms after Labor Day. The elite wearied of showing up in January to find themselves distantly trailing tradesmen in the FedEx Cup points race. In this new system, their security is cemented. The top 50 who qualified for the penultimate playoff event, the BMW Championship, earned unfettered access to every lucrative tournament next season. Fall events can offer them only prize money and competitive sharpness. The series now underway is for those who must work to improve their lot for ‘24, while ensuring they can’t adversely impact the Tour’s one percent who have better things to do. It’s a wonder Bernie Sanders isn’t marching on Ponte Vedra to protest the rigging of the system against the majority of hard-working millionaires.

Despite the nakedly political considerations and concessions that shaped this new-look fall schedule, it’s an improvement on the status quo. It will help end a perception that has taken root since ’06 — that every tournament after the Tour Championship simply dilutes the product, and only benefits rank-and-file guys who don’t sell tickets and executives bonused on creating those playing opportunities. The McIlroys and Rahms of the world are not incentivized to visit Jackson, Mississippi, or St. Simons Island, Georgia, but there are plenty of others in the Tour’s orbit who are.

This plump Tour schedule wasn’t merely about creating playing opportunities. It was a subtle power flex for those in charge. Players must request a waiver to compete in any tournament held opposite a PGA Tour event, and a limited number of such passes could be granted each season. As long as almost every week featured a Tour event, Ponte Vedra could exercise a degree of control over where and when its most important assets — the top players — could be used to the benefit of some other circuit. That’s why waivers became the inflection point for the LIV Golf litigation.

The device to end that legal action with the Saudis — the vaguely defined Framework Agreement — means the future of the fall is arguably even more fluid. If negotiations deliver some form of team competition under the Tour umbrella, then it’s most likely to reach a denouement in the fall so as not to diminish the FedEx Cup playoffs. The fourth quarter is also the most fertile window for the Tour’s strategic alliance with the DP World Tour to bear fruit, with elite players encouraged to compete in Europe. After all, they won’t want to sit home for months. The question is where it is most advantageous to have them work.

What’s clear even now is where they won’t be working much. The PGA Tour’s regular domestic fall schedule is unlikely to ever again see a healthy subscription of the game’s biggest stars compete. They’re gone, and they’re not coming back.

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ESPN+ to carry PGA Tour Live on Thursdays, Fridays only at fall 2023 U.S. events

For you live streamers and cord-cutters out there, your viewing options are being altered just a tad.

The FedEx Cup Fall is a unique one-off of seven tournaments, as the PGA Tour transitions from the wrap-around schedule to a return to a calendar-based format, with the 2024 campaign starting in January.

Of the seven events, four of them will be staged in the U.S.

That means for you live streamers and cord-cutters out there, your viewing options are being altered just a tad, as the streaming coverage of PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will only be on Thursdays and Fridays.

ESPN+ is the exclusive home of PGA Tour Live, and Front Office Sports reports that it’s the most watched content on the streaming platform. But while ESPN+ generally has its four-channel experiences for all four days of PGA Tour stops, it’ll only have the first and second rounds of those U.S.-based tournaments.

According to ESPN: “Coverage of the four fall events on PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will include one feed showcasing complete rounds of two Featured Groups in both the morning and afternoon waves on Thursday and Friday.”

Dates	Tournament	Course	Coverage start time
Sept. 14-15	Fortinet Championship	Silverado Resort Napa, Calif.	10 a.m. ET
Oct. 5-6	Sanderson Farms Championship	The Country Club of Jackson Jackson, Miss.	8:30 a.m. ET
Oct. 12-13	Shriners Children’s Open	TPC Summerlin Las Vegas	9:30 a.m. ET
Nov. 16-17	RSM Classic	Sea Island Golf Club (Seaside Course) St. Simons Island, Ga.	9:30 a.m. ET

The Zozo Championship in Japan, the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico and the Butterfield Bermuda Championship will not have PGA Tour Live on ESPN+.

All seven of the fall events will have four rounds of live coverage of Golf Channel, which will be simulcast on NBC’s streaming service Peacock.

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5 things to know about the FedEx Cup Fall, consisting of 7 official PGA Tour events

It’s time for those who finished outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup regular-season standings to get back to work.

The “off-season” is over and time for those who finished outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup regular season standings to head back to work.

The fall portion of the PGA Tour schedule has been reimagined as the FedEx Cup Fall, consisting of seven official Tour events. The top 70 have secured their cards for the 2024 season, which returns to a calendar-year schedule (January-August).

The top 125 after the RSM Classic, the last of the seven fall events, will retain their playing privileges for 2024 while those who fail to do so (and aren’t otherwise exempt) will be forced to return to PGA Tour Qualifying School in December, where five Tour cards will be up for grabs.

“We are launching the most meaningful updates to the PGA Tour season since 2007, the first year of the FedEx Cup,” said PGA Tour president Tyler Dennis.

Here are five things to know about the FedEx Cup Fall.