Tag: FedEx Cup Playoffs

A look back at every FedEx Cup Playoff champion, beginning with Tiger Woods

View all the former FedEx Cup Playoff champions, beginning with Tiger Woods in 2007.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs have gone through multiple format changes over the years, but one thing remains the same — a massive payout to the winner.

A total of $18 million goes to the winner of the PGA Tour’s season-long race. Only the top 30 players make their way to East Lake and are broken down into an aggregate scoring system that went into effect in 2019.

Since the FedEx Cup Playoffs began in 2007, 13 different champions have been crowned. Rory McIlroy leads the way with three FedEx Cups to his name, surpassing Tiger Woods’ record in 2019. The two all-time greats are the only players to claim multiple FedEx Cups.

Although the winner of the event has claimed an eight-figure prize since 2007, everyone who makes it to Atlanta goes home with a sizeable check in their back pocket.

Who will add their name to the list this year?

Check the yardage book: East Lake for the 2023 Tour Championship

StrackaLine offers a hole-by-hole course guide for East Lake Golf Club.

East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta – site of the PGA Tour’s 2023 Tour Championship and the finale in the FedEx Cup Playoffs – originally was designed by Tom Bendelow and opened in 1908. Donald Ross redesigned the layout in 1913, and Rees Jones worked on the course in 1994.

Architect Andrew Green will begin another renovation, with a goal of returning many of the Ross features to East Lake, soon after the last putt drops in the Tour Championship.

East Lake ranks No. 5 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top private clubs in Georgia, and it’s No. 92 on the list of top classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S.

The course will play to 7,346 yards and a par of 70 for the Tour Championship. Nos. 1 and 14 normally play as par 5s for members, but they will be listed as par 4s for the Tour Championship with only Nos. 6 and 18 playing as par 5s.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players face this week.

Prize money, starting strokes format for 2023 Tour Championship at East Lake

The winner of the Tour Championship is declared the FedEx Cup champion.

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The 2023 FedEx Cup Playoffs conclude this week at the Tour Championship, where the winner will take home $18 million (before taxes) in bonus money.

This year marks the 17th season of the playoffs. PGA Tour players battled through 46 events to get to the finale.

The top 70 in the FedEx Cup points made the postseason with the top 50 advancing to Week 2 and then just the top 30 reaching East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Tour Championship: Thursday tee times, TV info | Odds, best bets

Rory McIlroy became the first three-time winner of the FedEx Cup when he rallied from six shots back a year ago to track down Scottie Scheffler.

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The money

The winner of the Tour Championship is declared the FedEx Cup champion and takes home the first-place prize of $18 million in bonus money. The runner-up gets $6.5 million, with third place earning $5 million, all the way down to 30th place, which is good for $500,000.

Bonus money payouts

Position Payout Position Payout
1 $18,000,000 16 $720,000
2 $6,500,000 17 $700,000
3 $5,000,000 18 $680,000
4 $4,000,000 19 $660,000
5 $3,000,000 20 $640,000
6 $2,500,000 21 $620,000
7 $2,000,000 22 $600,000
8 $1,500,000 23 $580,000
9 $1,250,000 24 $565,000
10 $1,000,000 25 $550,000
11 $950,000 26 $540,000
12 $900,000 27 $530,000
13 $850,000 28 $520,000
14 $800,000 29 $510,000
15 $760,000 30 $500,000

There is a total of $75 million in bonus money up for grabs at East Lake.

The format

The PGA Tour will continue to utilize the FedEx Cup Starting Strokes, which was introduced for the first time in 2019. It’s a staggered system whereby the golfer in the top position will start the Tour Championship at 10 under.

Starting strokes

Starting position Starting score Golfer
No. 1 10 under Scottie Scheffler
No. 2 8 under Viktor Hovland
No. 3 7 under Rory McIlroy
No. 4 6 under Jon Rahm
No. 5 5 under Lucas Glover
No. 6 4 under Max Homa
No. 7 4 under Patrick Cantlay
No. 8 4 under Brian Harman
No. 9 4 under Wyndham Clark
No. 10 4 under Matt Fitzpatrick
No. 11 3 under Tommy Fleetwood
No. 12 3 under Russell Henley
No. 13 3 under Keegan Bradley
No. 14 3 under Rickie Fowler
No. 15 3 under Xander Schauffele
No. 16 2 under Tom Kim
No. 17 2 under Sungjae Im
No. 18 2 under Tony Finau
No. 19 2 under Corey Conners
No. 20 2 under Si Woo Kim
No. 21 1 under Taylor Moore
No. 22 1 under Nick Taylor
No. 23 1 under Adam Schenk
No. 24 1 under Collin Morikawa
No. 25 1 under Jason Day
No. 26 Even Sam Burns
No. 27 Even Emiliano Grillo
No. 28 Even Tyrrell Hatton
No. 29 Even Jordan Spieth
No. 30 Even Sepp Straka

This system was established to give players at the top of the points list the reward of a starting advantage in the Tour Championship.

Only two multiple winners

The first 16 seasons of the playoff produced 13 different winners with McIlroy (2016, 2019, 2022) and Tiger Woods (2007, 2009) the only golfers to win it more than once.

Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka, Sahith Theegala ride FedEx Cup Playoffs rollercoaster

For some golfers, each birdie putt was a jolt of adrenaline while every bogey was a kick to the gut.

The season-ending Tour Championship features an exclusive field of the top-30 players on the FedEx Cup points list.

For those PGA Tour golfers hugging that top-30 cutline this week at the BMW Championship, getting to the season-finale at East Lake was stressful, with each birdie putt providing a jolt of adrenaline and every bogey feeling like a kick to the gut.

Sunday was once again a rollercoaster of emotions for those players angling for one of those coveted tee times at the 2023 Tour Championship, where the winning prize is $18 million in bonus money.

It made for a fascinating few hours of television on CBS.

Fans enjoyed watching Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick and Max Homa battle for the win while also keeping tabs on the likes of Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Sahith Theegala and Sepp Straka, who were all battling to extend their seasons.

Here’s a closer look at the race to East Lake, where ultimately just one golfer played his way into the top 30 but several others walked a tightrope over the final 18 holes at Olympia Fields outside Chicago.

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Viktor Hovland has eight 3s on back nine, posts career low to win BMW Championship

The win is the fifth of Hovland’s PGA Tour career and his second of the season.

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OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – As Rory McIlroy counted up Viktor Hovland’s scorecard after the final round of the BMW Championship, he realized that Hovland’s back nine included eight threes and a single four.

“It adds up to a nice little 28 for him,” McIlroy said marveling at Hovland’s brilliant performance. “He just keeps his foot on the pedal. Just isn’t scared. Just keeps going forward, keeps going at it.”

The 25-year-old Norwegian kept his foot on the pedal and rode his way to a course-record 9-under 61 at Olympia Fields on Sunday and a two-stroke victory over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick. Hovland’s sizzling 61 to clinch his fifth PGA Tour title was the low round by a winner this season on the Tour and also the lowest final round in the history of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

When told that the CBS golf team declared it the best round of the year, Hovland exclaimed, “Wow!” and added, “It definitely has to be the best round I’ve ever played given the circumstances, a playoff event and this golf course.”

Hovland erased a three-stroke deficit on Sunday, making three birdies in his first five holes, but he didn’t let his lone bogey of the day, at No. 7, derail him.

“It felt like it was just going to be one of those days like the other days where I’ve gotten off to a nice start and kind of just played OK and shot 68 or 67 or 66, which is a nice score, but after making that turn, stuffed it on 10, hit it close on 11, stuffed it on 12, and that’s when I kind of felt like I hit the groove a little bit.”

Did he ever. Hovland reeled off seven birdies in his final nine holes to vault past Scheffler and Fitzpatrick, who shared second despite both shooting 66.

“Yeah, played great. Can’t do anything about 61,” said Fitzpatrick, who was the only player to move into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup and qualify for the Tour Championship, bumping out Chris Kirk. “I did just see Viktor, I called him a little (jerk).”

Hovland’s caddie Shay Knight said his player was in the zone and for him to do it on this big of a stage – though Olympia Fields was softened by rain earlier in the week and there was hardly a breath of wind on a humid day, it still is arguably one of the 50-100 toughest courses in the country – shows how much of “a bulldog he is.”

To hear Hovland tell it, he just kept hitting fairways – he led the field in fairways hit for the week – and kept giving himself chances at birdie. “We’re one shot closer, we’re one shot closer, and then suddenly we were tied. It just happened so quickly,” he said. “When I made the putt on 15 for birdie, I felt like, OK, we’ve got a chance now if I can finish pretty well, then you never know what’s going to happen behind you.

“Then when I made a birdie on 17, I was feeling really good, and then the birdie on 18, as well, I felt like I could win it outright. But it wasn’t until then, I had no idea what was going on. I was just going to try to play well and keep making birdies.”

Hovland’s record day lifted him to a 72-hole total of 17-under 263. Scheffler had made birdies on six of the first 13 holes but his putter, which has plagued him for much of the season, let him down again and he made a critical bogey at 17 to take some of the drama out of the finish. Scheffler, however, claimed the top spot in the FedEx Cup heading to Atlanta, knocking Jon Rahm back to fourth, and will hold a two-stroke lead over Hovland, who jumped to second in the point standings, in the staggered start at the FedEx Cup finale.

After munching on a piece of pizza that he snagged on his way to his winner’s press conference, Hovland conceded he was running on fumes but would be ready for the challenge of trying to win back-to-back weeks and the season-long championship.

“Well, I’m about to pass out right now, but no, just a good night’s sleep, and we’re right back at it next week at East Lake,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll be hot and we’ll be sweating a lot, so I’m definitely feeling that it’s been a lot of golf, but it seems like the more I’ve played recently, I seem to play better. Just need to lean into that and hopefully we have another good week next week.”

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Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose move up in 2023 FedEx Cup projected standings

Here’s a closer look at those golfers moving up, and those moving down, in the projected standings.

After 36 holes at Olympia Fields’ North Course near Chicago, time is running out for those angling to make the Tour Championship.

The BMW Championship is the second of three FedEx Cup Playoffs events but only the top 30 golfers will move on to East Lake Golf Club for the season finale. There are bragging rights when you make it to Atlanta but there’s also a whopping $18 million first-place prize at stake.

For each golfer who moves into the top 30, there has to be one falling out. Looking at the PGA Tour’s projected FedEx Cup standings after two rounds at the BMW, there are two of each.

Rory McIlroy, Brian Harman, Grandma Susie highlight first round at 2023 BMW Championship

Here’s what you missed from the first round at Olympia Fields.

Storms blew through the Windy City on Thursday and delayed the first round of the 2023 BMW Championship for two hours.

When the clouds vanished and the sun came out, so did the PGA Tour’s best as nearly half the field was under par at Olympia Fields Country Club’s North Course in near Chicago.

The second of two FedEx Cup Playoffs events, the BMW saw a handful of players on the bubble make an early move up the standings and featured the usual suspects in the mix at the top of the leaderboard. From a Lucas Glover heat check to 103-year-old Grandma Susie, here’s what we learned from the opening round of the 2023 BMW Championship.

Sahith Theegala, Justin Rose just outside the top 30 for Tour Championship

It’s crunch time near the Windy City.

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It’s crunch time near the Windy City.

The second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs is the 2023 BMW Championship this week at Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago, with the top 50 from last week’s field of 70 having advanced.

Sunday night, there will be but 30 golfers moving on to the 2023 Tour Championship, the season finale at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

All 50 players who reached the BMW earned a guaranteed spot in the 2024 signature events, but they’re also eyeing a huge potential payday next week, as the 2023 FedEx Cup champion will bag $18 million in bonus money.

Guys like Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are all in prime position to advance but there’s a few golfers right near the top-30 cutline who have to make sure they don’t slip, just as there are some who need to make a move in the upward direction.

Here’s a look at Nos. 26-30, trying to hold serve, and those in Nos. 31-35, who need a big week. The PGA Tour’s projected standings will be updated during play starting Thursday and finalized Sunday night for next week.

Position Golfer
26 Tyrrell Hatton
27 Jordan Spieth
28 Sungjae Im
29 Chris Kirk
30 Sam Burns
31 Sahith Theegala
32 Justin Rose
33 Kurt Kitayama
34
Denny McCarthy
35 Seamus Power

The Tour Championship will once again use the Starting Strokes format, with the golfer in the top slot starting at 10 under, the No. 2 guy will be at 8 under and so on. Golfers in the 26th through 30th slots next week will start at even par.

The winner takes home $18 million. Last place is good for $500,000.

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Jon Rahm returns to BMW Championship as not just a different player, but a better one

Rahm returns to Olympia Fields as a two-time major champion, 11-time winner on Tour and the world No. 3.

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Jon Rahm has loved Olympia Fields since he played here in college with Arizona State and in the 2015 U.S. Amateur, won by Bryson DeChambeau. A lot has changed for the big man from the Basque region since he was last at the famed club outside Chicago.

You remember, right? When the Spaniard shot 66-64 on the weekend to force a playoff with Dustin Johnson and eventually claim his fifth win on the PGA Tour?

Fast-forward three years and Rahm returns to Olympia Fields as a two-time major champion, 11-time winner on Tour and the No. 3 player in the world.

“I don’t know if ‘different’ is the word. I would say better,” Rahm said of his game now compared to then. “I think I’ve improved quite a bit since then.”

Talk about bad news for the rest of the field of 50 players.

“It’s always great to come back to somewhere I’ve already played a tournament and did so successfully. It’s obviously a very different week,” said Rahm, noting how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the tournament that year. “Personally, my life has changed quite a bit, as well. Kelley was pregnant with Kepa, early stages of the pregnancy when we came, and we’re a little bigger family now with two young ones. It’s good that you get to see that after a great win, things have improved so much both on and off the golf course for me.”

BMW: Odds, picks to win | Sleepers | Thursday tee times, how to watch

While Patrick Cantlay is the official defending champion of the event, having won last year when it was held at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware, Rahm won the BMW when it was last held at Olympia Fields and the 28-year-old also enters this week as the leader in the season-long race for the FedEx Cup.

“Well, the point of coming to the Playoffs is to give yourself the best chance to get to East Lake on the No. 1 spot. I’ve done a pretty good job so far,” said Rahm of his season that features four wins, including his first Masters victory. “Hopefully this week I can have a good performance like I did last time and earn it and clinch it and give myself the best shot for the win.”

“It’s been a great year so far, so hopefully I can end it off the way I started it,” he said, making vague reference to his win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

Amid a season that includes four wins, two runner-up finishes, 10 top 10s and just one missed cut, it would only be natural for Rahm to let his mind drift to his incoming postseason accolades. That said, the only time the Player of the Year award crosses his mind is when he’s asked about it by the media.

“Player of the Year is earned on the golf course. That’s what I focus on. Because of what I’ve done this year, I’ve earned the spot to be considered Player of the Year, but we’ve got to finish it off,” he explained. “I would like to play good this week and next week to leave no, let’s say, questionables in there and just clinch it.”

One player who could really challenge Rahm for the end-of-the-year honor is world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. As luck would have it, the two are paired together as the afternoon featured group for Thursday’s first round. Let the fun begin.

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Hideki Matsuyama, Cam Davis make top 50 for BMW Championship; other big names not so lucky

The unlucky golfer in the No. 51 spot this week is Mackenzie Hughes.

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The 2023 edition of the FedEx Cup Playoffs started with the top 70 golfers in the standings, down from 125 from previous seasons.

After four days at steamy TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the field has now been reduced to 50 for the BMW Championship, the second of the three playoff events.

There were two golfers who made a big move up to get into the top 50.

Hideki Matsuyama started the week No. 57 and went backwards from there, finding himself at No. 61 when the St. Jude’s final round started Sunday. But he got hot late in a big way, posting five straight 3s after going birdie-par-birdie-eagle-birdie on Nos. 13 through 17. He closed with an up-and-down par for a 65 to leap up to No. 47, safely inside the top 50.

Cam Davis made the biggest move of the week, leapfrogging 17 spots from No. 62 to 45th, thanks to scores of 66-67-69-67 and a top-6 finish in Memphis.

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Lucky No. 50 heading to the BMW, held outside Chicago in Olympia Fields, Illinois, is Patrick Rodgers. He only had one of his four rounds at the St. Jude in the 60s and he did drop seven spots in the playoffs standings but survived to advance.

Rodgers and the rest of the top 50 headed to the BMW have also secured spots in the 2024 signature events, making it a double whammy for those not advancing.

Here’s a closer look at some golfers who saw their PGA Tour seasons come to an end Sunday in Memphis.