Reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm, the season factors chief, would be the participant to catch when the PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs start tonight (AEST) on the St. Jude Championship.
The highest 70 gamers from the season — together with two Australians — will tee off at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, hoping to be amongst 50 who advance to subsequent week’s BMW Championship, from which the highest 30 will attain the Tour Championship in two weeks at East Lake in Atlanta.
Rahm has by no means received the playoff prime prize, which this 12 months is $US18 million ($A27m) from a prize cash pool of $US75 million ($A115m).
If he can maintain the factors lead by means of the following two occasions, Rahm will get a two-stroke edge to start out the Tour Championship over the quantity two factors holder, who at this level is American Scottie Scheffler, simply forward of three-time playoff winner and defending champion Rory McIlroy.
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Adam Scott misses out on FedEx Playoffs | 01:20
“You need to win each time we tee it up, however yeah, the aim is to attempt to get to East Lake as primary and luxuriate in that two-shot lead,” Rahm mentioned Tuesday.
Rahm is aware of how a lot the additional strokes can matter. In 2021, he misplaced the Tour Championship by a stroke to Patrick Cantlay although he performed the 4 rounds in three fewer photographs than the American.
“It has at all times made a distinction,” Rahm mentioned. “It made a distinction after I completed second place. It’s the explanation why they offer it to you, so if we will benefit from it, it might be good.” Prime-ranked Scheffler, second-ranked McIlroy and world quantity three Rahm will play collectively within the first two rounds.
Rahm has loved an epic 12 months with 4 titles, taking the Match of Champions and American Categorical titles in January, the Genesis at Riviera in February and his second main title in April at Augusta Nationwide. He additionally shared second final month on the British Open.
“It has been a extremely good season,” Rahm mentioned. “Achieved numerous issues I set myself out to do that 12 months, and one among them was to be sitting proper right here as primary.
“Actually pleased with what I’ve accomplished thus far. I’m wanting ahead to conserving it going within the playoffs.”
Jason Day and Cameron Davis are the 2 Australians to have certified, with Day in nice place to go deep sitting eleventh within the standings and Davis having to carry out sturdy early along with his rating of 62nd.
FED-EX CUP PLAYOFFS — HOW IT WORKS
Golfers play for FedEx Cup factors all through the season and there’s a giant change this season — with solely the highest 70 golfers qualifying for the end-of-season playoff, down from 125.
The robust modifications resulted in some big-name casualties this 12 months with Aussie Adam Scott and US celebrity Justin Thomas amongst these to narrowly miss out.
This week’s St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee, is the primary occasion of the playoffs.
From there, the highest 50 within the up to date FedEx Cup standings will get a begin on the BMW Championship Olympia Fields Nation Membership exterior Chicago.
Solely the highest 30 within the standings after that occasion will qualify for the ultimate occasion of the season, the Tour Championship — the place the winner takes the $US18 million ($A27m) FedEx Cup first prize.
The event makes use of a handicap system with FedEx Cup factors standings figuring out what rating golfers begin on — with these in the direction of the highest getting an enormous headstart on those that solely simply qualify.
Tour Championship handicap system primarily based on FedEx Cup factors
1-seed: (10 underneath)
2-seed: (8 underneath)
3-seed: (7 underneath)
4-seed: (6 underneath)
5-seed: (5 underneath)
Seeds 6-10: (4 underneath)
Seeds 11-15: (3 underneath)
Seeds 16-20: (2 underneath)
Seeds 21-25: (1 underneath)
Seeds 26-30: (par)
THE STANDINGS (prime 10)
1: Jon Rahm (3,320 factors)
2: Scottie Scheffler (3,146)
3: Rory McIlroy (2,304)
4: Max Homa (2,128)
5: Wyndham Clark (1944)
6: Brian Harman (1,827)
7: Viktor Hovland (1,795)
8: Keegan Bradley (1,774)
9: Rickie Fowler (1,732)
10: Tony Finau (1,655)
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
Money, lot’s of it, but in addition much more in relation to subsequent season.
The 70 gamers who make the Wyndham Championship are assured of retaining top-125 standing for the next season. That standing makes them exempt for all Full-Subject Occasions and provides them a spot the distinguished Gamers Championship subsequent 12 months.
Making the 50-man discipline on the BMW provides gamers assured entry to the entire newly-announced ‘signature’ occasions for 2024. Every ‘Signature Occasion’ will characteristic roughly 70-80 of the tour’s prime gamers competing for elevated purses and elevated FedExCup factors.
Qualifying for the Tour Championship carries a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour, plus a shot at some whopping bonus prizemoney — even ending final will get you greater than $A700,000. See the complete breakdown of the format and incentives right here.
Approximate Tour Championship prizemoney in $AUS
1. $26,180,000
2. $9,450,000
3. $7,270,000
4. $5,820,000
5. $4,360,000
6. $3,640,000
7. $2,910,000
8. $2,180,000
9. $1,820,000
10. $1,450,000
11. $1,382,000
12. $1,309,000
13. $1,236,333
14. $1,163,600
15. $1,105,430
16. $1,047,250
17. $1,018,160
18. $989,070
19. $959,980
20. $930,890
21. $901,800
22. $872,710
23. $843,620
24. $821,800
25. $800,000
26. $785,440
27. $770,900
28. $756,350
29. $741,800
30. $727,250
PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE
FedEx St. Jude Championship
Dates: Aug. 10-13
Course: TPC Southwind, Memphis
BMW Championship
Dates: Aug. 17-20
Course: Wilmington, Del.Wilmington Nation Membership, Olympia Fields, Sick.
Tour Championship
Dates: Aug 24-27
Course: East Lake Golf Course, Atlanta
ST JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP RD 1 TEE TIMES (ALL TIMES AEST)
10:50 p.m. – Thomas Detry, Taylor Montgomery, Davis Riley
11:02 p.m. – Tom Hoge, Mackenzie Hughes, Cameron Younger
11:14 p.m. – Patrick Rodgers, Adam Hadwin, J.T. Poston
11:26 p.m. – Sahith Theegala, Lee Hodges, Matt Fitzpatrick
11:38 p m. – Taylor Moore, Tommy Fleetwood, Denny McCarthy
11:50 p.m. – Collin Morikawa, Kurt Kitayama, Adam Schenk
12:02 a.m. – Patrick Cantlay, Tom Kim, Sepp Straka
12:14 a.m. – Viktor Hovland, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler
12:26 a.m. – Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy
12:38 a.m. – Brandon Wu, Hayden Buckley, Hideki Matsuyama
12:50 a.m. – Stephan Jaeger, Cam Davis, Sam Ryder
1:02 a.m. – Matt NeSmith, Vincent Norrman
1:20 a.m. – Lucas Glover, Nick Hardy, Alex Smalley
1:32 a.m. – Eric Cole, Andrew Putnam, Harris English
1:44 a.m. – Byeong Hun An, Adam Svensson, Brendon Todd
1:56 a.m. – Jordan Spieth, Sungjae Im, Justin Rose
2:08 a.m. – Chris Kirk, Seamus Energy, Corey Conners
2:20 a.m. – Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Emiliano Grillo
2:32 a.m. – Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton, Si Woo Kim
2:44 a.m. – Tony Finau, Jason Day, Nick Taylor
2:56 a.m. – Max Homa, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman
3:08 a.m. – Keith Mitchell, Mark Hubbard, Matt Kuchar
3:20 a.m. – Sam Stevens, Aaron Rai, Beau Hossler
3:32 a.m. – J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin