The PGA Tour’s profitable FedEx Cup playoffs start on Thursday night time AEST on the St. Jude Championship with large ramifications on the road for the 4 Australians within the area, in addition to world primary Scottie Scheffler.
The highest 70 golfers within the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings will tee it up at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee for the 72-hole, no-cut occasion which is the primary event of the Tour’s three-week season finale.
Solely the highest 50 gamers can progress to subsequent week’s BMW Championship — the place will probably be whittled right down to the highest 30 for the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Membership in Atlanta — and the sector will face a stern check to reap the rewards on supply which embody a share of the US$100 million (A$151m) FedEx Cup Playoffs prize pool.
GOLF’S $150M PLAYOFFS RACE EXPLAINED AS SCOTT MAKES 18-YEAR PGA TOUR HISTORY
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TPC Southwind’s stadium-style course has produced wacky and wild finishes through the years however it’s much more well-known for its water.
The 6,298 balls hit within the quite a few lakes, streams and ponds at TPC Southwind since ShotLink debuted in 2003 is almost 1000 greater than TPC Sawgrass — the host of the Gamers Championship which boasts an analogous structure.
Adam Scott dubbed it one of many “most underrated programs on Tour” and the course will put Scott’s and his fellow Australians’ Presidents Cup ambitions to the check.
WHAT PRESIDENTS CUP RAMMIFICATIONS ARE ON THE LINE?
Australia is on observe to make-up one-third of the Worldwide Crew for subsequent month’s Presidents Cup at The Royal Montreal Golf Membership in Canada however Jason Day, Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee and Cam Davis will want sturdy showings within the coming weeks to make sure that occurs.
The highest six within the Worldwide Crew rankings on the conclusion of subsequent week’s BMW Championships will robotically be on the staff and the remaining six locations will likely be within the arms of staff captain Mike Weir of Canada.
Former world quantity ones Day (fourth) and Scott (fifth) presently sit contained in the top-six – which is predicated on The Official World Golf Rating factors since September 12, 2022 – whereas Lee (eighth) and Davis (ninth) are presently on the whim of Weir.
Davis made his debut for the Worldwide Crew as a captain’s choose two years in the past however Lee is gunning for a maiden look after changing into an Olympian in Paris earlier this month.
Davis and Lee will want a large end to the PGA Tour season to take their destiny out of Weir’s arms with an automated choice.
Nonetheless, it will be a shock if the pair weren’t chosen as captain’s picks ought to they fall exterior the top-six.
Sydneysider Davis has eight prime 30 finishes on the PGA Tour in 2024 together with his triumph on the Rocket Mortgage Basic for a second time in June.
That win got here off the again of working with a hypnotherapist to mentally stroll by way of the conditions he wanted to be higher in on track and to beat a dip in kind after ending T12 at The Masters.
Lee was runner-up on the identical occasion and likewise completed in a tie for second place on the Cognizant Basic in The Palm Seashores in March.
The West Australian confirmed the expertise that has made him a family identify in recent times on the Olympic Video games the place he rectified a primary spherical 76 with rounds of 65, 68 and 68 at Le Golf Nationwide.
Lee can be at dwelling on the Presidents Cup stage as he already boasts eight prime 30 finishes in majors – three of which got here this yr with T21, T22 and T26 outcomes on the US Open, The Masters and the US PGA Championship respectively.
Olympic teammate Day completed tied ninth in Paris and he has loved one other fruitful yr in his profession resurgence with 4 prime 10 finishes on the PGA Tour.
The world quantity 25’s greatest outcome got here with a tie for fourth on the Wells Fargo Championship in Could, whereas final month he completed T13 at The Open Championship.
Golfer remarkably packs up, HOLDS UP PGA | 00:47
WHERE ARE THE AUSSIES PLACED?
Day is best-placed of the Australians in twenty sixth place as Davis, Scott and Lee all require a number of low-rounds to make it to the Tour Championship.
There may be the best jeopardy this week for 26-year-old Lee who sits in 62nd and desires at the very least to complete in a two-way tie for seventeenth at TPC Southwind to leap into the ultimate 50, like Davis did final yr with a T6 outcome that catapulted him from 62nd to forty fifth.
The highest 50 are assured a begin in all eight of the PGA Tour’s Signature Occasions in 2025, whereas the highest 30 at season’s finish qualify for subsequent yr’s Masters and are more likely to have secured a berth within the US Open and The Open Championship.
Davis, forty fourth, and Scott, forty sixth, are a bit too shut for consolation to being knocked out and the 2013 Masters champion — who sits on the PGA Tour’s Coverage Board as a Participant Director — is keen to not depend on sponsor’s exemptions for the Signature Occasions like he did at occasions this yr.
“I believe I had 5 of eight possibly,” Scott stated. “Earlier within the yr it appeared to get a little bit of beat-up within the media and a few guys had been sad, I suppose, that it appeared just like the board members had been getting the exemptions.
“However I simply have the remark that it’s as much as the event. They’re exemptions for the event. They’ll invite who they like.
“I used to be not sad after I didn’t get the exemptions both. That’s the place you’re in.”
Scott has made the choice to vary from the irons that served him properly in Scotland final month the place he got here runner-up on the Genesis Scottish Open earlier than ending T10 at The Open Championship.
The 44-year-old has switched his decrease bounce Miura AS-1 irons for a combined set of Miura KM-700 irons (6-9) and Miura 302 CB irons (4-5) to go along with a Srixon ZX Mk II driving iron to higher deal with the Zoysia grass on the tees and fairways, and Bermuda grass within the tough, this week.
WILL SCHEFFLER OVERCOME HIS KRYPTONITE?
The world primary is having fun with a outstanding yr with six PGA Tour wins together with at The Masters and The Gamers Championship in addition to an Olympic gold medal.
However the FedEx Cup has proved to be Scheffler’s kryptonite.
In six begins at TPC Southwind he has not registered a top-ten end, whereas the final two years he has entered the Tour Championship in first place on the standings however has not left East Lake with the FedEx Cup.
The Tour Championship provides gamers a head begin over their area primarily based on their FedEx Cup rating — first place begins at 10-under par — and Scheffler — who’s as soon as once more in first place with almost a 2,000 level lead over second-place Xander Schauffele and greater than double the factors of third-place Rory McIlroy — has slammed the format.
“I believe it’s foolish,” Scheffler stated. “You’ll be able to’t name it a season-long race and have it come down to at least one event.
“Hypothetically we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the best way it did at The Gamers, I end thirtieth within the FedExCup as a result of I needed to withdraw from the final event? Is that basically the season-long race? No. It’s what it’s.
“It’s a enjoyable event. I don’t actually take into account it the season-long race like I believe the best way it’s known as. However you’ve received to determine a solution to strike a stability between it being TV product and it nonetheless being a season-long race.
“Proper now, I don’t know precisely how the scores are or something like that, however I do know for a reality you’ll be able to’t actually fairly name it the season-long race when it comes down to at least one stroke play event on the identical golf course annually.”
Schauffele stands as Scheffler’s greatest competitor for the general crown as he has gained two main championships this yr – The Open and the PGA Championship.
However McIlroy can’t be counted out.
Regardless of the Northern Irishman’s disappointments on the majors in recent times, he has risen to the event on the FedEx Cup profitable 3 times – 2016, 2019 and 2022.
McIlroy has triumphed on the Tour Championship greater than anybody else – Tiger Woods is the one different a number of winner – and in distinction to Scheffler, he sung the praises of the format at his pre-tournament press convention.
“I like this format as a result of if it wasn’t this format, then none of us would have an opportunity towards Scottie as a result of he’s up to now forward. So I actually like this format,” McIlroy stated.
“Is it the fairest reflection of who’s been the most effective participant of the yr? In all probability not. However I believe at this level we’re not in for completely truthful, we’re in for leisure and for making an attempt to placed on the most effective product we presumably can.
“Yeah, the primary yr that it was the beginning strokes at TOUR Championship in 2019, I used to be capable of win that one, after which in ‘22 once more. I like this format. It form of feels prefer it’s a little bit of a reset after the common season. Everybody just isn’t fairly on a degree enjoying area, nevertheless it feels a bit extra like that.”
AUSSIE ROUND ONE TEE TIMES
Thursday night time/Friday morning
10.50pm AEST – Cam Davis, Tom Kim
12.55am AEST – Min Woo Lee, Peter Malnati
2am AEST – Adam Scott, Denny McCarthy
2.40am AEST – Jason Day, Aaron Rai