GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA | Officially, the FedEx Cup playoffs begin next week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship but the Wyndham Championship this week has its own playoff feel.
It’s the regular-season finale, meaning the magic number at Sedgefield Country Club is 70, the cutoff on the points list to qualify for the playoffs.
Beyond that, there is the chase to be inside the top 50 after the first playoff event not only to ensure a spot in the second, the BMW Championship, but to assure eligibility in the tour’s signature events next year. Jordan Spieth is playing the Wyndham, sitting at No. 50 this week. And the top 30 following BMW will qualify for the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
Though the fall series events will be included, players hovering at the lower end of the top 100 are also in need of assuring their full playing privileges for next year.
This week also finalizes the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 with its $40-million payout. Scottie Scheffler long ago clinched the top spot but Ben Griffin sits at seventh and Keegan Bradley is at 10th and both are in the field, intent on maintaining their places which come with a minimum $2 million bonus.
There’s also a thing called the Ryder Cup on the horizon and Griffin, Lucas Glover, Spieth and Bradley, the captain himself, are in serious contention to be among the six at-large picks for the September matches.
Let’s start with the top 70, which has the most urgency. Land a spot there and players are assured of bonus money. Miss out and the playoffs go on without those players, many of whom will be monitoring the top 100 line once the fall events begin.
Every player ranked 60th to 80th is in the field at the Wyndham Championship with Matti Schmid sitting at No. 70. Patrick Rodgers (No. 68) and Ben An (No. 69) are inside the line but need a solid week to maintain their positions.
Behind Schmid are Nicolai Højgaard, Keith Mitchell, Chris Kirk, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Gary Woodland, in that order.
“I remember missing the cut and the last thing you want to do as a golfer is kind of not be in control of your destiny.” – Ben Griffin
Adam Scott sits at No. 85 and Tom Kim is at No. 89 and both would have to rely on sponsor exemptions to get into the signature events next year if they don’t make a big move the next two weeks.
Then there’s the case of Joel Dahmen, who was 99th in points last week until he triple-bogeyed the 72nd hole at the 3M Championship to fall to 101st. Every little bit matters this time of year.
It’s that end-of-the-line urgency that has come to define the Wyndham Championship and it sometimes comes down to the final holes on the final day before the line is permanently drawn.
Griffin knows all about it.
Sitting seventh in the points race with two wins this year, Griffin has locked himself into everything that matters except the Ryder Cup. Two years ago, however, he was sitting on his couch at home after missing the Wyndham cut, wondering if Justin Thomas was going to steal the final spot from him on Sunday at Sedgefield.
“I remember missing the cut and the last thing you want to do as a golfer is kind of not be in control of your destiny. I remember sitting on the couch with my fiancée – well, she was my girlfriend at the time … I remember sitting there with her and my dad, my mom,” Griffin said.
“I think my dad had way too much anxiety, he probably like left the room. I remember watching that chip because we kind of knew if he chipped it in, Justin, he was going to Memphis and I wasn’t. He hit the flagstick and it barely missed and it was just nuts … [my] heart rate was just like super high just watching it.”
The stress, Griffin said, begins long before Sunday afternoon at the Wyndham Championship for players on the bubble.
“You can’t get it out of your mind. If you [can], you’re a god. I mean, props to you for your mental edge,” Griffin said.
“Everyone has those kinds of thoughts in the back of their head. It’s easy to kind of get rid of them if you’re playing really good golf at least kind of those first couple rounds and you’re sitting in a position where you don’t really have to think about it too much. …
“For the guys this week that are on the bubble, you’ve just got to have the most focus ever and just try to lock in and try not to get distracted by the external things.”
After regaining his card via the Korn Ferry Tour last year, (Ryan) Gerard is one of the PGA Tour’s emerging stars, having picked up his first tour victory two weeks ago at the Barracuda Championship.
There is a familiar mantra among players – if you play well, everything else tends to take care of itself – and it rings especially true this week.
Ryan Gerard played the Wyndham Championship two years ago and missed the cut, one of 10 he missed in 22 starts, costing him his tour card.
After regaining his card via the Korn Ferry Tour last year, Gerard is one of the PGA Tour’s emerging stars, having picked up his first tour victory two weeks ago at the Barracuda Championship.
Beyond the two-year exemption that comes with winning, it pushed Gerard to 29th in the FedEx Cup race, positioning him to further enrich his bank account and also be exempted into three of the four majors next year. Staying inside the top 30 presents a different kind of stress, one with a softer landing.
“Coming off the Korn Ferry Tour from last year, I knew I wasn’t going to have a ton of starts and you’ve got to play your way into more opportunities,” Gerard said.
“As the season’s progressed, I’ve played my way into those opportunities and the goalposts have kind of shifted from keeping your card to making the playoffs to top-50 signature events to now I think getting to East Lake would be an amazing goal.”