It’s the final countdown.
This week’s Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., marks the end of the PGA Tour’s regular season.
The top 70 in the FedExCup standings will advance to next week’s playoff opener, the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tenn. For those on the outside, their season will be over. And many players on both sides of the bubble are teeing it up this week, looking to clinch their spot in the postseason.
Let’s take a look at a few notables.
Rickie Fowler
Current FedExCup standing: 61st
Highlights: A T7 at the Memorial that got him into the British Open, where he finished T14.
Lowlights: Only one top 20 in his first nine starts of the year.
Outlook: Playing better since a T15 at the Truist Championship in May, making the cut at the Wyndham Championship this week should punch his ticket to the playoff opener. However, that’s not a guarantee with two missed cuts in three starts at Sedgefield CC, although the 36-year-old placed T22 there in 2016.
Erik Van Rooyen
Current FedExCup standing: 64th
Highlights: Runner-up at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, although eight strokes behind Scottie Scheffler, and the Barracuda Championship two weeks ago.
Lowlights: More missed cuts (11) than cuts made (10).
Outlook: The 35-year-old South African is a bit of an all-or-nothing player. With two runner-ups and a T9 he’s on the inside for the playoffs, but in his 10 made cuts, his best outside those three top 10s is a T30 at the Sony Open. To ensure a tee time next week, he needs to be more accurate off the tee, which is vital to success at Sedgefield. He’s hitting 59% of his fairways this season, ranked 96th on Tour.
Emiliano Grillo
Current FedExCup standing: 66th
Highlights: Lost John Deere Classic playoff, T19 at U.S. Open.
Lowlights: Started season slowly with two missed cuts and a withdrawal and didn’t record a top 30 until the Valspar Championship in late March.
Outlook: A T20 like he posted at the 3M Open last week should be enough for a postseason berth. However, in his two starts at the Wyndham (2017, 2024), he has missed the cut and finished T59.
Matti Schmid
Current FedExCup standing: 70th
Highlights: Runner-up at Colonial, where he chipped in from 28 feet on the final hole.
Lowlights: Ten missed cuts in 21 starts and withdrawing from the Travelers Championship, a no-cut event, with an illness.
Outlook: Despite currently being the last man in, the 27-year-old German will need a solid finish in Greensboro, as several players behind him in the standings are likely to move up. And since his close call at Colonial, his results are: MC-MC-WD-T17-69-T61. Playing the fourth week in a row, he heads to the Wyndham, where he finished T64 and T22 in 2024 and ‘23. He’s 14th in driving distance on Tour this season, but 142nd in driving accuracy. He might want to trade some length for fairways this week.
Nicolai Højgaard
Current FedExCup standing: 71st
Highlights: Eighth at the Mexico Open, runner-up at the Zurich Classic, T4 at the Scottish Open.
Lowlights: Four straight missed cuts between the Players Championship and the Masters.
Minimum finish needed: Solo 63rd
Outlook: Part of the reason the 24-year-old Dane is on the outside looking in can be attributed to the fact he’s only made 14 starts this season, in which he has six top 25s and nine made cuts. Now, he seems to be in good form coming off a T4 in Scotland and a T14 at the British Open. He missed the cut last year at the Wyndham, but finished T22 in ‘23. If he plays like he did two years ago, he’ll secure a tee time next week in Memphis.
Adam Scott
Current FedExCup standing: 85th
Highlights: T12 at the U.S. Open.
Lowlights: The U.S. Open was his best result of the year and one of four top 20s all season. Plus, missed cuts in the Masters and British Open.
Minimum finish needed: Two-way T3
Outlook: The former world No. 1 played in every signature event this year and added only three regular tournaments to his schedule (Valspar, Scottish Open, 3M Open). Last year, he made the Tour championship, but in 2023 he finished T7 at the Wyndham and still missed the playoffs by two spots. He also fell in a five-way playoff at Sedgefield in 2021, and suffering that same fate four years later would actually be good for his postseason hopes.
Tom Kim
Current FedExCup standing: 89th
Highlights: T7 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Lowlights: That being is only top 10 of the season in 22 starts.
Minimum finish needed: Solo third
Outlook: The 23-year-old Korean is back to where it all started. Three years ago, he won the Wyndham at 20 years old with a final-round 61 and he was dubbed golf’s next big thing. It’s been up-and-down since then. He missed his Wyndham title defense due to injury and last year was safely in the playoffs and didn’t need to play in Greensboro. Now, it’ll take his best finish by far this year to extend his season.
Max Homa
Current FedExCup standing: 106th
Highlights: T5 John Deere Classic, T12 at the Masters
Lowlights: Five straight missed cuts between the WM Phoenix Open and Valero Texas Open.
Minimum finish needed: Two-way T2
This article was originally published on www.si.com as FedEx Cup Playoffs Bubble Watch: Who Needs a Big Week at Wyndham Championship.
