Day eyes FedEx conquest

JASON Day is primed to launch his bid to become Australia’s first FedEx Cup champion, but several of his countrymen have been relegated to the cut-throat Web.com Tour finals.

Former world No.1 Day joins Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith and Adam Scott in advancing to the US PGA Tour’s $US67 million playoffs series, after the regular season concluded at the Wyndham Championship on Sunday.

Day has been a perennial contender in the post-season but has fallen short of the $US10 million bonus for the leading points scorer following the Tour Championship.

Ranked sixth in the standings courtesy of two US Tour wins this year, Day’s focus will be pushing into the top-five seeds who automatically take out the FedEx Cup with a Tour Championship victory.

His quest starts at this week’s Northern Trust tournament in New Jersey, which Day won during his sensational 2015 season.

The playoffs begin with the top-125 FedEx finishers qualifying for the Northern Trust, while retaining their playing privileges for next season.

The fields reduce for another two events before the top 30 advance to the Tour Championship finale in Georgia.

Needing a top-10 result at Wyndham to sneak inside the 125, Aaron Baddeley tied 24th and finished at 132nd on the FedEx standings. But the fourtime US Tour winner has a number of options to battle his way back to the top flight.

Finishing within the 125-150 bracket affords Baddeley conditional status on the US Tour in 2019 and he will likely receive 12-15 starts.

Fellow Australian Matt Jones missed out on that category by a cruel two FedEx points, dropping to 151st.

But Baddeley and Jones will join Cameron Percy (168) and Stuart Appleby (197) in the secondary Web.com finals, where they can play their way back to the main circuit.