Garcia eyes top 20 to make FedEx play-offs

Sergio Garcia will need a top-20 finish in the Wyndham Championship to keep his streak of qualifying for the FedEx Cup play-offs alive.

Garcia is one of 13 players to have reached the play-offs every year since they began in 2007, but is currently ranked 131st in the standings after three missed cuts in his last four events.

Only the top 125 on Sunday evening will make the post-season event, with 375 points projected to be required for the opening play-off event, the Northern Trust in New Jersey. Garcia has 331 points and would receive 45 for finishing alone in 20th.

The last time the former Masters champion finished that high on the leaderboard in a strokeplay event on the PGA Tour was in the Valspar Championship in March, when he was fourth.

Garcia’s five-year exemption for his victory at Augusta National means he will at least not lose his full PGA Tour privileges if he does not reach the top 125.

That cannot be said of Shane Lowry (139th) and Graeme McDowell (143rd).

Lowry’s exemption for winning the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2015 runs out this week, as does McDowell’s for his victory in the OHL Classic in November 2015.

Both men are likely to need a topfive finish to survive, although Lowry was seventh in the same event last year and has been a different player since splitting from his long-time caddie Dermot Byrne during the Open.

Lowry’s brother Alan has taken over on the bag and the 31-year-old has followed a missed cut at Carnoustie with three straight top-15 finishes, including last week’s tie for 12th in the US PGA Championship.

“It was probably one of the most difficult things I had to do,” Lowry said of his split from Byrne. “We’re still good friends. He’s been good to me and I’ve been good to him so that’s kind of the way we left it.”

Garcia has been struggling on the PGA Tour all season.