Spieth has work to do to make Cup
Jordan Spieth made such an impressive run through the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2013 that he was selected as a captain's pick for the Presidents Cup at age 20, the youngest American to ever compete in the matches.
That began a run of six straight U.S. teams, a streak that might come to an end.
Spieth, who hasn't won since the 2017 British Open at Royal Birkdale, is No. 29 in the U.S. standings with only two events left for the top eight players to qualify. Even if he were to win The Northern Trust, he could move no higher than No. 15.
Presidents Cup points are double the value of FedEx Cup points, and playoff events are weighted the same as World Golf Championships.
Spieth isn't alone in needing to make a move.
Phil Mickelson has played on every U.S. team dating to the 1994 Presidents Cup — the year after Spieth, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele were born. Mickelson, a captain's pick in three of the last four teams (Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup), won at Pebble Beach in February but is only No. 14 in the standings.
Of the 12 players in France last year for the Ryder Cup, only five are among the top eight — Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Thomas, Webb Simpson and Bryson DeChambeau, who is at No. 7 with a 348-point lead over U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland.
Patrick Reed, who has played on the last five U.S. teams, is at No. 17.
U.S. captain Tiger Woods will make his wild-card selections after the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, which ends on Nov. 3, so there is still time for players to state their case as one of his four captain's picks.
And what about Woods? He figured to be a lock to be the first playing captain in the Presidents Cup since Hale Irwin in the inaugural event in 1994 when Woods won the Masters, but a sparse playing schedule — just four events since the Masters, missing the cut in two of them — have left him at No. 12 with two tournaments remaining.
BUSY SCHEDULE
The PGA Tour has been promoting big events every month, starting with The Players Championship in March, ending with the FedEx Cup in August, with four majors in between. It's new for everyone, and Bryon DeChambeau has found one obstacle with so much big golf.
“I can't really find time to work on the things that I would like to test and work on,” DeChambeau said Tuesday.
DeChambeau, who won the opening two playoff events last year, is constantly looking to improve on what appears to be working, whether it's his swing or equipment or any of the science he applies to each.
He decided to skip last week to work on equipment in what he called “a little bit of a hard reset.”
“I felt like I wasn't able to progress any further than what I was able to. I felt like I was working on my golf swing hard enough and I just wasn't seeing results,” he said. “And so at that point in time, when you see that out of your game, it's like,O` K, let's go and see how we can make some clubs that can be more beneficial to me.' And so that's what we did last week.”