USA TODAY International Edition
Top five are one victory from Cup, $10M bonus
Spieth trying to become second two-time champ
Where’s the beef? At the end of the FedExCup Playoffs rainbow, there’s an appetizing prospect on the table for five guys at the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Win, and you grab hold of the FedExCup and haul in a $10 million bonus.
No matter what anyone else does, if Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman or Jon Rahm win, the silver hardware, the $10 million bonus and the $1.575 million winner’s paycheck is theirs.
Here’s a look at the top five.
First place JORDAN SPIETH
Age: 24
PGA Tour career: 126 starts, 51 top-10 finishes. Among his 11 Tour titles are the 2015 Tour Championship, 2015 Masters, 2015 U.S. Open and 2017 British Open.
Season: 22 events, 11 top-10s. Wins in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Travelers Championship and British Open.
FedExCup résumé: Finished seventh in 2013, 15th in 2014, won in 2015 and finished sixth in 2016. His lone victory in the playoffs came in the 2015 Tour Championship.
The skinny: The youngest FedExCup champion — he was 22 when he won in 2015 — can join Tiger Woods as the only two-time winner of the season-long competition. He’s had a stellar year despite a balky putter. On the strength of his iron play and driving, he added to his title haul with three wins, including his third major championship, the British Open, where he went birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-par on his final five holes to claim the Claret Jug. He’s in fine form, finishing 2-2-T7 in the first three Playoff events.
Second place JUSTIN THOMAS
Age: 24
PGA Tour career: 93 starts, 26 top-10s. Six wins, including the last two editions of the CIMB Classic and the 2017 PGA Championship.
Season: 24 events, 11 top-10s. Wins in the CIMB Classic, SBS Tournament of Champions, Sony Open, PGA Championship and Dell Technologies Championship.
FedExCup résumé: Finished 32nd in 2015 and 12th in 2016. His lone title in the Playoffs came in the 2017 Dell Technologies Championship.
The skinny: There are breakout seasons and then there is Thomas’ breakout season. With plenty of firepower, he won five Tour titles this season, including his first major in the PGA Championship and the second FedExCup Playoffs event at the Dell Technologies Championship. He shot 59 en route to winning the Sony Open, where he finished at 27-under-par 253. And he shot 9under-par 63 in the third round of the U.S. Open, the best single round in relation to par in major championship history.
Third place DUSTIN JOHNSON
Age: 33
PGA Tour career: 220 starts, 77 top-10s. Has won 16 Tour titles, including the 2016 U.S. Open and five World Golf Championships events.
Season: 19 events, eight top-10s. Wins in the Genesis Open, WBC-Mexico Championship, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and The Northern Trust.
FedExCup résumé: Finished 134th in 2008, 14th in 2009, fifth in 2010, fourth in 2011, eighth in 2012, 13th in 2013, 30th in 2014, seventh in 2015 and second in 2016. He has four wins in the Playoffs: 2010 BMW Championship, 2011 Barclays, 2016 BMW Championship and 2017 Northern Trust.
The skinny: Combining eyeopening power and a gentle touch on the greens, the world’s No. 1 player was clearly the best on the planet when he won three consecutive starts this year, including two titles in WGC events. Then a bad fall on the eve of the Masters led to a bad back, which bothered Johnson until he won the FedExCup Playoffs opener by beating Spieth in a playoff in The Northern Trust.
Fourth place MARC LEISHMAN
Age: 33
PGA Tour career: 223 starts, 32 top-10s. Won the 2012 Travelers Championship, the 2017 Arnold Palmer Invitational and the 2017 BMW Championship.
Season: 24 events, seven top-10s. Wins in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and BMW Championship.
FedExCup résumé: Finished 20th in 2009, 44th in 2010, 65th in 2011, 46th in 2012, 59th in 2013, 58th in 2014, 72nd in 2015 and 68th in 2016. He got his first Playoff win in the 2017 BMW Championship.
The skinny: The relative unknown from Down Under won’t go unnoticed anymore after his best season, which started to take hold with his second Tour title in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. After finishing third in this year’s second FedExCup Playoffs event, Leishman lit up the scoreboard in the third event, the BMW Championship, shooting a tournamentrecord, 23-under-par 261 last weekend at Conway Farms Golf Club north of Chicago.
Fifth place JON RAHM
Age: 22
PGA Tour career: 34 starts, 14 top-10s. His lone title came in the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open.
Season: 22 events, 10 top-10s.
Won the Farmers Insurance
Open.
FedExCup résumé: First appearance in The Tour Championship.
The skinny: The powerful Spaniard with a great iron game won in his 14th start as a professional and needed just 23 starts to crack the top 10 in the official world golf rankings. The former amateur standout is now No. 5 in the world and is peaking at the right time — he has finished T3, T4 and T5 in the first three FedExCup Playoffs events.
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