Playoffs on line
Many golfers’ FedExCup hopes ride on their showings in the Wyndham Championship,
“The key is to get in the Playoffs. Once you get in, speaking from experience, anything can happen. Hopefully I’ll get in again and make another run.” Morgan Hoffman
Story lines are plentiful this week at the Wyndham Championship.
How will Jimmy Walker play in his first start since winning his first major in the PGA Championship? What will Jim Furyk shoot in his first round since becoming the first to shoot 58 on the PGA Tour? How will the Olympians, including Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed, fare after completing play Sunday in Rio de Janeiro in the Summer Games?
Then there are the tales of those fighting for their jobs for next year at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.
With the Wyndham being the last event of the regular season, only players in the top 125 in the FedExCup standings move on to the lucrative FedExCup Playoffs, which start next week. As well, those in the top 125 retain their PGA Tour cards for next season. With what’s at stake, only a dozen players ranked Nos. 90-190 are not in the field.
For those who are playing, it will be a good walk spoiled, a nervous, stressed trip around Sedgefield that will determine their immediate future.
“Qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs is always on your mind, but you have to do your best to not think about it when you are out on the course,” Morgan Hoffmann said. “I’ll do my best this week to just focus on my routine, and hopefully I’ll have another good week.”
His task at hand isn’t new to Hoffmann. He’s familiar with being outside the cut line in the FedExCup standings. In 2013-14, he became the first player in the history of the FedExCup Playoffs to play his way from outside the cut line in each of the first three Playoff events.
He’s outside the cut line again at No. 131.
But Hoffmann, 27, who has qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in the last three seasons, had a huge week last weekend. He jumped 29 spots with a tie for third in the John Deere Classic.
“It was a big step in the right direction, particularly in setting myself up for a late-season run,” he said. “The key is to get in the Playoffs. Once you get in, speaking from experience, anything can happen. Hopefully I’ll get in again and make another run.
“I’ve been pretty stubborn the last year or so trying to do stuff on my own, but I called my old coach back last week and had him out there with me. It was good to get back on a plan and then see that plan pay dividends.”
Scott Stallings’ two-year exemption could end at the end of the week, but the three-time PGA Tour winner isn’t concentrating on that. He is No. 126 in the standings and has had a rough last 12 months. He served a three-month suspension handed out by the PGA Tour after he told the organization he took a banned supplement prescribed by his doctor for chronic fatigue. He also had two sinus surgeries.
While his health and family are his priority, Stallings’ focus on the golf course remains the same.
“You’re not showing up at a golf tournament just to make a cut, you’re showing up looking for a chance to win,” he said. “My position in the FedExCup does not change that. It doesn’t change the way I’m going to play, and it doesn’t change the way I’m going to prepare. I’ve just got to go out there this week and take care of business, and everything else will take care of itself.
“I’m ready to put last year behind me. It was kind of a mess. To be able to come back and be a part of somewhere that I feel like I belong would mean a lot to me.”