Five to track on FedExCup Playoffs bubble
Often lost from the star-driven coverage in today’s game is the constant shuffling and struggle for grinders and past winners alike trying to maintain their status on the PGA Tour.
It’s a year-long process that grows more urgent by the week as the summer comes to an end, and it always leads to the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina.
This week represents last call for players fighting to finish the season inside the top 125 in the FedExCup standings. It’s a one-way ticket to the playoffs but, more important for some, ensures another year of big-league status.
Players who finish between 126-200 get an automatic spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals (formerly the Web.com Tour), a four-tournament series in which the top 25 money-makers regain their card. There are other options such as exemptions for past winners, but the bottom line is this – finish in the top 125 and you won’t have to worry about anything for another calendar year.
Canada’s Nick Taylor, for example, finished tied for eighth in the 2018 Wyndham and moved from 129th to 119th in the standings. Harris English was T-11 to move from 132nd to 124th, while Martin Piller missed the cut and dropped from 124th to 126th.
Here are five players on the bubble to watch at the Wyndham Championship.
Aaron Wise
FedEx Cup rank: 120
Only four players dropped more than five spots in the standings in last year’s Wyndham Championship, so Wise is likely safe. But it’s surprising to see him in this position after the 2016 individual NCAA champion won the Byron Nelson and finished T-15 in the Tour Championship en route to 2018 Rookie of the Year honors. He hasn’t played nearly as many events in his sophomore season and hasn’t turned in a top-10 finish since the Mayakoba Golf Classic last November.
Austin Cook
FedEx Cup rank: 126
Cook did a lot for himself with a T-4 finish two weeks ago in the Barbasol Championship, but he’s still firmly in the danger zone at Sedgefield. That was his first top-10 since the Valspar Championship in March, and he lost major ground by missing four consecutive cuts in June and July.
Patton Kizzire
FedEx Cup rank: 129
Kizzire, 33, was a late bloomer and didn’t arrive on Tour until 2016. He has stayed there ever since and earned a three-year exemption with two wins last season. But he has to figure something out this week if he hopes to make it to New Jersey for the first playoff event. Kizzire, who comes across as one of the best hangs on Tour, had a decent start to the season before falling off the face of the earth with eight missed cuts in his last nine starts. Last chance to get the game sorted out this season.
Daniel Berger
FedEx Cup rank: 131
Berger was considered one of the top young Americans not long ago, but he never really got it going this season after missing all of the fall schedule in 2018 because of an injury. Berger has not won since successfully defending his St. Jude Invitational title in 2017 for a second career Tour win. He’s only 26 and the talent is still readily apparent, but the former U.S. Presidents Cup team member has fallen all the way from No. 18 in the world to No. 113 over the past two years.
Bronson Burgoon
FedEx Cup rank: 133 Burgoon first popped up on the radar for many in last year’s Quicken Loans National, where he shot 67 while paired with Tiger Woods in the final round and finished T-6. He kept that rolling with a runner-up in the John Deere Classic in July 2018, but he’s in danger of losing status this year with no Tour wins to fall back on. He moved up the line with a solo fifth in last weekend’s Barracuda Championship but hasn’t seriously contended since a T-2 in the CIMB Classic in October. Needs to get something going this week in order to avoid the Korn Ferry finals.