2022 FedEx Cup Playoffs: PGA Tour Postseason Ladders, Schedule, Golf Format, Purse, Prize Money

Following the conclusion of a regular season of events and four great Major championships, the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs are here. Since the start of the FedEx Cup Playoffs in 2007, professional golf has never felt so weak, and probably never been so up in the air.

Now, as the FedEx Cup Playoffs begin, the headlines will actually be coming from a Northern California courtroom, not the golf course PGA Tour responded to a lawsuit by 11 LIV golfers. Three of those golfers — Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, and Matt Jones) — are attempting to play in this year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs on an injunction that will be issued until celebrations begin in Memphis at the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Thursday.

It’s grueling exercise for those simply focusing on the golf, but it also means this year’s postseason has a chance of becoming one of the most memorable — and perhaps most meaningful — three-week stretches in its short history. While it’s unlikely that a LIV golfer will compete for the FedEx Cup — and even less likely — to win it, a statement can be made by the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas or Jordan Spieth, all of whom have maintained their steadfast commitment to the PGA Tour both short and long term.

With that in mind, let’s break down the format of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, what to expect, and how everything will play out over the next few weeks as the world’s best take one final step toward the finals.

event schedule

The top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings collected throughout the year play in this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. That number could potentially be 128 depending on how a judge decides in the Gooch, Swafford and Jones case. Rickie Fowler was the last golfer to rank 125, and it’s unlikely the PGA Tour would penalize ranks 123-125 if Jones, Gooch and Swafford are conceded spots. The natural play here would be for the tour to allow 128 golfers at TPC Southwind in the first round instead of the usual 125.

Although all three events are 72-hole stroke play tournaments, the fields are gradually shrinking as we focus on a $15M Tour Championship winner. The metrics also change during the playoffs as everything is quadrupled. In the final event of the regular season, Tom Kim received 500 FedEx Cup points for winning the Wyndham Championship. The winner of the first two FedEx Cup Playoffs will receive 2,000. This applies to every place on the leaderboard – 300 for second place becomes 1,200 and so on. Only six golfers – Scottie Scheffler, Cam Smith, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy – surpassed the 2,000 point total during the tournament entire regular season, which means the FedEx Cup standings could shift quite a bit over the next few weeks. Winners will be rewarded disproportionately, and rightly so, considering this is the postseason.

This has a number of implications. If Mark Hubbard, currently ranked 83rd in the FedEx Cup standings, wins Memphis this weekend, he would rocket to second place with 2,504 FedEx Cup points – his current 504 plus 2,000 for the win. Others in the top 20 could stay ahead of him with second place in the tournament (and 1,200 points), but this shows the kind of leap a bottom-of-the-stack player can make over the next two weeks.

The first two winners will sit nicely at the Tour Championship. In the first year of this format, Patrick Reed won The Northern Trust and started fourth in the Tour Championship. Justin Thomas won the second playoff event and started first in the tour championship. As a sophomore, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm won the first two events and started first and second in the Tour Championship. The same happened with Tony Finau and Patrick Cantlay in 2021. In the next two weeks until the grand finale there is still a lot of movement to be had.

The top 70 in the FedEx Cup classification according to The Northern Trust move into the BMW Championship. Then the top 30 move on to the Tour Championship thereafter.

Tour championship format

It’s important to finish in the top 5 or top 10 of the FedEx Cup standings in the Tour Championship because that’s how the points distribution is spread. Whoever finishes first overall after the BMW Championship will start the Tour Championship at 10 under and from then on the event will be played under normal scoring conditions. The second starts at 8 under and so on (see full numbers below). With so much money at stake, those margins become more important than even a normal week. The eventual winners of the last three FedEx Cups have started 1st, 5th and 1st in the Tour Championship.

• 1st: Starts Tour Championship at -10
• 2nd: -8th
• 3rd: -7th
• 4th: -6th
• 5th: -5th
• 6th-10th: -4th
• 11th-15th: -3rd
• 16th-20th: -2nd
• 21st-25th: -1st
• 26-30: E

prize money

The numbers are frightening. Tour Championship winner receives $18 million. If you make it to the Tour Championship, you’re guaranteed $500,000. Anyone who makes it to the BMW Championship will be guaranteed a minimum of $175,000. Heck, anyone who finishes in the top 125 will be guaranteed at least $120,000. All of this is on top of what the first two tournaments themselves pay out. When you add it all up, FedEx is handing out $75 million in bonus funds to the world’s top players.

• 1st: $18 million
• 2nd place: $6.5 million
• 3rd: 5 million dollars
• 4th: $4 million
• 5th: $3 million
• 6th place: $2.5 million
• 7th: $2 million
• 8th: $1.5 million
• 9th: $1.25 million
• 10. 1 million dollars

favourites

At the top of the top 10, there are more breakups at the FedEx St. Jude Championship than at the first playoff event a year ago. Scheffler owned the season, and that’s reflected in the FedEx Cup points. Still, he can be caught by the Tour championship if he has two mediocre performances in the first two events. However, one of the top 10 could secure first place and a 10-under start for the Tour championship at East Lake.

Scheffler is easy to love because his lead is so big and it will be relatively easy for him to start under 10 in East Lake, which gives such a huge advantage. The three golfers who started 10 under have finished third, first and first. Rory McIlroy has made more money ($32 million) than any golfer in FedEx Cup history and is aiming to become the first golfer to win three FedEx Cups. The numbers point to more success for McIlroy; He has been the best player in the world since June 1st and only Finau and Schauffele have come this close. You could do worse than throw those three names at Scheffler and take those as your final top 4 in East Lake.