On one hand, the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs feel a bit beside the point this year. The Tour’s main priority these days is to avoid a death spiral at the hands of LIV Golf, the Saudi-funded upstart tour that has poached a handful of notable players and will probably take more in the coming months. Those players are now banned from the PGA Tour. Some of them are suing in response and, in a few cases, even angling for a restraining order to force the tour to let them play. We’ll see where it all leads, but the backdrop of this three-event tournament to end the tour’s season could hardly be grimmer.
On the other hand, the current state of the golf world and the time of the year mean that high-stakes tour golf is sure to be exciting. It’s not clear what kind of state the PGA Tour will be in at this time next year, but a good guess is that even more of its players will be playing elsewhere. That means this year’s tournament might be the least diluted FedEx Cup for the foreseeable future. Despite the LIV Golf controversy, most of the best men’s players in the world will be competing to top the PGA Tour over the next few weeks. So let’s enjoy it.
The playoffs feature three tournaments. The first is the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, starting Aug. 11 in Memphis, TN. Then comes the BMW Championship in Wilmington, DE, and then the Tour Championship in Atlanta, GA. The top 125 players in the standings are eligible for the opening tournament, followed by the top 70 for the BMW and the top 30 for the Tour Championship, where players higher up the standings get to start with more strokes shaved off their scores for the week.
Here are six players to watch over the next three weekends, either because they’re in a good position to win the Cup or because they’re just interesting.
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