The slate was clean when the PGA Tour opened the 2026 season in Honolulu with the Sony Open: Everyone started at zero on the FedEx Cup points standings. Then Chris Gotterup won to earn 500 points, Billy Horschel finished 74th to get 2.6 points, and the race was on. The regular season concluded last week at the Wyndham Championship, with Michael Brennan winning to move into the top 70 and qualify for the FedEx St. Jude Classic, which begins on Aug. 13 at the TPC Southwind in Memphis. Scottie Scheffler leads the field with 4,123 points, easily topping second-place Matt Fitzpatrick (3,329) and third-place Cameron Young (3,161).
PGA Tour rookie Jackson Koivun, who won three weeks ago at the 3M Open, holds down the 70th spot. In between are the four major champions, Wyndham Clark (U.S. Open, fourth in points), Rory McIlroy (Masters, 12th in points), Ryan Fox (Open Championship, 22nd in points) and Aaron Rai (PGA, 35th in points), three-time 2026 winner Chris Gotterup (fifth) and defending FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood (ninth). But how did they get here? FedEx Cup celebrates 20th season The FedEx Cup was created in 2007 to give the PGA Tour something it had never had: a postseason. At first there four playoff events but that has been whittled down to three. The playoffs originally began the week before Labor Day but now they end before the final holiday weekend of the summer. Points are awarded based on a player's finish in a tournament and the category of that tournament, using a sliding scale based on their position. Major championships and The Players Championship winners get 750 points. Winners of the Tour's "Signature Events" earn 700. Tournaments held opposite majors or signature events award 300 points to the winner. Winners of all other events earn 500 points. Players must make a cut to earn points. How do players advance in the FedEx Cup? The top 70 after the Wyndham Championship, the 34th regular-season event, advanced to the first leg of the playoffs at the TPC Southwind this week. The winner will earn 2,000 points. The purse is $20 million, with the winner earning $3.6 million. The top 50 in points after the St. Jude Classic will advance to the BMW Championship at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis Aug. 20-23. Again, the winner gets 2,000 points. The purse is the same at the St. Jude Classic.
The top 30 in points after the BMW will then head to Atlanta for the Tour Championship. It's there that all points are wiped out and any one of the 30 players can win the FedEx Cup. The purse is $40 million, with the winner earning $10 million. Tour Championship earnings aren't counted for official money, so the money leader after the BMW Championship will be the 2026 cash champion. There are no weekend cuts in playoff events. What's at stake in the FedEx Cup? It's more than just a victory and money. The players in the field at St. Jude are guaranteed PGA Tour cards for the 2027 season. The 50 players who advance to the BMW Championship have status in the PGA Tour's lucrative signature events next year. And the 30 players who advance to the Tour Championship are in all four majors in 2027. What happens to the players below the top 70? They will be able to regroup and compete in the PGA Tour's "FedEx Cup Fall," eight tournaments that begin with the Biltmore Championship Sept. 17-20. Players will battle to stay among the top 100 on the points list through the RSM Classic Nov. 19-22 at the Sea Island Resort on St. Simons Island, Ga., and keep their Tour cards for 2027 and also secure a spot in The Players Championship. What's with the changing FedEx Cup formats? The PGA Tour dropped a controversial "starting strokes" format last year, in which the points leader began the week at 10-under par, No. 2 at 8-under and so on, until Nos. 25-30 started at even par. That's why Fleetwood, ninth on the points list, won the FedEx Cup after trailing Scottie Scheffler by 4,533 points following the BMW Championship. Before that, the Tour reset the points to give players higher on the list an advantage after the 2008 FedEx Cup, in which Vijay Singh had an insurmountable lead and could win regardless of what he shot at East Lake, provided he turned in an accurate scorecard.
Expect more changes in 2027 and beyond. PGA Tour Commissioner Brian Rolapp will hold a news conference the week of the Tour Championship with more details on the next version of the Tour schedule and some of the changes could be announced. Speculation has run to taking the playoff events to other courses and adding a match play wrinkle ― which has usually been resisted by TV and fans, because golf being golf, it's entirely possible to have a FedEx Cup final that could pit Alex Noren vs. Sam Stevens. Stay tuned, because the longer the FedEx Cup has been around, the more it's changed. Top FedEx Cup contenders They're on top of the points list for a reason: they've played the most consistent golf on the PGA Tour.
Scheffler: 16 of 17 cuts, 11 top 10s, one victory. Fitzpatrick: 17 of 18 cuts, eight top 10s, three victories. Young: 17 of 17 cuts, eight top 10s, three victories. Clark: 15 of 20 cuts, four top 10s, two victories. Gotterup: 18 of 20 cuts, five top 10s, three victories.
Five players outside the top five to watch McIlroy: Does he care? He sure looked like he did when he won the FedEx Cup a record three times in 2016, 2019 and 2022. Si Woo Kim: He hasn't won this year, but he's hung around a lot of leaderboards and had top-10s at The Memorial, Scottish Open and the Open. Sam Burns: The American version of Kim. He hasn't won, but he's sure on TV a lot on Sundays. Here is Burns' summer: T4 at The Memorial, T20 in Canada, 2nd at U.S. Open, T12 at The Travelers, third at the Open. Hideki Matsuyama: He's made all 20 cuts and is tied for 14th or better in his last five starts, with three top 10 finishes to cap the regular season. During that span, Matsuyama has shot in the 60s 17 of 20 rounds, and in his last 11. Ryan Fox: The Champion Golf of the Year is a fan favorite for his find it and hit it approach to the game. Who wouldn't love to see him go on a playoff run?
How to watch the FedEx St. Jude Classic
Golf Channel: Aug. 13-14, 2-6 p.m.; Aug. 15, 1-3 p.m.; Aug. 16, 12-2 p.m. CBS: Aug. 15, 3-6 p.m.; Aug. 16, 2-6 p.m. ESPN+: Aug. 13-14, 9-11 a.m.
Past FedEx Cup champions
2025: Tommy Fleetwood 2024: Scottie Scheffler 2023: Viktor Hovland 2022: Rory McIlroy 2021: Patrick Cantlay 2020: Dustin Johnson 2019: Rory McIlroy 2018: Justin Rose 2017: Justin Thomas 2016: Rory McIlroy 2015: Jordan Spieth 2014: Billy Horschel 2013: Henrik Stenson 2012: Brandt Snedeker 2011: Bill Haas 2010: Jim Furyk 2009: Tiger Woods 2008: Vijay Singh 2007: Tiger Woods
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FedEx Cup Playoffs begin, here's how PGA Tour champions stretch works