The PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup will change the way you watch golf and produce a true PGA TOUR champion
Not everyone gets in
Over 250 PGA TOUR professionals have played a PGA TOUR event. At the end of the Wyndham Championship, only the Top 144 in FedExCup Point Standings earn the right for a shot at the FedExCup trophy. After all, it's the Playoffs.
Not everyone stays in
Each week, the field will narrow, from 144 players to the final 30-player field at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca Cola. After The Barclays, the field narrows to 120 players: 24 get eliminated. After the Deutsche Bank Championship, 50 will go home to create a 70-player field. And another 40 end their season after the BMW Championship, forming the final 30-player field.
Watch the Bubble
As each playoff tournament progresses, keep your eye on the bubble – the 10 players who have a chance of advancing or going home at the end of the weekend. You can count on there being as much action here as there will be atop the leaderboard.
Watch for surprise comebacks and tough breaks
Every Playoff tournament has a 50,000-point purse which is worth 9,000 points to the winner (and 10,300 points to the winner of the final event – the TOUR Championship presented by Coca Cola). That's 2 times what most regular season PGA TOUR events were worth. Really, we checked. Now, any player can make up twice as much ground in the points race, or watch others go by twice as fast. Ouch.
Watch the leaderboard AND the points
While the tournament leaderboard determines how many points a player gets each weekend, it doesn't determine where he ends up in the standings. That's a combination of how he gets seeded in the initial 144 field, how he performs each week, and how the other players rise or fall around him.
Cuts hurt but eliminations are final
Cuts are those Friday annoyances that keep players out of the weekend play and purse. But eliminations will end a player's season. The Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship will still feature cuts in order to get the weekend field down to 70. But they'll also see players eliminated for good. All bets are off for the BMW Championship. All 70 players will start and complete the tournament, and over half will be eliminated before THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca Cola.
It's about who performs best in all four events
The winner of the FedExCup will be the player who has accumulated the most points throughout the Playoffs, not necessarily the winner of THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca Cola. Each week, every player needs to finish as high as possible – not simply to stay in the field for the next event, but to have a chance to win the FedExCup.
Watch the reset
Throughout the season, tournaments have been awarding points to the players. Most weeks, the winner received 4,500 points for winning (see full list below) while the rest of the field split the remainder of a 25,000-point purse. Their point totals at the end of the regular season earned them their Playoff seeding and a points reset. Top seed gets reset to 100,000 points and they fall in line from there. (see points seeding) This will effectively bunch up the standings – placing many players within reach of the FedExCup.
30 is a magic number
Staying true to tradition, the final championship – contending field will consist of the Top 30 players – those who played well throughout the season plus those who held their ground or overcame the odds during the Playoffs. But the same 30 are the ONLY players to earn their exemption for next season. Everyone else whose season ended before THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca Cola will have a chance to hang on to, or bump others out of, exemption during the Fall Series.