PGA Tour Playoffs Bubble: Surprising Stars on the Brink of Missing Out
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Man, this year’s PGA Tour season. It’s getting wild. The playoffs. The FedEx Cup. It’s always a dogfight. But this year? It feels tighter. Way tighter. You’ve got the Wyndham Championship coming up, and a bunch of big names are staring down the barrel. The cut line for the first round of the playoffs? It’s only 70 guys now. Used to be 125. Yeah, they chopped it. So, if you’re not in the top 70 by the end of this week, you’re watching from home.And it’s not just about making the playoffs. After that, you’ve got the top 50 for next year’s Signature Events. Then the top 30 for the Tour Championship. Missing the playoffs doesn’t automatically mean you lose your Tour card, thank God. There’s still the fall schedule. But still. Missing the big dance? That stings. Especially for guys you expect to be there.We’re talking about the top 70 on the FedEx Cup points list. Some guys are making moves. Michael Thorbjornsen, for instance. He jumped from 69 to 38 with a win in Detroit. Good for him. Others are scrambling to punch their ticket. You’ve got 219 golfers who’ve snagged at least one point this season. Shoutout to William McGirt at No. 219, who got a measly 1.244 points for a T79 finish. Bless his heart. But plenty more have played events and come up with zilch.According to the Tour’s own Paul Hodowanic, if you’re outside the top 182, you’ve got zero mathematical shot at cracking the top 70, even if you win the Wyndham. Zero. So, that’s it for guys like Ryan Palmer, Jason Dufner, and Kevin Kisner. Six, five, and one start, respectively, without a single point. Brutal. And then you’ve got Netflix star Neal Shipley at 184, injured fan favorite Will Zalatoris at 189, and the heralded rookie Christo Lamprecht at 198. Ouch.Others might pull off a miracle with a win in North Carolina. Think Chris Kirk at 127, Matt Kuchar at 142, or Luke Clanton at 147. They need a big one. Some guys need at least a podium finish. Lucas Glover at 96, Billy Horschel at 107, or Joel Dahmen at 119. They’re close, but they’re not there yet. They need solid weeks.But the ones that really make you do a double-take? The surprising names right on the edge. The guys you’d bet your house on being in the playoffs. Yeah, they’re sweating.
Jackson Koivun: The Young Gun on the Bubble
Okay, no need to panic *yet*. It’s actually pretty damn impressive that Jackson Koivun is even this close. You’d think, with him only being on the PGA Tour for a couple of months, that missing the playoffs would be a given. But he’s right there. Last week, Koivun won the 3M Open. That pretty much cemented his status and showed everyone he’s going to be a major player for years to come. But he still has work to do if he wants to crack that top 70, or even the top 50 or 30 this season. I wouldn’t bet against him. He’s got that kind of game.
Keegan Bradley: Ryder Cup Captain Under Pressure
Reigning U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley. Man, what a comedown year. It hasn’t been terrible on the course, to be fair. He’s only missed one cut in his last 14 starts. But it hasn’t been *great* either. Bradley has finished T21 or better six times. Six. But not a single top 10. That means he’s missed out on those huge point grabs. He knows it too. He said at the Open Championship, “It’s annoying, but in a weird, like, demented way, it’s kind of fun that I have to go out and try to do it.” That’s one way to look at it, I guess. He’s got one shot left. One.
Jason Day: Battling Injuries and Form
Jason Day’s game took a nosedive right after his T12 at the Masters. His best finish in seven starts since then? A T38. Then he withdrew from the 3M Open last week with a bad back. The stats don’t lie. His iron play is way off his usual standard. He’s been trying to figure it out. At the Memorial, he explained his struggle. He said, “The guys that are playing well typically know exactly what their tendencies are when it does go off, so it’s easy to get things back in order. For me, I’m still trying to figure that out. The hard thing is that I’ve always got to, in the back of my mind, make sure that I have some sort of focus on my back because if I’m trying to make some change for better shots and better overall results, I also won’t trust it if it hurts my back.” That’s a lot to juggle. He’s in the Wyndham field. Let’s hope it’s a healthy week and he can make a run.
Brooks Koepka: The Major Champ's Slump
It was always going to be a weird season for Brooks Koepka. His return to the PGA Tour was the big story at the start of the year. But his uncertain status has become a real issue lately. He withdrew from the RBC Canadian Open last month. Missed his next two cuts. Pulled out of the Rocket Mortgage Classic pre-tournament last week. Something’s clearly not right. His Florida Swing – T9 at PGA National, T13 at TPC Sawgrass, T18 at Innisbrook – feels like a distant memory. So does his Masters T12. Maybe he’ll find something at Sedgefield this week. You never know with Brooks. But right now, he’s in a tough spot.
Tony Finau: Searching for Form
If there’s a theme on this list, it’s guys we’re used to seeing play at a high level, and now they’re struggling. They’re showing the effects of golf, or life, or time. Or maybe a combination of all three. Enter Tony Finau. He hoped to turn his season around with a T6 at the Byron Nelson. That’s been his only real bright spot. He’s finished T40 or worse in his last five starts. His Sunday 77 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic was the highest score of the day. And he finished the week second-to-last in strokes gained putting. Something is definitely off. Can he get it right just in the nick of time? It’s going to be a nail-biter.
The Bubble Race: Who's In, Who's Out?
The race to make the playoffs is intense. We’ve seen some incredible performances, and some surprising struggles. The FedEx Cup points list is constantly shifting, and every tournament matters. For these guys on the bubble, every single shot counts. They’re not just playing for pride; they’re playing for their position in the season-long standings, which impacts their exemptions and opportunities for the following year.It’s a tough business, golf. You can be on top of the world one week and fighting for your career the next. The pressure at the Wyndham Championship is going to be immense for these players. They know what’s at stake. They’ve worked all year for this. And now, it all comes down to one final event in the regular season.You can find the complete FedEx Cup points list on the PGA Tour’s site. It’s a fascinating look at who’s hot, who’s not, and who’s desperately trying to hang on. It’s a great reminder of how difficult it is to maintain elite performance week in and week out on the PGA Tour. The margins are so thin.Here’s a snapshot of who’s currently on the wrong side of the cut line, from just inside the 70 to just outside:
- 70 – Jackson Koivun
- 71 – Mac Meissner
- 72 – Keegan Bradley
- 73 – Andrew Putnam
- 74 – Johnny Keefer
- 75 – Jason Day
- 76 – Austin Smotherman
- 77 – Stephan Jaeger
- 78 – David Lipsky
- 79 – Tom Hoge
- 80 – Matt Wallace
- 81 – Davis Thompson
- 82 – Jackson Suber
- 83 – Brandt Snedeker
- 84 – Denny McCarthy
- 85 – Taylor Pendrith
- 86 – Brooks Koepka
- 87 – John Parry
- 88 – Kevin Roy
- 89 – Tony Finau
- 90 – Chandler Phillips
- 91 – Andrew Novak
- 92 – Christiaan Bezuidenhout
- 93 – Zach Bauchou
- 94 – Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
- 95 – Ben Kohles
- 96 – Lucas Glover
- 97 – Doug Ghim
- 98 – Taylor Moore
- 99 – Max Greyserman
- 100 – A.J. Ewart