8 thoughts halfway through the PGA Tour’s new fall schedule

We’re 4 occasions into the PGA Tour’s new seven-event FedEx Cup Fall sequence of tournaments.

It’s a stark distinction to the final 10 PGA Tour seasons which featured a wrap-around season, which compelled extra golfers to make begins throughout the fall in order to not fall behind in the FedEx Cup factors race for the following yr.

However, this PGA Tour season has technically included two fall seasons because it transitions again to a calendar yr schedule. Instead of those occasions counting towards subsequent yr’s FedEx Cup standings, there’s a new factors listing for these occasions listing that’s tacked on to everybody who completed outdoors the high 50 throughout the FedEx Cup season.

This week serves as considerably of an intermission since two occasions have been trimmed from the schedule, leaving this week, after the Zozo Championship in Japan and earlier than Mexico’s World Wide Technology Championship, as a uncommon break in the PGA Tour grind.

Now that we’re simply previous halfway on the debut of the FedEx Cup Fall, listed below are 8 thoughts about the new part of the PGA Tour schedule.

8 thoughts on the FedEx Cup Fall

1. Strong crop of winners: While Sahith Theegala opened the first FedEx Cup Fall occasion together with his maiden victory, every of the three different fall winners have been both already or grew to become multi-time PGA Tour winners. That mentioned, Theegala can be one among the PGA Tour’s brightest younger stars, making the Tour Championship and contending a number of instances throughout a powerful rookie season in 2022. Despite a barely down FedEx Cup season in 2023, the place he didn’t advance out of the BMW Championship, he’ll now begin 2024 with momentum from his first professional win.

Meanwhile, List, Kim and Morikawa all ended one-year-plus winless droughts, Kim and Morikawa each establishing themselves as two of the high gamers on the PGA Tour after up-and-down years in 2023.

2. Stars sit out: What do Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Scottie Scheffler all have in frequent? All have but to make a begin in the FedEx Cup Fall.

However, that was a part of the level. Since no participant who made it to the BMW Championship can enhance their standing for 2024 (they’re already exempt into all eight signature occasions) they’ll skip fall occasions and never begin from behind in January when the 2024 FedEx Cup season begins.

3. There’s motion in the “Next 10”: One of the incentives to play the fall for gamers who have already got standing secured for subsequent season, however aren’t in the high 50, is entry into the first two of 2024’s Signature occasions, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis. Those gamers will likely be made up of Nos. 51-60 on the FedEx Cup Fall factors listing.

So far, three golfers have performed their approach into Pebble and L.A., Ben Griffin, J.J. Spaun and Luke List. Both Griffin and Spaun have been simply on the outdoors of the high 60 to start the fall, 63rd and 62nd, respectively, whereas List was 119th after the Tour Championship and used his win to catapult himself to 59th.

Meanwhile, Brandon Wu, Davis Riley and Hayden Buckley are heading the mistaken course. After ending the first FedEx Cup Playoff occasion in the high 60 in the standings, all three have now fallen outdoors.

4. Big names are nonetheless not in Signature occasions: As of now, Matt Kuchar, Keith Mitchell, Joel Dahmen, Adam Scott, Shane Lowry, Akshay Bhatia and Ludvig Aberg would all not qualify for the first Signature occasions. Justin Thomas is 72nd in the FedEx Cup Fall standings, leaving him on the outdoors wanting in as properly, nevertheless, he may nonetheless qualify for Signature occasions if he hangs onto his No. 25 Official World Golf Ranking. The high 30 in the OWGR qualify for Signature occasions.

5. 2024 Tour playing cards are being earned: Ludvig Aberg doesn’t want to complete in the high 125 of the standings to maintain his card for subsequent season, however he’s doing it anyway. Thanks to a T2 end at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Aberg, who was one hundred and thirty fifth after the finish of the PGA Tour common season, jumped all the method to 99th in the Fall Standings. By advantage of his high end in the PGA Tour University rankings, Aberg is already exempt for 2024.

Four different gamers have moved into the high 125 in the final 4 occasions: Scott Stallings, Troy Meritt, Henrik Norlander and Erik van Rooyen. Stallings, like Aberg, additionally has secured PGA Tour standing for 2024 thanks to creating it to the Tour Championship in 2022.

6. 2024 Tour playing cards are being misplaced too: MJ Daffue, Patton Kizzire, Zecheng Dou, Jimmy Walker and Austin Smotherman have all performed their approach out of 2024 Tour standing, though they nonetheless have three occasions to alter that, as do others behind them. However, these gamers have mixed to make simply six of 15 cuts this fall.

With the change to a calendar yr schedule, the fall has turn into a seven-event dash to keep up PGA Tour playing cards, drawing out one among the extra thrilling PGA Tour storylines.

7. Tiger’s “other” PGA Tour debut: The PGA Tour has been watching Tiger Woods as an expert golfer for the higher a part of three many years now, however beginning subsequent week, Woods can have a new affect on the Tour.

With the World Wide Technology Championship altering venues this yr, El Cardonal at Diamante will mark Woods’ first design to host a PGA Tour occasion. The resort on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula was additionally Woods’ first design to be accomplished.

8. The RSM can have extra intrigue: Like yearly (besides 2020) since 2015, the RSM Classic at Sea Island in Georgia will once more be the last official PGA Tour occasion of the calendar yr. However, in contrast to years previous, the stakes will likely be a lot larger. Like how the Wyndham Championship used to have added stress as execs had putts to make each the playoffs and maintain their Tour playing cards, the latter half now strikes to the RSM Classic.

If historical past holds, the chase of conserving PGA Tour playing cards will make the RSM a must-watch occasion in a approach it has by no means been earlier than.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, incomes levels in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his highschool golf crew and lately returned to the program to function head coach. Jack additionally nonetheless *tries* to stay aggressive in native amateurs. Before becoming a member of GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but additionally producing, anchoring and even presenting the climate. He might be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.