After a three-week break, the PGA Tour returns with the first of seven FedEx Cup Fall tournaments – a new initiative for 2023, which bridges the gap between the Tour Championship in August and the start of the 2024 season, which reverts to a calendar year in January.
As well as incentives for winners of the tournaments, including the long-standing rewards like a two-year PGA Tour exemption and eligibility into some Majors, the FedEx Cup Fall tournaments will also finalize the top 125 who retain their PGA Tour status for 2024.
Players ranked 71 and lower in the FedEx Cup points list will continue to accumulate points in the tournaments as they look to secure their PGA Tour cards. That doesn’t apply to numbers 51 to 70, who already have their cards for the 2024 season, but they are also incentivized to perform well – whoever secures a place between 51 and 60 by the end of November’s RSM Classic, it guarantees entry into the two lucrative signature events after the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
While those incentives should appeal to some of the lesser lights on the PGA Tour, two of its most famous players headline this year’s event, both with an eye on getting as sharp as possible before they appear for the US in the Ryder Cup at the end of September.
One is defending champion Max Homa, who claimed a climactic Fortinet Championship win in the PGA Tour season opener with a one-shot victory over Danny Willett. That secured him back to back victories in the tournament after he also won in 2021 by the same margin against Maverick McNealy.
Homa went on to enjoy further success as the season progressed, and that secured him automatic qualification for the Ryder Cup. Can he claim a hat-trick of victories in the tournament this week? If he does, he will become the first PGA Tour player with three successive wins in a PGA tournament since Steve Stricker achieved the feat in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 John Deere Classic.
Homa is joined by a Ryder Cup teammate in Justin Thomas. The two-time PGA Champion hasn’t played since the Wyndham Championship, where he finished T12. That was one of the better results for Thomas in a disappointing 2023 so far. That meant he…
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