ATLANTA — The 2022-23 PGA Tour FedEx Cup season involves an finish this week at East Lake Golf Membership.
There’s nonetheless loads to settle this weekend, together with who’s going to take dwelling the FedEx Cup and an $18 million bonus that comes with it. World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 seed, adopted by Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Northern Eire’s Rory McIlroy.
“It is clearly good to be again within the place that I am in,” Scheffler mentioned. “I am sure that it is most individuals’s objective firstly of the yr is to be No. 1 going into this event. It is a bit of an odd format. I really feel like I’ve joked an honest quantity about being No. 1 [and how] you do not get any further strokes. You present up this week and I do get some further strokes. So it’s kind of unusual, however it ought to be a enjoyable week.”
There are additionally a handful of gamers attempting to make an impression on U.S. Ryder Cup staff captain Zach Johnson.
The LPGA Tour season continues on the CPKC Open in Canada, the place U.S. Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis can be competing in addition to evaluating the contenders for the ultimate roster spots on her squad.
Here is what to observe in skilled golf this week:
What’s subsequent on the PGA Tour
Tour ChampionshipWhen: Thursday-SundayWhere: East Lake Golf Membership, AtlantaDefending champion: Rory McIlroy
Staggered scoring
World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler will begin the opening spherical Thursday at 10 underneath, which is 2 pictures higher than the remainder of the sphere. Viktor Hovland, who received final week’s BMW Championship, the second playoff occasion, begins at 8 underneath. McIlroy tees off at 7 underneath, Jon Rahm at 6 underneath and Lucas Glover at 5 underneath.
A yr in the past, McIlroy began at 4 underneath and chased down Scheffler within the remaining spherical to turn into the primary three-time FedEx Cup champion. Within the earlier 16 iterations of the FedEx Cup, solely three gamers who began No. 1 within the Tour Championship went on to win. Tiger Woods did it twice, in 2007 and 2018, in addition to Vijay Singh in 2008 and Dustin Johnson in 2020.
“I fell 11 pictures behind Scottie after two holes of the event [in 2022],” McIlroy mentioned. “So if I can come again from 11 pictures, I really feel like everybody on this discipline ought to really feel like they’ve an opportunity to win.”
The dangerous information for Scheffler: Within the FedEx Cup period (since 2007), based on ESPN Stats & Data analysis, no participant has received the Tour Championship after ending because the runner-up the earlier yr.
Hovland, who has climbed to No. 5 on the planet rankings after his newest victory, began final season’s Tour Championship at 2 underneath. He tied for fifteenth at 11 underneath.
“I am nonetheless attempting to do the identical factor on the golf course, however I feel behind your thoughts not beginning 10 pictures behind makes it slightly bit simpler,” Hovland mentioned. “You do not really feel like you need to get off to a quick begin. You may simply type of play your sport and for those who make six, seven, eight pars in a row, you are not stressing out. You are not considering, ‘Man, I am 13 pictures again now.’ You are still proper within the thick of it.”
Cash, cash, cash
A $75 million FedEx Cup bonus pool can be distributed after this week, with the highest 30 gamers competing over 72 holes at East Lake to find out how a lot they will make. The winner receives $18 million, second place will get $6.5 million, third takes dwelling $5 million and fourth collects $4 million. The Thirtieth-place finisher leaves with $500,000.
The highest 150 finishers within the FedEx Cup factors standings additionally will obtain some type of bonus. Ryan Moore, who’s a hundred and fiftieth in factors, will get $85,000. The bonuses is not going to rely towards profession earnings.
Cash has already been flowing on the PGA Tour this season. The truth is, 4 of the highest 5 spots in single-season on-course earnings had been set this season: Scheffler ($21 million), Rahm ($16.5 million), Hovland ($14.1 million) and McIlroy ($13.9 million). Seven gamers earned at the least $10 million (a PGA Tour document), 34 made at the least $5 million (one other document), 53 collected at the least $3 million (one other document), and 124 obtained $1 million or extra.
As Golf Digest famous earlier this week, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, winners of 25 majors and 135 tour titles between them, earned a mixed $7,595,888 throughout their Corridor of Fame careers.
Ryder Cup replace
Six gamers have certified for the U.S. Ryder Cup staff: Scheffler, U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark, Open Championship winner Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele.
Zach Johnson will make six captain’s picks Tuesday.
Editor’s Picks
Six gamers who’re believed to be into account are competing right here this week: Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa and Jordan Spieth.
4 different gamers hoping for a captain’s choose did not qualify for the Tour Championship: LIV Golf League star Brooks Koepka, Cameron Younger, Denny McCarthy and Justin Thomas.
Thomas missed the FedEx Cup playoffs after ending 71st in factors, slightly below the cutoff.
Geoff Ogilvy, a previous Presidents Cup vice captain, mentioned he’d nonetheless take the two-time main champion, regardless of his season-long hunch.
“If they do not take him, it is the worst name ever,” Ogilvy advised Golf Week. “He is the perfect head-to-head match participant on the planet.”
Thomas has a 6-2-1 document in two earlier Ryder Cup appearances and a 10-3-2 mark in three Presidents Cups, tallying 17.5 factors for the People.
“JT could be my first choose,” Ogilvy mentioned. “I have been contained in the ropes at sufficient Presidents Cups, there’s simply no probability you do not take Justin. He does one thing to the staff. He goes out entrance and leads and fist pumps and makes everybody behind him consider.”
What’s subsequent on the LPGA Tour
CPKC Girls’s OpenWhen: Thursday-SundayWhere: Shaughnessy Golf & Nation Membership, Vancouver, British ColumbiaDefending champion: Paula Reto
Solheim Cup countdown
The U.S. Solheim Cup staff can be finalized after this week’s CPKC Girls’s Open (Canadian Girls’s Open). It is the final qualifying occasion for the American squad that can compete in opposition to Europe at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, Sept. 22-24.
4 gamers have already certified for spots on the squad: world No. 1 golfer Lilia Vu, world No. 2 Nelly Korda, U.S. Open champion Allisen Corpuz and Megan Khang.
Jennifer Kupcho is fifth in factors, adopted by Danielle Kang, Lexi Thompson, Andrea Lee, Ally Ewing and Alison Lee. Thompson is 157th within the Race to CME Globe, the season-long factors race and is prone to dropping her LPGA card with out having to make use of a one-time profession cash exemption. She is just 12.5 factors forward of Lee in Solheim Cup qualifying.
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The 2 highest-ranked gamers within the Rolex Girls’s World Golf Rating not in any other case eligible after Sunday’s remaining spherical additionally will make the staff. Rookie Rose Zhang is thirty first on the planet and could be the highest-ranked after Kupcho, Kang and Thompson. Angel Yin is thirty second.
Lewis can even make three captain’s picks. She advised reporters in Vancouver on Wednesday that she had an inventory of about 20 to 25 potential gamers as of final yr. It is now all the way down to 13 or 14.
“I do not assume something loopy goes to occur this week,” Lewis mentioned. “I like the place we’re. Now we have some situations in our head of what is going on to occur. Could possibly be some motion inside the factors and Rolex. In my head, I do not assume there can be numerous motion.”
On Tuesday, the European captain Suzann Pettersen introduced her 4 captain’s picks: Gemma Dryburgh, Caroline Hedwall, Emily Pedersen and Madelene Sagstrom.
Crank up the computer systems
Because the U.S. males’s staff has carried out whereas constructing as much as the previous few Ryder Cups, Lewis has pushed the Solheim Cup squad to spend money on analytics. She discovered that Yin performs very effectively on Bermuda grass, which goes to be the enjoying floor in Spain. Ewing pairs up effectively with nearly anybody and excels in staff occasions.
“Lots of it’s primarily based on the golf course that we’ll play,” Lewis mentioned. “We’re capable of enter in the event that they’re hitting driver or 3-wood off the tee and what membership you may be hitting from there. We now have the info that exhibits who’s going to birdie that size of gap.
“Individuals have tendencies. They make birdies with sure golf equipment, so it is that. I imply, it is laborious to elucidate. There [are] simply constant gamers. There [are] extra variable gamers. They usually work otherwise for every format.”
Vu’s reward
Vu can be again on the course this week for the primary time since choosing up her second main title of the season on the AIG Girls’s Open in England. She had earlier captured the Chevron Championship in Texas.
The previous UCLA star mentioned there is not a lot that has modified about her life, apart from her mindset.
“I feel it is undoubtedly completely different,” Vu mentioned. “I feel I can view golf differently now and simply have enjoyable and know that my sport is nice sufficient to be out right here and simply hold doing what I am doing.”
Vu’s father, Douglas, additionally provided further motivation earlier than she closed out a 6-stroke victory at Walton Heath Golf Membership in Surrey, England.
“Solely factor is my dad tried to bribe me,” Vu mentioned. “He was mainly saying if I received one other main we will get a cat, so I have been searching for that.”
