Every summer, just as the major championships fade into the rearview mirror, the PGA TOUR's best players gear up for a high-stakes, multi-million dollar showdown known as the FedEx Cup Playoffs. If you’ve ever watched golf in August and September and felt a little confused by the points, resets, and staggered scoring, you're not alone. This guide will break down exactly how the golf playoffs work, from the season-long race to the final putt that crowns the champion.
Think of the FedEx Cup as the PGA TOUR’s equivalent of a playoff system, just like in football or basketball. All year long, during the "regular season," players compete in tournaments to earn FedEx Cup points. The more you win and the better you play, the more points you accumulate. These points determine your standing and, most importantly, secure your spot in a series of three climatic playoff events.
Before this system began in 2007, the PGA TOUR season just... ended. There wasn't a definitive finale or a single, undisputed champion for the entire season. The Tour wanted to create a compelling conclusion that captured the attention of fans and gave the players a clear, ultimate prize to chase. The FedEx Cup achieves this by ensuring that the players who perform their best all year - and especially those who get hot at the right time - are rewarded in a winner-take-all finale.
From a coach's perspective, this system asks everything of a player. It demands season-long consistency to even get a ticket to the dance, but it also lights a fire under players to peak at the perfect moment. It’s a marathon followed by an all-out sprint.
Throughout the PGA TOUR season, which typically runs from September to August, every official tournament offers FedEx Cup points. A player’s main goal, apart from winning trophies and earning prize money, is to an climb the FedEx Cup points list.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how points are distributed:
As the "regular season" concludes at the Wyndham Championship in August, the field is set. In the current format, the top 70 players on the FedEx Cup points list qualify for the first playoff event. If you’re outside that top 70, your season is over. This is a recent change from the previous Top 125, making the race to qualify even more intense.
The PGA TOUR Playoffs are a progression of three distinct tournaments, each with its own field and format. With every event, the field shrinks, raising the stakes and placing a bigger premium on every shot. The points values are also quadrupled compared to a regular season event, so players can make huge leaps - or devastating falls - up and down the standings.
The first event kicks off with the top 70 players from the regular season points list. It's a standard 72-hole, stroke-play tournament with a 36-hole cut where the field is trimmed to the top 50 players and ties. For many golfers, the main objective here is simply survival. Making the cut is the first hurdle, but the bigger goal is to play well enough to finish inside the top 50 on the FedEx Cup points list when the tournament is over.
A great week can vault a player from the 60s into the top 20, comfortably securing their spot in the next event. A poor week or a missed cut can end a once-promising season in a heartbeat. The drama is incredible as players on the bubble grind over every putt on Sunday, knowing it could determine whether they advance or go home.
The pressure gets turned up another notch at the BMW Championship, which features the top 50 players who advanced from the previous week. This event is different because there is no cut. All 50 players are guaranteed to play all four rounds, which means everyone has a full 72 holes to secure their place in the grand finale.
The goal here? Crack the top 30. Your performance at the BMW Championship determines two things:
This tournament is all about positioning. A player entering the week in 45th place can have a spectacular tournament, leap into the top 10, and give themselves a realistic shot at winning the FedEx Cup.
This is it. The culmination of an entire year of golf, held at the historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. The field consists of only the top 30 players who survived and advanced through the first two playoff events. To simplify the finish and ensure the golfer who wins the tournament also wins the FedEx Cup, the PGA TOUR implemented the "FedEx Cup Starting Strokes" system.
It sounds complicated, but the idea is actually very straightforward. Instead of starting everyone at even par, players begin the tournament with a score based on their FedEx Cup ranking coming into the week.
Here is how the starting scores are staggered:
With this system, the leaderboard you see at the start of the tournament represents the overall FedEx Cup standings. From there, it's simple: whoever posts the lowest aggregate score over 72 holes (their starting strokes T an-their four-round score combined) wins the TOUR Championship and is crowned the FedEx Cup Champion. It completely removes any confusing parallel math or projections - what you see on the leaderboard is what you get.
Winning the FedEx Cup is a career-defining achievement. Obviously, there’s the trophy and the prestige ofjoining a list of champions like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Jordan Spieth. But the tangible rewards are staggering.
The total bonus pool for the playoffs is enormous, with the FedEx Cup Champion taking home an $18 million bonus. The money extends down through the entire top 30 and beyond, providing a massive payday for all who make it to the finale. However, arguably the most valuable prize is the five-year exemption on the PGA TOUR. As any golf coach or player will tell you, that level of job security is almost unheard of in professional sports. It gives a player complete freedom in their schedule and removes the year-to-year pressure of keeping their tour card, allowing them to play with more confidence for years to come.
The FedEx Cup Playoffs are a thrilling conclusion to the PGA TOUR season, designed to test the best players under the most intense pressure. It's a three-week slog that brilliantly combines season-long performance with the excitement of a championship sprint, ultimately crowning an undisputed champion.
Watching the pros navigate the enormous pressure of the playoffs can inspire us all to approach our own rounds with a bit more strategy. At Caddie AI, we’ve developed a 24/7 personal golf expert that puts this kind of strategic thinking in your pocket. Whether it's helping you pick the right target off the tee on a tricky hole or analyzing a photo of your bad lie to give you the smartest escape plan, our goal is to help you manage the course and your game with more confidence and clarity, just like having an expert caddie by your side.
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