{"id":33677,"date":"2025-07-31T00:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33677\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T00:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T00:17:09","slug":"5-surprising-subplots-at-wyndham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33677\/","title":{"rendered":"5 surprising subplots at Wyndham"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven\u2019t scheduled a weekend watch party for this week\u2019s Wyndham Championship, well, we\u2019re not here to blame you. There\u2019s some other stuff happening. The final major of the year is taking place in the AIG Women\u2019s Open<\/a> at Porthcawl, while the men\u2019s game is still in the awkward lull between the end of the majors and the start of the playoffs. Maybe you\u2019ve planned to mow your lawn. See some friends. Play a little golf of your own.<\/p>\n

But while there are always interesting subplots to this PGA Tour\u2019s regular-season finale, this year there seem to be even more than usual. With fewer playoff spots available, more money on the line, Ryder Cup spots in the balance plus job security and more at stake, nearly everybody in the field has something extra to play for.<\/p>\n

Here are five of those most intriguing somethings:<\/p>\n

1. Money, money, money<\/p>\n

If you glaze over at the mere mention of more millions up for grabs in men\u2019s golf, all good. I get it. Skip to the next bullet point. But in addition to the Wyndham\u2019s $8.2 million purse, there are multiple season-long bonuses in place that mean there is a lot of cash up for grabs. <\/p>\n

First there\u2019s the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, which dishes out $40 million to the regular season\u2019s top 10 as follows:<\/p>\n

Comcast Business Tour Top 10 Bonus<\/p>\n

1st \u2014\u00a0$8 mil
2nd \u2014\u00a0$6m
3rd \u2014 $4.8m
4th \u2014\u00a0$4.4m
5th \u2014 $4m
6th \u2014\u00a0$3.4m
7th \u2014\u00a0$2.8m
8th \u2014\u00a0$2.4m
9th \u2014\u00a0$2.2m
10th \u2014 $2m<\/p>\n

But get this: there\u2019s also the first FedEx Cup bonus payout now that they\u2019re spreading the love across three different payouts<\/a>. Ignoring the fact that it\u2019s hilarious to have two different regular-season prize funds that distribute at the same time and using wildly different payout structures, here\u2019s what that looks like:<\/p>\n

FedEx Cup Regular Season Payout<\/p>\n

1st \u2014\u00a0$10m
2nd \u2014\u00a0$4m
3rd \u2014 $1.2m
4th \u2014 $1m
5th \u2014 $800k
6th \u2014\u00a0$700k
7th \u2014\u00a0$650k
8th \u2014\u00a0$600k
9th \u2014 $550k
10th \u2014\u00a0$500k<\/p>\n

The bad news, entertainment-wise, is that the top two spots are already locked in. Congrats, Scottie Scheffler, on your $18 mil ($8m from Comcast, $10m from FedEx). Congrats, Rory McIlroy, on $10 mil of your own ($6m and $4m). They\u2019ll get that sweet, sweet direct deposit without setting foot anywhere near Greensboro, N.C. \u2014\u00a0and they\u2019ll have more bonus money on the way. But after them, things get a bit more interesting.<\/p>\n

Ben Griffin (No. 7 in the FedEx Cup), Keegan Bradley (No. 10), Andrew Novak (No. 12) and Robert MacIntyre (No. 15) could all meaningfully move up with a top finish. If Griffin won, he\u2019d collect the $1.48m winner\u2019s check plus improve his bonus payout by more than $2.5m, for example. Captain Keegan has to secure (or improve) his currently projected $2.5m in bonus money.<\/p>\n

And then there are the guys trying to sneak in from outside the top 10, which includes the tantalizing possibility that Novak could win this week, catch Bradley in the Ryder Cup standings and capture his $2.5 mil all while vying for a captain\u2019s pick. (Bob MacIntyre could unseat Bradley, too, kicking off Ryder Cup tensions early.)<\/p>\n

2. Playoff spots<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s tough to keep track, so let\u2019s review: 70 players now make the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Then 50 make the second-round BMW Championship and 30 make the big-money Tour Championship finale.<\/p>\n

So this week we\u2019re dialed in on the bubble boys<\/a>. Big-timers Tony Finau (No. 60) and Rickie Fowler (No. 61) are almost certainly safe for Top 70 but here\u2019s how things look behind them:<\/p>\n

62 \u2014\u00a0Davis Riley, 651.7 FedEx Cup points
63 \u2014 Kevin Yu, 644.3
64 \u2014\u00a0Erik van Rooyen, 634.4
65 \u2014\u00a0Nico Echavarria, 628.5
66 \u2014\u00a0Emiliano Grillo, 627.6
67 \u2014\u00a0Cam Davis, 616.3
68 \u2014\u00a0Patrick Rodgers, 615.6
69 \u2014\u00a0Ben An, 595.4
70 \u2014\u00a0Matti Schmid, 594.6
\u2014
71 \u2014\u00a0Nicolai Hojgaard, 590.4
72 \u2014\u00a0Keith Mitchell, 589.3
73 \u2014\u00a0Chris Kirk, 582
74 \u2014\u00a0Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 575.1
75 \u2014\u00a0Gary Woodland, 562.1
76 \u2014\u00a0Kevin Roy, 555.8
77 \u2014 Alex Smalley, 553.8
78 \u2014\u00a0Davis Thompson, 551.6
79 \u2014\u00a0Eric Cole, 546.2
80 \u2014\u00a0William Mouw, 526.7<\/p>\n

Those are some slim but meaningful margins; top 70 will get to sail worry-free into full status for the 2026 season (okay, they\u2019ll still sweat out top 50, etc., but you get the idea) while everyone else will be left jockeying to secure their card this fall. Speaking of which\u2026<\/p>\n

3. Job security<\/p>\n

This year the Tour is cutting its full-status cards to 100 instead of 125. (Nos. 101-125 will have partial status.) That cut won\u2019t happen this week \u2014\u00a0instead it\u2019ll be finalized at the end of the seven-event fall season. But if you\u2019re outside the top 70 this will be your last Tour event until mid-September at the Procore in Napa, Calif., which means there\u2019s some urgency before a lengthy layoff. Here\u2019s how that bubble looks at the moment, featuring one notable fan favorite at No. 101; I\u2019ve also starred those players who are exempt into 2026.<\/p>\n

91 \u2014\u00a0Danny Walker
92 \u2014\u00a0Matt Wallace
93 \u2014\u00a0Garrick Higgo
94 \u2014\u00a0Taylor Moore
95 \u2014\u00a0Vince Whaley
96 \u2014\u00a0Beau Hossler
97 \u2014\u00a0Billy Horschel*
98 \u2014\u00a0Mark Hubbard
99 \u2014\u00a0Max McGreevy
100 \u2014 Isaiah Salinda
101 \u2014\u00a0Joel Dahmen
102 \u2014\u00a0Lee Hodges
103 \u2014\u00a0Rico Hoey
104 \u2014\u00a0Austin Eckroat*
105 \u2014\u00a0Jesper Svensson
106 \u2014\u00a0Max Homa*
107 \u2014\u00a0Victor Perez
108 \u2014\u00a0Patrick Fishburn
109 \u2014\u00a0Chan Kim
110 \u2014\u00a0Alejandro Tosti<\/p>\n

4. Ryder Cup spots (Team USA edition)<\/p>\n

Most Ryder Cup locks aren\u2019t playing this week \u2014\u00a0we don\u2019t have the Schefflers, Schauffeles or even Spauns and Henleys of the world teeing it up. But there\u2019s plenty of Team USA intrigue nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Not only are three Americans in the Ryder Cup mix playing \u2014\u00a0Griffin, Bradley and Novak are Nos. 9, 10 and 13 in the U.S. ranking \u2014\u00a0they\u2019re actually playing together the first two rounds, which means a chance to audition directly in front of Bradley. (Bradley\u2019s audition for Bradley is, of course, the most compelling.)<\/p>\n

These guys will all coast into the playoffs, of course, so this isn\u2019t a final look. But Griffin and Novak have leveled out a bit after red-hot stretches earlier this season; it\u2019s time to see whether they can make a move.<\/p>\n

There are other guys who could go on some sort of heater and insert themselves in the conversation \u2014 the Lucas Glovers, Cameron Youngs and Sam Stevens of the world. But we\u2019ll have our eyes trained on that top three, for now.<\/p>\n

5. Ryder Cup spots (Team Europe edition)<\/p>\n

Because of the way European pros schedule their seasons, Ryder Cup bubble boys can also be FedEx Cup bubble boys. That means this week there are a few pros who are playing to extend their seasons and also extend their audition periods a couple weeks longer. Most notably Rasmus Hojgaard (No. 7 in Ryder Cup ranking, No. 82 in the FedEx Cup), Matt Wallace (No. 11 in Ryder Cup, No. 92 in FedEx Cup) and Nicolai Hojgaard (No. 25 in Ryder Cup, No. 71 in FedEx Cup). Nicolai just needs a solid finish, where Rasmus or Wallace need something special to keep their U.S. seasons going. If not, it\u2019ll be interesting to see if they add some European events like the Danish Golf Championship (Aug. 14-17, a logical fit for the Danish twins) or the Betfred British Masters (Aug. 21-24) should they miss top 70.<\/p>\n

There are other contenders for that final European spot in the Wyndham field, too, one more likely (Matthew Fitzpatrick, currently No. 13 on Team Europe\u2019s list) and others in need of a splash (Thomas Detry, Aaron Rai, Harry Hall).<\/p>\n

By my back-of-the-napkin math there are nine near-locks for the European team (Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Aberg, Tyrrell Hatton, Bob MacIntyre, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland and Shane Lowry). As for the final three? There\u2019s a little golf left to play to find out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always a good week to have a good week. This week it\u2019s just even better.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“><\/p>\n

\"Dylan <\/p>\n

Dylan Dethier<\/p>\n

Golf.com Editor<\/p>\n

Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine\/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he\u2019s the author of 18 in America<\/a>, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you haven\u2019t scheduled a weekend watch party for this week\u2019s Wyndham Championship, well, we\u2019re not here to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-33677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}