{"id":49610,"date":"2026-08-13T00:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/49610\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T00:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:50:16","slug":"scheffler-begins-chase-for-a-fedex-cup-title-as-pga-postseason-starts-in-stiff-memphis-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/49610\/","title":{"rendered":"Scheffler begins chase for a FedEx Cup title as PGA postseason starts in stiff Memphis heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler reacts after his shot on the ninth green during the final round of the 3M Open at the Tournament Players Club, last month in Blaine, Minn.Bailey Hillesheim\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

The PGA Tour postseason starts with a US$20-million tournament, with only a 69-man field, and with a sense of urgency for only about half of the players at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler is the No. 1 seed and bracing for three straight postseason tournaments, even though his chances of winning the FedEx Cup for the second time depend solely on how he performs at East Lake for the season-ending Tour Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have three tournaments, three good starts to kind of end the year. Definitely excited to get this week going,\u201d Scheffler said. He has played the TPC Southwind seven times, the most of any course on the PGA Tour without ever having won.<\/p>\n

Those outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup \u2013 Jordan Spieth the most prominent at No. 54 and Jackson Koivun at No. 70 despite turning pro only in June \u2013 have great urgency. Their season is over if they don\u2019t move into the top 50 and advance to St. Louis for the BMW Championship.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Rory McIlroy at No. 12, already set for the Tour Championship. He skipped the TPC Southwind last year because there was no point in playing. But he\u2019s back this year, perhaps because the Masters champion has played only 11 times on the PGA Tour this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few different things went into that decision. I think having four weeks off going into the last two events of the year was probably going to be a little too much for me in terms of wanting to be competitive,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cSo this is a good week. Obviously I want to play well, but it\u2019s also a good week to just see where my game is, do a lot of practice, or as much as I can in the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy won\u2019t reach the minimum 15 tournaments required for PGA Tour membership, though there are enough exceptions \u2013 his home circuit is the Europe tour and McIlroy is a life member with his 30 wins \u2013 that it probably won\u2019t be an issue.<\/p>\n

Membership is required to vote on such items as PGA Tour player of the year, and that might be the most compelling part of this year\u2019s postseason before the tour completes its journey through the sweltering heartland before arriving in equally sweltering Atlanta.<\/p>\n

No one has stood out this year. Cameron Young, who won The Players Championship, might have been the front runner until Ryan Fox made that memorable birdie on the 18th hole at Royal Birkdale to win the British Open.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays a shot during the Pro Am prior to the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind on Wednesday in Memphis, Tenn.Andy Lyons\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

McIlroy has only one win this year, which he wouldn\u2019t trade \u2013 the Masters. Scheffler has only one win \u2013 his first start of the year in the California desert \u2013 but he has five runner-up finishes and had top-four finishes in all but one of the majors. He\u2019s still the player to beat, even though he has beaten the field only once this year.<\/p>\n

Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup have three wins. Wyndham Clark\u2019s two wins include the U.S. Open. Fox and PGA champion Aaron Rai have only one win. Any of them winning the FedEx Cup might go along way toward getting the Jack Nicklaus Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you value winning the biggest tournaments, you would say it could be Cameron Young and Wyndham Clark,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cMatt Fitzpatrick has had a great year. Scottie\u2019s had an unbelievably consistent year without the wins that he\u2019s had the last couple years. Again, it all depends on what you value. I guess I value like the bigger tournaments and guys having the bigger moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

It all starts to unfold Thursday at a tournament where the heat is expected to be stifling, as usually is the case in August. The end of the season is near, and so is the St. Jude Championship. The PGA Tour already has said it will not be part of the top-tier \u201cChampionship Series\u201d in 2028.<\/p>\n

For now, it remains as important as any tournament on the PGA Tour. The top 50 after this week are assured of all the US$20-million signature events for the following season, and it keeps alive hopes of reaching the Tour Championship, where everyone starts over and the winner gets the FedEx Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Scottie Scheffler reacts after his shot on the ninth green during the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2098,2082,2099,1443,199,195,2100,2097,2074,2088,2089,2084,2075,2073,2094,374,2093,2087,2081,2111,2076,2077,2086,2083,375,899,2101,2079,2106,2107,2109,2104,2108,2102,2105,1979,1106,2092,2090,2091,2103,1150,2095,2096,2085,2080,2078,2110],"class_list":["post-49610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw-championship","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-bmw-championship","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}