The FedEx Cup Playoffs seems to change by the year, and the 2025 PGA Tour season is no different. In fact, the only difference may be that there was not only one modification to the postseason, but rather there were two with the first being announced before the onset of the season in anticipation of a much more competitive PGA Tour.
Starting this season, only 100 players will earn full-time membership with the league, making this week’s Wyndham Championship — the final regular season event — all the more important. Those who fall outside the top 70 will be forced to play in the FedEx Cup Fall, if not exempt through other means, where livelihoods and job security will be on the line.
So, in order to avoid the grueling grind of the PGA Tour’s reinvented Fall Swing, players can instead secure their place on the PGA Tour — and in certain events — by making sure they punch their tickets into the postseason.
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Now, every cutoff point comes with added perks. For those lucky enough to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs (i.e. the top 70 in the season-long race), they will secure their jobs for the following season. The players who do one better and make it past the St. Jude Championship and into the BMW Championship will be rewarded handsomely.
The top 50 players who tee it up at Caves Valley for the second round of the playoffs are the same 50 players which will make up the majority of the fields in all eight signature events in 2026 where big money and big FedEx Cup points are on the line. While this cutoff point has raised in significance, the Tour Championship still remains a defining feature in a successful season.
This season, the PGA Tour announced that all players who make it to East Lake will begin at the same starting point, meaning No. 30 in the standings has just as good a chance as No. 1 in the race when tees are pegged into the ground that Thursday morning in Atlanta.
With this in mind, let’s check out some notable names on the inside (or outside) of some of those key bubbles as the postseason lurks around the corner.
St. Jude Championship bubble (top 70)
Adam Scott (No. 85)
The veteran comes into the season finale without a top-10 finish to his name this season. Despite being featured in the final pairing at the U.S. Open, Scott stumbled on Sunday at Oakmont to finish T12, which made for his best result in 2025. In addition to the lack of quality finishes, Scott has lacked playing chances.
The former world No. 1 has played in only three tournaments that are not defined as signature events or major championships in 2025. While this means he is well-rested for a potential playoff push, it also means he work to do to extend his PGA Tour season; he needs at least a two-way tie for third place to move on to Memphis.
Tom Kim (No. 89)
It’s been a fall few imagined, especially after Kim contended at Pebble Beach and finished T7 in the first big signature event of the year. Since then, the three-time PGA Tour winner has missed seven cuts and collected only two finishes inside the top 30 — those being a T17 at the Scottish Open and T28 last week at the 3M Open.
As a former tournament winner, Kim will need to channel his magic around Sedgefield in order to play himself into the postseason. He requires a similar finish to Scott in the form of a third-place finish and more than likely plenty of help.
BMW Championship bubble (top 50)
Jordan Spieth (No. 50)
He is the bubble boy on what may have turned into the most important bubble with the addition of signature events. Spieth relied on sponsor exemptions to get into the big-time events in 2025, and he would love nothing more than to rely on his game and his laurels for the same spots in 2026.
It has been a solid campaign for the three-time major champion considering his return from wrist surgery this offseason. Spieth has seven top-20 finishes in 16 starts, highlighted by his top-five efforts at the WM Phoenix Open and The CJ CUP Byron Nelson. He missed the cut in last season’s Wyndham Championship when attempting to better his position heading into the St. Jude Championship.
Tony Finau (No. 60)
Finau has made the Tour Championship every season since 2017, thanks often to his metronomic consistency, but that streak is in major jeopardy in 2025. Finau has struggled with both his driver and putter this season, leading to only one top-10 finish which came all the way back in February at the Genesis Invitational.
A Friday 77 at the 3M Open was cause of an early exit at TPC Twin Cities and has forced him to play the Wyndham Championship for the first time in his career. He is all but locked into the first round of the postseason, but beyond that, the outlook is bleak given the state of his game.
Rickie Fowler (No. 61)
Unlike Finau, who has been flummoxed for most of 2025, Fowler has found his way in recent months. Thanks to a sponsor invitation into the Memorial, where he finished T7, Fowler punched his way into The Open where a final-round 65 did a lot of heavy lifting in his T14 finish.
Fowler is not yet fully exempt for the 2026 season, meaning his place inside the top 70 is much more important compared to some of his peers and good friends. With nine spots of breathing room, the five-time PGA Tour winner will tee it up at the Wyndham Championship to hopefully start crawling to that top-50 cutoff point and into a tournament he has played in only once since the 2019 season.
Tour Championship bubble (top 30)
Viktor Hovland (No. 25)
Hovland has largely had a fantastic season, even if he may not admit it. The former FedEx Cup champion won the Valspar Championship over Justin Thomas, contended deep into the weekend at the U.S. Open and should once again be a key member of the European Ryder Cup team.
Despite this, the Norwegian is narrowly inside the top 30 which qualifies for the Tour Championship. There are two tournaments between now and Atlanta, so he has plenty of time to improve especially when one considers he nearly won at TPC Southwind last season and is a former BMW Championship winner.
Sungjae Im (No. 30)
He has played well at the right times as Im has only three top-10 finishes but somehow finds his way inside the top 30. The man from South Korea finished in solo third place in the opening week of the season and added a T4 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open and T5 at the Masters.
Since then, he has been shutout from the top 10 on a leaderboard and arrives at the regular season finale having missed four of his last seven cuts. Since arriving on the PGA Tour in 2019, Im has made his way into the Tour Championship every season of his career.
Xander Schauffele (No. 41)
It would not feel like a Tour Championship without Schauffele given his affinity for East Lake. The two-time major champion won the Tour Championship his rookie season and has since rattled off seven straight top-seven finishes including three runner-up results.
After a sluggish restart to his season following some time away due to injury, Schauffele is quietly starting to surge. He has three top-12 finishes in his last four tournaments, including back-to-back top 10s at the Scottish Open and The Open. As an added bonus, he also finished T2 in last year’s St. Jude Championship, which if mirrored would provide a healthy bump to his place in the FedEx Cup race.
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