Rickie Fowler last month at the Open Championship.
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Four PGA Tour winners from this year.
Member of last year’s Ryder Cup winning team.
One of the most famous golfers.
As the PGA Tour’s regular season ends on Sunday, those were among the most notable pros not extending their three-week season. This week’s Wyndham Championship marked the final push for the players to reach the 70-point mark for the season, capping a busy week – especially after storms battered Thursday’s first round and players were forced to play at least 36 holes on Sunday.
What’s next on the Tour? Of the 70 who will advance, they will play in FedEx St. Jude Championship next week, and the top 50 after that event move on to next week’s BMW Championship, and get places in next year’s Signature Events. The top 30 in the standings behind BMW will then play in the Tour Championship starting on Aug. 29.
And for those not in the top 70? They will likely play in the tour’s fall events, where they hope to improve their standings and hope to land in the top 125, the cut-off for full playoff rights.
But they will not play for the next three weeks. With that, here are a dozen surprising players who failed to make the PGA Tour playoffs. (Notably, one, Matt Kuchar, will finish his 72nd hole at Wyndham on Monday morning, but his fate has been decided. To indicate that play is still on, we’ve marked the players’ spots with “considered to finish.”)
A surprising 12 players failed to make the PGA Tour playoffs on Sunday
Davis Riley (projected to finish 71st in the standings) – Riley wins the Charles Schwab Challenge and finishes as a bubble pro. But, before this week, the win was one of his top 25.
Andrew Putnam (expected to finish 72nd in the standings) – Second bubble pro. He has played well this year, but he has been passed over six times in 21 games this week.
Lucas Glover (projected to finish 77th in the standings) – This time last year, the Wyndham and FedEx St. Jude in successive weeks. This season? Here’s how he assessed things at the beginning of the week: “I haven’t put much together this year. I hit well all week, doing nothing, and then the next week, it seems to be the opposite.”
Nicolai Hojgaard (projected to finish 81st in the standings) — He was part of the team that won the Ryder Cup last year. But he finished in the top 25 only twice entering the week.
Harry Hall (expected to finish 86th in the standings) – Hall won the ISCO tournament, played the same week as the Genesis Scottish Open. Four misses in his first eight events proved costly.
Brice Garnett (projected to finish 87th in the standings) – Garnett won the Puerto Rico Open, played the same week as the Arnold Palmer Invitational. But he had two more top 25 finishes this week, one of which came at the Zurich Classic, a club event.
Chris Gotterup (expected to finish 94th in the standings) – Gotterup won the Myrtle Beach Classic, played the same week as the Wells Fargo Championship. But he’s missed as many cuts as he’s entered this week — 10 each.
Matt Kuchar stands awkwardly around the 72nd hole, signaling the end of the Tour event
Nick Piastowski
Matt Kuchar (projected to finish 103rd in the standings) – Kuchar was the only player to play in the playoffs every season since the FedEx Cup began in 2007. But this year, entering this week, he missed 11 cuts in 19 games.
Rickie Fowler (projected to finish 106th in the standings) – Fowler returned to form last year, winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic and making the Ryder Cup team. But this year, one of golf’s most famous players had two top-25 finishes in 20 events entering this week.
Webb Simpson (projected to finish 149th in the standings) – Simpson, the 2012 US Open winner, had one top 25 in 12 events entering this week.
Gary Woodland (projected to finish 153rd in the standings) – Woodland, the 2019 US Open winner, is back this year after missing time due to a brain tumor.
Tiger Woods (expected to finish 220th in the standings) – It’s at least surprising that the 15-time major league winner won’t make the postseason. But he only played in five games.
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