The FedEx Cup playoffs have been whittled down to 30 golfers following the BMW Championship, and the rankings heading into East Lake are as different as they have been in quite a while.
Most notably, Jon Rahm has finally been pushed out of the No. 1 spot in the standings. Instead, Scottie Scheffler will be the top golfer at East Lake, as he rode a runner-up finish in Chicago to the No. 1 ranking. That will make him the top golfer on the course for the PGA Tour Championship.
That said, Viktor Hovland enjoyed a sizable jump in the rankings after winning the BMW Championship. He very nearly leaped over Scheffler for the No. 1 ranking but instead settled in at No. 2 overall. He had previously ranked seventh in the standings.
Elsewhere, no golfer made a bigger jump than Matthew Fitzpatrick. He was ranked 40th entering the week and was on the outside looking in for the tournament. However, he tied with Scheffler as the runner-up to jump all the way up to No. 10, an improvement of 30 positions.
Those rated highly in the FedEx Cup standings will now get a chance to reap the rewards of being a top-10 golfer. The PGA Tour Championship will begin with the top-ranked players having a starting strokes handicap that gives them an advantage on the field. So, the likes of Scheffler, Hovland and Rahm will have a chance to put distance between themselves and some of the other top golfers at East Lake with strong starts.
Either way, the PGA Tour's 2022-23 season will all come down to this week's event at East Lake. Will Scheffler be able to make up for losing his grip on the FedEx Cup last season despite entering the event as the No. 1 golfer, or will another player from back in the pack steal it from him again?
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Here's everything you need to know about the 2023 FedEx Cup, including standings, rules, points, schedules and payouts.
How do the FedEx Cup playoffs work?
Over the past 11 months, golfers on the PGA Tour have earned points during the regular season that count toward the FedEx Cup playoffs. The points stem from performance in each PGA Tour-sanctioned event. Winning an event provides a golfer with the most points, naturally, but there are other ways to earn them throughout the season.
By the end of the campaign, the top 70 golfers with the most points move to the FedEx Cup playoffs. That number used to be 125, but the PGA Tour changed its playoff structure to admit fewer golfers, increasing competition and available prize money for the three-week circuit.
The first FedEx Cup playoff event is the FedEx St. Jude Championship, held Aug. 10-13. The top 50 golfers after that event advance to the BMW Championship (Aug. 17-20). From there, the top 30 then move onto the Tour Championship in East Lake, Mich. (Aug. 24-27).
And while the PGA Tour winner receives a huge payday, they also are granted an all-important five-year exemption that allows them entry into PGA Tour events. Thus, there are a lot of reasons that players will want to get into the final 30 grouping to give themselves a shot at that title.
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FedEx Cup points system
The points system for the FedEx Cup is relatively simple. Golfers receive 500 points for winning normal PGA Tour events, while a select handful of events — the World Golf Championship, The Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial Tournament — are worth 550.
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour's four majors — the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Open Championship — are all worth 600 points. So too is the Players' Championship, which is considered the unofficial fifth major.
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a two-man team event, awards 400 points each to the winners of the tournament. Other additional events can earn up to 300 points as well.
But winning isn't the only way that golfers earn FedEx Cup points. Players that make the 36-hole cut automatically receive points for their performance. However, the point totals progressively decrease the further down the leaderboard a player drops, so just making a cut doesn't guarantee that they will be able to move significantly up the leaderboard.
It's also notable that the points system changes in the playoffs, as each event becomes increasingly valuable. The FedEx St. Jude Championship will earn 2,000 points. The same is true of the BMW Championship. Second place in those events grants a player 1,200 points, while third is worth 760. For a full playoff point breakdown, click here.
But still, with an 800-point gap between first and second, it is obviously preferable to win the event.
The points system goes out the window for the PGA Tour championship, where it's all about watching a top golfer best his peers in stroke play. That said, the start is weighted based on the FedEx Cup standings: The player with the most points begins with a 10-under handicap while players in his pursuit can rank anywhere from 8 under to even par.
Here is the full handicap system:
- 1-seed: (10 under)
- 2-seed: (8 under)
- 3-seed: (7 under)
- 4-seed: (6 under)
- 5-seed: (5 under)
- Seeds 6-10: (4 under)
- Seeds 11-15: (3 under)
- Seeds 16-20: (2 under)
- Seeds 21-25: (1 under)
- Seeds 26-30: (par)
It's worth noting that the No. 1 seed has won the Tour Championship in two of the last three seasons. However, Rory McIlroy was able to take home the title in 2022 after Scottie Scheffler faltered, despite his handicap.
McIlroy had started at 4-under par, so his ability to erase Scheffler's six-stroke lead over four days was certainly impressive.
FedEx Cup standings 2023
Below is a look at the top 30 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings following the completion of the BMW Championship. Also included are their starting stroke handicaps for the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ga.
| Rank | Golfer | Starting score |
| 1 | Scottie Scheffler | 10 under |
| 2 | Viktor Hovland | 8 under |
| 3 | Rory McIlroy | 7 under |
| 4 | Jon Rahm | 6 under |
| 5 | Lucas Glover | 5 under |
| 6 | Max Homa | 4 under |
| 7 | Patrick Cantlay | 4 under |
| 8 | Brian Harman | 4 under |
| 9 | Wyndham Clark | 4 under |
| 10 | Matt Fitzpatrick | 4 under |
| 11 | Tommy Fleetwood | 3 under |
| 12 | Russell Henley | 3 under |
| 13 | Keegan Bradley | 3 under |
| 14 | Rickie Fowler | 3 under |
| 15 | Xander Schauffele | 3 under |
| 16 | Tom Kim | 2 under |
| 17 | Sungjae Im | 2 under |
| 18 | Tony Finau | 2 under |
| 19 | Corey Conners | 2 under |
| 20 | Si Woo Kim | 2 under |
| 21 | Taylor Moore | 1 under |
| 22 | Nick Taylor | 1 under |
| 23 | Adam Schenk | 1 under |
| 24 | Collin Morikawa | 1 under |
| 25 | Jason Day | 1 under |
| 26 | Sam Burns | Even |
| 27 | Emiliano Grillo | Even |
| 28 | Tyrrell Hatton | Even |
| 29 | Jordan Spieth | Even |
| 30 | Sepp Straka | Even |
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FedEx Cup playoffs schedule
FedEx St. Jude Championship
- Dates: Aug. 10-13
- Course: TPC Southwind
- Location: Memphis, Tenn.
The FedEx St. Jude Championship was the first stop on the PGA Tour's three-tournament playoff circuit. It marks the second season that the event, played at the 7,244-yard TPC Southwind, will be a part of the playoffs (as opposed to a separate PGA Tour event).
There were no cuts at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, so all 70 golfers had the opportunity to play a full four rounds. Twenty golfers were cut as the playoffs continue.
BMW Championship
- Dates: Aug. 17-20
- Course: Wilmington Country Club
- Location: Wilmington, Del.
A total of 50 golfers will travel east to Delaware for the BMW Championship, which will be played at the Wilmington Country Club. Once again, there will be no 36-hole cut, allowing all playoff golfers to participate in the entire tournament.
The BMW Championship plays at 7,534 yards and favors the bigger hitters on the tour. Patrick Cantlay has won the event in back-to-back seasons and set the tournament scoring record alongside Bryson DeChambeau in 2021 when each shot 27 under during the event.
Tour Championship
- Dates: Aug. 24-27
- Course: East Lake Golf Club
- Location: Atlanta
East Lake Golf Club has hosted the PGA Tour Championship since 2004, and it remains the iconic finishing spot for the PGA's top professionals. Rory McIlroy conquered East Lake in 2022 to take home the PGA Tour title — and also a very nice payday.
FedEx Cup payouts 2023
The FedEx Cup is once again set to hand out a massive prize pool of $75 million. The PGA Tour hasn't yet announced exactly how it plans to divvy up the payouts for the tour championship, but given the similar prize pool, it's safe to assume that they will be similar to the ones from 2022.
Below is a look at the FedEx Cup payouts from 2022:
| Position | Payout |
| 1 | $18 million |
| 2 | $6.5 million |
| 3 | $5 million |
| 4 | $4 million |
| 5 | $3 million |
| 6 | $2.5 million |
| 7 | $2 million |
| 8 | $1.5 million |
| 9 | $1.25 million |
| 10 | $1 million |
| 11 | $950,000 |
| 12 | $900,000 |
| 13 | $850,000 |
| 14 | $800,000 |
| 15 | $760,000 |
| 16 | $720,000 |
| 17 | $700,000 |
| 18 | $680,000 |
| 19 | $660,000 |
| 20 | $640,000 |
| 21 | $620,000 |
| 22 | $600,000 |
| 23 | $580,000 |
| 24 | $565,000 |
| 25 | $550,000 |
| 26 | $540,000 |
| 27 | $530,000 |
| 28 | $520,000 |
| 29 | $510,000 |
| 30 | $500,000 |