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Winner of the Wyndham Rewards competition likely to be decided ahead of next week's Wyndham Championship
Piaras Ó Mídheach
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs are still two weeks away, but another season-long prize will likely end up being determined at this week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
The inaugural Wyndham Rewards competition will conclude at next week’s regular-season finale, the Wyndham Championship, with the top 10 players in the season-long points race divvying up a $10 million bonus, with $2 million of that going to the leader.
Adding such a lucrative prize to help lure big names to Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., didn’t exactly work out, however. Paul Casey is the only player among the top 10 in the FedEx Cup standings scheduled to play in the Wyndham after the final field was announced on Friday.
Casey would likely need to win this week and next to catch current points leader Brooks Koepka, who has a slim 37-point lead over Matt Kuchar. Koepka is tied for seventh through 36 holes at TPC Southwind, five stroke ahead of Kuchar, who is tied for 33rd. With both of them not entered into next week's event, how they finish on Sunday will essentially determine the final Wyndham ranking.
The only other players in the top 20 who are scheduled to play next week are No. 12 Chez Reavie and No. 14 Charles Howell III.
It wasn’t all bad news for the event, though, with Jordan Spieth committing to the field. It will be his first appearance since 2013. Open champion Shane Lowry, who skipped this week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, was also listed in the field but withdrew moments after it was announced.
As the rankings stand, not taking into account any change from the results of the tournament in Memphis or this week's Barracuda Championship, here are the top 15 players.
1: Brooks Koepka, 2,337
2: Matt Kuchar, 2,300
3: Rory McIlroy, 2,195
4: Xander Schauffele, 1,830
5: Gary Woodland, 1,789
6: Patrick Cantlay, 1,671
7: Dustin Johnson, 1,638
8: Paul Casey, 1,546
9: Rickie Fowler, 1,391
10: Jon Rahm, 1,352
11: Justin Rose, 1,350
12: Chez Reavie, 1,272
13: Tony Finaa, 1,251
14: Charles Howell III, 1,245
15: Marc Leishman, 1,215