FedEx Cup Fall: PGA Tour pros fighting with 3 events to go

After Collin Morikawa won the ZOZO Championship in dominant fashion, the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall takes a hiatus before three events in November wrap up the season.

Those three tournaments are listed below:

• Worldwide Technologies Championship – Los Cabos, Mexico – Nov. 2-5
• Butterfield Bermuda Championship – Southampton, Bermuda – Nov. 9-12
• RSM Classic – St. Simons Island, Georgia – Nov. 16-19

After these three events, those players ranked 51st to 60th in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings will receive an invitation to play in the first two ‘Signature Events’ of the 2024 PGA Tour season.

Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

The Sentry at Kapalua and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am are the first two signature events in 2024. Those tournaments will include the top 50 players in the 2023 FedEx Cup standings and have elevated purses, which could change a golfer’s career trajectory.

With that in mind, let’s check out the current rankings as we are now past the midway point of the FedEx Cup Fall season:

51. Beau Hossler

52. Taylor Montgomery

53. Nick Hardy

54. Ben Griffin

55. Alex Smalley

56. J.J. Spaun

57. Mackenzie Hughes

58. Stephan Jaeger

59. Luke List

60. Thomas Detry

Beau Hossler has played well through the Fall series, making the cut at all four events thus far. He tied for seventh at the Shriners Children’s Open and then finished in a tie for 2nd at the ZOZO. The former Texas Longhorn has all but locked up a spot in the Signature Events next season.

Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/Getty Images

J.J. Spaun also played well in Japan, finishing in a tie for sixth. That propelled him into the top 10 in the FedEx Cup Fall, as he was on the outside looking in before the ZOZO Championship.

Let’s take a look at the following 10 players fighting to get into that elusive 51-to-60 range:

61. Mark Hubbard

62. Davis Riley

63. Sam Ryder

64. S.H. Kim

65. Brandon Wu

66. Matt Kuchar

67. Hayden Buckley

68. Keith Mitchell

69. Aaron Rai

70. Matt NeSmith

Sam Ryder entered last week as the 60th ranked player, but the former Stetson Hatter finished the ZOZO Championship at 7-over par—in a tie for 64th. That poor performance dropped him out of the top 10, at least for now.

Matt Kuchar, meanwhile, has not played since the Fortinet Championship, where he tied for 7th.

Photo by Yoshimasa Nakano/Getty Images

Other notables outside the top 60 include Justin Thomas and Joel Dahmen, ranked 72nd and 76th in the FedEx Cup standings, respectively.

But Thomas and Dahmen are not in danger of losing their PGA Tour cards altogether.

Those players ranked beyond 125th, however, could lose their PGA Tour membership.

The top 125 players in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings earn PGA Tour cards for 2024, meaning dozens of players are fighting for their careers. Should a player finish outside of the top 125, they can play on the DP World Tour in 2024, as new exemption categories for those players were announced Monday.

Here are the 10 players ranked from 116th to 125th in the FedEx Cup Fall:

116. Ben Martin

117. Henrik Norlander

118. Andrew Novak

119. Peter Malnati

120. Nico Echavarria

121. Maverick McNealy

122. Chesson Hadley

123. Doug Ghim

124. C.T. Pan

125. Erik van Rooyen

van Rooyen, who hails from South Africa, most recently tied for 23rd at the Shriners Children’s Open. The 33-year-old holds onto the elusive 125th spot by a dozen points over Zecheng Dou, who is one of many players on the outside looking in:

126. Zecheng Dou

127. Cameron Champ

128. MJ Daffue

129. Jimmy Walker

130. Patton Kizzire

131. Harrison Endycott

132. Austin Smotherman

133. Carl Yuan

134. Scott Piercy

135. Trey Mullinax

Notably, the top 150 finishers in the FedEx Cup Fall earn conditional PGA Tour status for 2024. Nevertheless, anyone who fails to make the top 125 will likely be relegated to the Korn Ferry Tour or opt to play on the DP World Tour instead.

So even though November could be considered golf’s “off-season,” there is never a time during the year when the sport fails to entertain.

The final three events of the FedEx Cup Fall will produce tremendous drama and change the lives of dozens of professional golfers for better or worse.

Check back with Playing Through as the standings are finalized.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.