HOT SHEET: FedExCup Playoffs Edition

THE PLAYERS Championship

Hot Sheet: FedExCup Playoffs Edition

August 21, 2020

This edition of THE PLAYERS Championship hot sheet is focused on the FedExCup Playoffs, the three-event finale to the PGA TOUR season that gets under way this week. Here are the top storylines you need to know.  

Take a look at our past champions who have qualified for the 2020 FedExCup Playoffs and where they currently sit in the standings:

Here are some key stats you need to know:

• 2018 champion Webb Simpson leads the pack of past PLAYERS champions who hope to hoist the FedExCup trophy in Atlanta in three weeks’ time. Simpson has seven top-10 finishes this season, including two wins – Waste Management Phoenix Open and RBC Heritage. He enters THE NORTHERN TRUST this week fresh off a T3 finish at the Wyndham Championship.
• 2004 champion Adam Scott is the only player to record top-10 finishes in every event in the FedExCup Playoffs in multiple seasons (2016 and 2019).
• 2016 champion Jason Day has finished no worse than T7 in his last four starts on the PGA TOUR. He’s searching for his first win on TOUR since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship.
• 2012 champion Matt Kuchar has qualified for the TOUR Championship in nine of the past 10 seasons but has posted just one top-10 finish this season.
• 2007 champion Phil Mickelson is the only player who has finished inside the top 70 of the FedExCup in all 13 seasons.
• 2017 champion Si Woo Kim jumped from No. 121 to No. 82 in the FedExCup standings thanks to a T3 finish at the Wyndham Championship last weekend. He was the 54-hole leader thanks in part to a red-hot 62 on Saturday, which included this hole-in-one (his reaction at the end is priceless).
• 2015 champion Rickie Fowler posted his best finish in the FedExCup standings (No. 4) during the same season as his historic win on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. He has two top-10 finishes this season.

Despite making only five starts this season, two-time PLAYERS champ and two-time FedExCup champ Tiger Woods sits at No. 49 in the FedExCup standings thanks in large part to his historic win at the ZOZO Championship last fall, which tied Sam Snead’s record for all-time PGA TOUR wins (82).

Since golf’s return in June, Woods posted a T40 finish at the Memorial Tournament and a T37 finish at the PGA Championship. Last weekend, he put on his caddie bib and carried the bag for his son Charlie during a US Kids golf tournament, which Charlie won by five shots after posting a 3-under 33 for 9 holes (!). #LikeFatherLikeSon

Only the top 30 players make it to the TOUR Championship, so Woods needs to card some strong finishes at THE NORTHERN TRUST and the BMW Championship over these next two weeks in order to have a chance at making more history.

Rory McIlroy’s victory at THE PLAYERS in 2019 was just the beginning of one of the most memorable seasons of his career. He won the RBC Canadian Open a few months later and then captured the FedExCup at the TOUR Championship to become the first player in history to win THE PLAYERS and the FedExCup in the same season. McIlroy finished the PGA TOUR’s Season of Championships exactly how he started it – with a trophy in his hands.

Now, as McIlroy enters the 2020 FedExCup Playoffs at No. 8 in the standings, he looks to become the only three-time winner of the FedExCup. McIlroy started his 2019-20 season with six straight top-five finishes, including a win at the WGC-HSBC Champions. Since the return of golf in June, his best finish was T11 at the Travelers Championship. Does Rors have what it takes?

While he may not have THE PLAYERS Championship on his resume (yet!), Northeast Florida resident Billy Horschel knows a thing or two about defeating the toughest competition. In 2014, Horschel produced one of the most epic comeback stories in golf: he entered the 2014 FedExCup Playoffs ranked 69^th, missed the cut at THE NORTHERN TRUST to drop to 80^th, and then won the BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship to capture the PGA TOUR’s Ultimate Prize.

This year, Horschel enters the Playoffs at No. 25 in the standings. Just last week, he was one shot away from winning the Wyndham Championship. Don’t count out this Florida Gator as we enter the final stretch.