Nobody has heard the kerching sound of the FedEx Cup’s money more loudly that Rory McIlroy and as the world number two goes in search of a fourth title in the PGA Tour’s playoffs – which starts with this week’s St Jude Classic in Memphis – there will be fewer bodies to negotiate in that quest than in past years.
With the PGA Tour reducing those advancing from the regular season to the playoffs from 125 to 70, the list of casualties as it were included high-profile names among them Shane Lowry, Adam Scott (his streak of 16 successive playoffs ended) and Justin Thomas who will have to watch from afar as others go chasing the pot of gold. This year’s winner will pocket $18 million from a pool of $75 million.
McIlroy and Séamus Power, who both sat out the Wyndham Championship won by Lucas Glover, and where Lowry was among those to fall short of his goal to force his way into the top-70, are the two Irish players who have advanced into the three tournament playoffs that feature the St Jude in Memphis, the BMW in Delaware and the Tour Championship in Atlanta with field sizes reduced – from 70 to 50 to 30 – at each stage.
Glover, the only player to move into the top-70 for the playoffs after his win in Greensboro, North Carolina, was also highly critical post-win of how the PGA Tour has restructured the lucrative playoffs and effectively cut off a large chunk of its members.
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In his assessment after an emotional win, Glover remarked: “It’s very contrived to me, the whole thing. I don’t even really understand it. I think if you finish in the top-125, I don’t know why you don’t get to play (in Memphis). It think it’s silly that we’re playing 70 in these elevated events (in 2024). I think it’s silly. I think it’s taken a lot of these last few tournaments of the regular season, a lot of that drama, and I just think it’s silly.”
Glover, a former US Open champion who has overcome the putting yips to get back to winning ways, went further in later telling Golfweek magazine that “it feels like the toothpaste is out of the tube” in attempting to reason why so many PGA Tour players have been cast adrift so soon.
As he put it, “some of the guys who were pushing for 70 are now backtracking a little bit. I don’t know if it is because they are outside the top 70 or they actually understand it’s kind of silly. We’re touting ourselves as the best tour in the world, so why wouldn’t you reward the best 125 guys and let them play in your biggest events. Same with the elevated events (next year). You finish 125th on the best tour in the world, and you’re in one elevated event, The Players. That’s silly to me and always has been. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Glover, proving to be very articulate in his argument, added of the proposed restructured PGA Tour set-up going forward, which is still up in the air given the recent proposed deal with Saudi Arabia’s PIF:
“No one has convinced me that this is better other than the guys who stood to be rewarded the most pushed for it and our brass thought they had to appease them. If that’s the case, that’s the case, but as we’ve seen that’s not working because we have another deal in place (with PIF).”
McIlroy and Power return to competition for the big money playoffs for the first time since the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool, where McIlroy finished tied-sixth and Power missed the cut by one stroke.
Power returned to Las Vegas last week for some work on his game, with concerns about his hip injury abated after a change in physical therapy. He expects to be “100 per cent fit” for the playoffs which also offer the Waterford man an opportunity to earn Ryder Cup points (through the world points table) in his bid to make a debut appearance on Luke Donald’s team in Rome.
Lowry, meanwhile, may yet decide to add the upcoming Czech Open or, more likely, the Omega European Masters on to his schedule in his own bid to strengthen claims for a place on Donald’s team. The automatic qualifying for the European team finishes at the European Masters in Switzerland, although Donald has six wild card picks to complete the 12-man team.
