5 surprising subplots at Wyndham

If you haven’t scheduled a weekend watch party for this week’s Wyndham Championship, well, we’re not here to blame you. There’s some other stuff happening. The final major of the year is taking place in the AIG Women’s Open at Porthcawl, while the men’s game is still in the awkward lull between the end of the majors and the start of the playoffs. Maybe you’ve planned to mow your lawn. See some friends. Play a little golf of your own.

But while there are always interesting subplots to this PGA Tour’s regular-season finale, this year there seem to be even more than usual. With fewer playoff spots available, more money on the line, Ryder Cup spots in the balance plus job security and more at stake, nearly everybody in the field has something extra to play for.

Here are five of those most intriguing somethings:

1. Money, money, money

If you glaze over at the mere mention of more millions up for grabs in men’s golf, all good. I get it. Skip to the next bullet point. But in addition to the Wyndham’s $8.2 million purse, there are multiple season-long bonuses in place that mean there is a lot of cash up for grabs.

First there’s the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, which dishes out $40 million to the regular season’s top 10 as follows:

Comcast Business Tour Top 10 Bonus

1st — $8 mil
2nd — $6m
3rd — $4.8m
4th — $4.4m
5th — $4m
6th — $3.4m
7th — $2.8m
8th — $2.4m
9th — $2.2m
10th — $2m

But get this: there’s also the first FedEx Cup bonus payout now that they’re spreading the love across three different payouts. Ignoring the fact that it’s hilarious to have two different regular-season prize funds that distribute at the same time and using wildly different payout structures, here’s what that looks like:

FedEx Cup Regular Season Payout

1st — $10m
2nd — $4m
3rd — $1.2m
4th — $1m
5th — $800k
6th — $700k
7th — $650k
8th — $600k
9th — $550k
10th — $500k

The bad news, entertainment-wise, is that the top two spots are already locked in. Congrats, Scottie Scheffler, on your $18 mil ($8m from Comcast, $10m from FedEx). Congrats, Rory McIlroy, on $10 mil of your own ($6m and $4m). They’ll get that sweet, sweet direct deposit without setting foot anywhere near Greensboro, N.C. — and they’ll have more bonus money on the way. But after them, things get a bit more interesting.

Ben Griffin (No. 7 in the FedEx Cup), Keegan Bradley (No. 10), Andrew Novak (No. 12) and Robert MacIntyre (No. 15) could all meaningfully move up with a top finish. If Griffin won, he’d collect the $1.48m winner’s check plus improve his bonus payout by more than $2.5m, for example. Captain Keegan has to secure (or improve) his currently projected $2.5m in bonus money.

And then there are the guys trying to sneak in from outside the top 10, which includes the tantalizing possibility that Novak could win this week, catch Bradley in the Ryder Cup standings and capture his $2.5 mil all while vying for a captain’s pick. (Bob MacIntyre could unseat Bradley, too, kicking off Ryder Cup tensions early.)

2. Playoff spots

I know it’s tough to keep track, so let’s review: 70 players now make the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Then 50 make the second-round BMW Championship and 30 make the big-money Tour Championship finale.

So this week we’re dialed in on the bubble boys. Big-timers Tony Finau (No. 60) and Rickie Fowler (No. 61) are almost certainly safe for Top 70 but here’s how things look behind them:

62 — Davis Riley, 651.7 FedEx Cup points
63 — Kevin Yu, 644.3
64 — Erik van Rooyen, 634.4
65 — Nico Echavarria, 628.5
66 — Emiliano Grillo, 627.6
67 — Cam Davis, 616.3
68 — Patrick Rodgers, 615.6
69 — Ben An, 595.4
70 — Matti Schmid, 594.6
—
71 — Nicolai Hojgaard, 590.4
72 — Keith Mitchell, 589.3
73 — Chris Kirk, 582
74 — Christiaan Bezuidenhout, 575.1
75 — Gary Woodland, 562.1
76 — Kevin Roy, 555.8
77 — Alex Smalley, 553.8
78 — Davis Thompson, 551.6
79 — Eric Cole, 546.2
80 — William Mouw, 526.7

Those are some slim but meaningful margins; top 70 will get to sail worry-free into full status for the 2026 season (okay, they’ll still sweat out top 50, etc., but you get the idea) while everyone else will be left jockeying to secure their card this fall. Speaking of which…

3. Job security

This year the Tour is cutting its full-status cards to 100 instead of 125. (Nos. 101-125 will have partial status.) That cut won’t happen this week — instead it’ll be finalized at the end of the seven-event fall season. But if you’re outside the top 70 this will be your last Tour event until mid-September at the Procore in Napa, Calif., which means there’s some urgency before a lengthy layoff. Here’s how that bubble looks at the moment, featuring one notable fan favorite at No. 101; I’ve also starred those players who are exempt into 2026.

91 — Danny Walker
92 — Matt Wallace
93 — Garrick Higgo
94 — Taylor Moore
95 — Vince Whaley
96 — Beau Hossler
97 — Billy Horschel*
98 — Mark Hubbard
99 — Max McGreevy
100 — Isaiah Salinda
101 — Joel Dahmen
102 — Lee Hodges
103 — Rico Hoey
104 — Austin Eckroat*
105 — Jesper Svensson
106 — Max Homa*
107 — Victor Perez
108 — Patrick Fishburn
109 — Chan Kim
110 — Alejandro Tosti

4. Ryder Cup spots (Team USA edition)

Most Ryder Cup locks aren’t playing this week — we don’t have the Schefflers, Schauffeles or even Spauns and Henleys of the world teeing it up. But there’s plenty of Team USA intrigue nonetheless.

Not only are three Americans in the Ryder Cup mix playing — Griffin, Bradley and Novak are Nos. 9, 10 and 13 in the U.S. ranking — they’re actually playing together the first two rounds, which means a chance to audition directly in front of Bradley. (Bradley’s audition for Bradley is, of course, the most compelling.)

These guys will all coast into the playoffs, of course, so this isn’t a final look. But Griffin and Novak have leveled out a bit after red-hot stretches earlier this season; it’s time to see whether they can make a move.

There are other guys who could go on some sort of heater and insert themselves in the conversation — the Lucas Glovers, Cameron Youngs and Sam Stevens of the world. But we’ll have our eyes trained on that top three, for now.

5. Ryder Cup spots (Team Europe edition)

Because of the way European pros schedule their seasons, Ryder Cup bubble boys can also be FedEx Cup bubble boys. That means this week there are a few pros who are playing to extend their seasons and also extend their audition periods a couple weeks longer. Most notably Rasmus Hojgaard (No. 7 in Ryder Cup ranking, No. 82 in the FedEx Cup), Matt Wallace (No. 11 in Ryder Cup, No. 92 in FedEx Cup) and Nicolai Hojgaard (No. 25 in Ryder Cup, No. 71 in FedEx Cup). Nicolai just needs a solid finish, where Rasmus or Wallace need something special to keep their U.S. seasons going. If not, it’ll be interesting to see if they add some European events like the Danish Golf Championship (Aug. 14-17, a logical fit for the Danish twins) or the Betfred British Masters (Aug. 21-24) should they miss top 70.

There are other contenders for that final European spot in the Wyndham field, too, one more likely (Matthew Fitzpatrick, currently No. 13 on Team Europe’s list) and others in need of a splash (Thomas Detry, Aaron Rai, Harry Hall).

By my back-of-the-napkin math there are nine near-locks for the European team (Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Aberg, Tyrrell Hatton, Bob MacIntyre, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland and Shane Lowry). As for the final three? There’s a little golf left to play to find out.

It’s always a good week to have a good week. This week it’s just even better.

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