FedEx Cup Playoffs heartbreak unfolds at Wyndham Championship

When Davis Thompson rolled in a 47-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole at Sedgefield Country Club on Sunday, he first pumped and let out a quick celebratory yell. The birdie didn’t put a dent in Cameron Young’s big lead at the Wyndham Championship — he went on to win by six — but it moved Thompson from 71st in the FedEx Cup Playoff standings to inside the top 70 with three holes to play. It was, for the moment, a season-extending bomb.

Thompson parred 16 and 17 and arrived at the 72nd hole needing to make a par to stay inside the top 70 and head to Memphis for the first playoff event. Thompson hit the green in two, leaving himself 46 feet for birdie. A two-putt would book his ticket to TPC Southwind, but Thompson’s first putt raced six-and-a-half feet past the hole and his comebacker never even touched the hole. When Thompson tapped in for a finishing bogey, he dropped to 71st in the standings, one spot out of the playoffs.

“It sucks, but it is what it is,” Thompson said after the round. “Just got to move on and get ready for the fall.

“The putt [for par on 18] went left when it got by the hole and I felt like I hit it on the left edge, and it went left. It’s unfortunate.”

Thompson wasn’t the only player on Sunday to suffer FedEx Cup Playoffs heartbreak.

Gary Woodland entered the final round projected to be the last man in the playoff field, but Woodland made three bogeys in his final five holes to shoot an even-par 70 and finish at 72nd in the standings. Woodland, who had brain surgery to remove a tumor in 2023, said he’ll mostly take positives away from a season in which he barely missed the cut. Woodland, who is still working to find the best way to settle his nervous system after tournament rounds, admitted that he just didn’t have it on Sunday.

“I ran out of gas,” Woodland said after his final round. “Credit to my caddie today, man. I’ll tell you, he was unbelievable. I told him before we started that I was struggling. Had a rough night last night, rough morning this morning. He did everything for me today. He led me around. I was just trying to hit the shots. It wasn’t enough in the end, but credit to him, he carried me today.”

Keith Mitchell entered the final week needing to make a move to climb over that 70 mark. Mitchell’s first task was to make the weekend in Greensboro, N.C. Mitchell was a four under for the tournament on Friday when play was suspended due to lightning. Four under was on the cutline, meaning Mitchell returned to the course Saturday morning needing to play steady golf over his final four holes to keep the dream alive.

Instead, disaster struck.

Mitchell four-putted from 49 feet on the 15th to make double bogey and fall under the cut line. He then barely missed a birdie on 16 to move back inside the number. Mitchell kept fighting, making a 10-footer for birdie at 17. He arrived at 18 needing to make par, but he drove it into the left rough and had to lay up short of the green. He hit a wedge to seven feet but missed the season-extending putt and left Greensboro after two days of work, finishing at 75th in the standings.

“Gave it my all this year, probably too much, loads of pressure on myself to make the playoffs and top 50,” Mitchell, who declined to speak after the round, told PGATour.com in a text. “Physically my game has shown signs but just haven’t shown up in the moment when it counts the most. We fight and fight and grind to give it our all and to finish like that is really just heartbreaking.”

The only player to start the week inside the top 70 and fall out was Byeong Hun An, who shot 68-72 over the first two days to miss the cut and fall to 74th. Chris Kirk, who finished T5, jumped from 73 to 61 and bumped An out of the playoffs. Matti Schmid, who started the week at No. 70, played scratchy golf and put himself in danger of being bumped by Thompson or Woodland on Sunday. But Schmid birdied his last three holes, including a 25-footer on No. 18 to hold off Thompson and extend his season for at least one more week.

“I obviously didn’t play too well today,” Schmid, who was four over through 15 holes in the final round, said. “I struggled a bit with my game but hung in there, and putts finally started to drop toward the end. Yeah, just grinded out. I was pretty positive today trying to have a good finish. Yeah, maybe with a bit of luck.”

Here’s how the FedEx Cup Playoffs bubble played out:

65. Davis Riley
66. Kevin Yu
67. Emilian Grillo
68. Erik van Rooyen
69. Cam Davis
70. Matti Schmid
71. Davis Thompson
72. Gary Woodland
73. Nicolai Hojgaard
74. Byeong Hun An
75. Keith Mitchell