For major champions Adam Scott and Shane Lowry, the FedExCup Playoffs begin at Wyndham

GREENSBORO, N.C. – If this were last year, and Adam Scott was ranked 81st in the FedExCup as he is now, he’d be under no undue pressure at the Wyndham Championship.

But the change in the FedExCup Playoffs format that moved the qualification threshold for the FedEx St. Jude Championship to the top 70 instead of the top 125, however, has left the Australian with quite the challenge.

He and Matt Kuchar are the only two players who have qualified for the Playoffs every year since its inception in 2007. Scott now has some work to do to extend that streak to 17 years.

So for all intents and purposes, the Playoffs start Thursday for the 14-time PGA TOUR champion.

“I feel like my game is good, so my game plan is to go out there and really focus,” Scott said Wednesday. “Sometimes when you're up against it like this, there's only really one outcome. It's like qualifying for a tournament except this is kind of a four day qualifier for me.

“So sometimes that can really help you, it can intensify your focus and get the job done.”

The man currently on the Playoffs bubble is Austin Eckroat. He has 590 points, which is 73 ahead of Scott. A win at the Wyndham Championship is worth 500 FedExCup points. Only three players ranked between Nos. 51 and 100 are not playing at Sedgefield.

Scott has competed in Greensboro five times previously, but he’s never entered the final event of the PGA TOUR Regular Season having to play his way into the Playoffs. He’s only had one top-10 here, finishing tied for second in that rollicking six-man round of sudden death won by Kevin Kisner in 2021.

The 43-year-old Scott likely needs – at the minimum – a two-way tie for ninth or better at Sedgefield Country Club to have a shot at making the field in Memphis. Projections based on the TOUR’s historical trends and data, though, suggest a three-way tie for third as a gauge.

Don’t expect the former world No. 1 to be huddled around a computer, pouring over the calculations, though.

“I'm really thinking about winning the tournament, not just trying to squeak in next week,” he said. “I probably have to have a pretty high result to get in anyway, so I may as well think about winning, that's what I would like to do the most this week.”

Scott, who won the 2013 Masters Tournament, isn’t the only former major winner who finds himself on the outside looking in this week.

Shane Lowry, the 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year, clocks in at No. 76 while two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas is 79th and former Masters champ Danny Willett is No. 83. Further back are Gary Woodland (No. 97), Jimmy Walker (122), Zach Johnson (151), Stewart Cink (165), Webb Simpson (170) and Luke Donald (196).

Of the major group, Lowry has the most generous mathematical possibilities – a two-way tie for 23rd to have a chance or a two-way tie for fifth in the TOUR’s projections. He’s played at Sedgefield five times in the last seven years with a tie for seventh in 2017 as his best finish.

Only once has Lowry needed to play his way into the Playoffs at Sedgefield, which he did with a tie for 23rd in 2020.

Refreshed after a family vacation last week, Lowry characterizes his year as a “lot of good, not much great, which on the PGA TOUR doesn’t cut it.” His only top-10 finish this year was solo fifth at the Honda Classic, but he’s also had nine top-25 finishes in 17 starts.

“Obviously, I'm here because I want to make it into next week,” Lowry said. “I think it's easy to sit here and go, ‘Oh, I just want to play well, I want to go out and try and win the tournament.’ No, at the end of the day, I want to make it into next week, I want to make it into the Playoffs and I want to make a run at the Playoffs.

“At this stage I'm sitting here, and I still feel like I can make the TOUR Championship, so that's an exciting place to be. I think obviously I would prefer if I was in a better spot coming in here, but I'm not. It is what it is now, and I'm going to need a good week this week. Memphis is a course that I like playing and I've played all right in the past, so if I can get there, I know I can make a run there.

“I certainly don't want to be sitting home on my couch watching the Playoffs. It's a lot of motivation for me this week to play good golf and hopefully get my rewards at the end of it.”

The ultimate reward is the $18 million bonus, which will be determined at the TOUR Championship in Atlanta when the top 30 players gather in four weeks.

Jordan Spieth currently would be the last man in at East Lake with 1,099 points. The cutoff for the second Playoffs event, the BMW Championship, is No. 50, occupied now by Taylor Montgomery with 823 points.