The Five: Biggest stories of the 2022-23 FedExCup season

It began with Max Homa chipping in to win in Napa, California, and ended with Viktor Hovland’s breakout in Atlanta. There were 47 official events, 17,817 rounds played and 1,258,514 shots hit in between. Now, the 2022-23 FedExCup season is over.

Before the page is turned to the FedExCup Fall, where players outside the top 70 will compete to earn their PGA TOUR cards for 2024, let’s reflect on the season's biggest storylines thus far.

Here are the five biggest storylines of the 2022-23 FedExCup season.

Jon Rahm vs. Scottie Scheffler

Individually, their seasons are historic. Together, they are unprecedented. The 2022-23 FedExCup season was dominated for large stretches by two players – Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm.

The duo combined for six wins, 27 top-10s, 34 top-25s and just one missed cut. They finished the Regular Season as Nos. 1 and 2 in the FedExCup, both with more than 3,000 points. It was the first time two players surpassed that mark since the current points structure debuted in 2009.

They are the only two players to hold the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking since February. Scheffler, currently No. 1, has held it for 50 weeks, dating back to July 2021. Rahm has spent 45 weeks at No. 1 in that span.

Rahm racked up the gaudy numbers early. He won his first two PGA TOUR starts of 2023, shooting a combined 54 under par at The Sentry and The American Express. The Genesis Invitational was his fifth win across eight starts on the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour.

His fourth win was his most significant, outdueling Brooks Koepka to win the Masters, his second major championship and first green jacket.

It was Scheffler who sustained his greatness for longer, though. He won the WM Phoenix Open in February. He and Rahm were separated by just one shot early in the front nine on Sunday, but Scheffler pulled away and beat Nick Taylor by two shots and Rahm by five. He won THE PLAYERS Championship in March by a convincing five-stroke margin. At the time, his win at TPC Sawgrass was already his ninth straight top-12 finish. It would reach 18 consecutive until he finished T23 at The Open Championship in July. It's the longest streak since 1983.

Scheffler’s season is currently the second-best Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green season in the ShotLink era. Tiger Woods’ 2006 season is the only one better.

But which season was better? The Player of the Year Award won’t be voted on until the end of the FedExCup Fall. It is a debate of consistency vs. peak performance. Scheffler’s season has been steadier, but putting woes have kept him from racking up wins. Meanwhile, Rahm leads the TOUR with four wins but finished the season with only three top-10s in the last four months.

Down go the droughts!

There’s a moment of realization for most when they’re contending in a golf tournament. A shot, a bounce, a putt or a flash of scoreboard that tells them it’s not their day – that their pursuit of a trophy is gone, either by their own doing or someone else’s performance. Even the most prolific winners in the sport lose an overwhelming majority of the time they tee it up.

Enough of those days still leave a toll. Repeat those feelings enough and it begins to drown out any recollections of victory.

As Jason Day stood over a 3-foot putt to win the AT&T Byron Nelson earlier this summer at TPC Craig Ranch, his first thought was: “What if I miss?”

He made the putt, snapped the drought and was quickly swept up in the magnitude of it all. He spent several years wondering if he should quit the game altogether. Back issues and vertigo deteriorated his physical health, while his mother's death and growing family pulled his mind elsewhere. Yet here Day was – a winner again.

“It feels strange to be sitting here,” Day said. “I don't know how else to explain it. To go through what I went through and then to be able to be a winner again.”

His redemption story is one of several from the 2022-23 season.

Rickie Fowler returned triumphantly at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, making birdie on the 72nd hole with a remarkable approach shot to get into a playoff. Then he rolled in a 12-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole to beat Collin Morikawa and Adam Hadwin.

Finally – his first win since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open.

“I'm not scared to fail. I've dealt with plenty of that,” Fowler said.

That’s a sentiment shared by Lucas Glover, who resurrected his putting stroke and career with the switch to a mallet-style putter midway through the season.

It started in Detroit, where Fowler won. Glover finished T4 there, added two top-six finishes the next two weeks, then won back-to-back events at the Wyndham Championship and FedEx St. Jude Championship.

“A lesser man would have quit a long time ago,” said Glover’s college coach, Larry Penley. “He made enough money. He had a good career. He didn’t have to put himself through all that crap, but he found a way.”

Among others to snap lengthy droughts, Keegan Bradley won the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in October, which, at the time, was just his second win since 2012. His next drought lasted less than eight months as he won the Travelers Championship in June.

Justin Rose claimed his first victory since 2019, winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by three strokes in February.

For the third time in four seasons, more tournaments were won by players in their 20s (23) than their 30s (22), but some of the season's most exciting moments came from the old guard returning to their thrones.

Streaks shape the season

When you’re hot, you’re hot. In a sport with a tournament nearly every week of the year, the opportunity for players to catch fire and run is omnipresent.

The season began with a career-altering stretch for Max Homa, who dramatically defended his title at the Fortinet Championship. He chipped in for birdie on the 72nd hole to post 16 under, then watched from the clubhouse as Danny Willett three-putted from 4 feet to lose by one.

No time to savor the victory, though. Homa quickly left town for Charlotte, North Carolina, where he would play in his first Presidents Cup just a few days later. He finished 4-0-0 at Quail Hollow Club. His breakout was in full swing. He finished T3 at The Sentry, won the Farmers Insurance Open and was runner-up at The Genesis Invitational in February.

As Homa’s dominant run was ending, Rahm’s reached full speed. He won The Sentry, The American Express and The Genesis Invitational, then the Masters in April. He added an impressive T15 at the RBC Heritage the next week, then finished runner-up at the Mexico Open at Vidanta to conclude April.

That was just as Scheffler’s dominance was really setting in. He had already picked off his two wins for the season at the WM Phoenix Open and THE PLAYERS Championship. Now, he was amidst a historic stretch of consistent golf.

As he wrapped up a T5 finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson at the end of May, his 13th consecutive top-12 finish, he had beaten or tied a staggering 96% of opponents in his last 15 starts. He would finish T2-T3-3rd-3rd-T4-T3 in his six starts after that, too.

One of the few to beat him in that stretch was Rory McIlroy. His T7 at the PGA Championship set off a 10-event stretch in which he finished no worse than T9. It included the second win of his season at the Genesis Scottish Open, thanks to back-to-back birdies to close his final round. He finished T3-4th-4th in the three FedExCup Playoffs events.

But the Playoffs were dominated by two other men: Glover and Hovland. Glover won the Wyndham Championship to make the postseason, then rocketed into the top five of the FedExCup with a win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Over those two weeks, he moved from 117th to 30th in the world rankings.

Then it was Hovland who won the BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship, elevating himself to a top-five player in the world and one of the season's biggest stories.

Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman emerge

He went from 193rd in the world to 10th – from zero wins to two. A tie for 75th was his best showing in a major. Now he’s the U.S. Open champion. It’s a season without much contemporary comparison for Wyndham Clark.

Clark is a bit of a throwback in an era defined by young stars rocketing up the sport without much adversity. So, too, is Open champion Brian Harman.

Each with talented junior records, neither had entirely lived up to expectation.

It took until Clark’s 134th start on TOUR to win – which came earlier this year at the Wells Fargo Championship. His major record wasn’t pretty until he arrived at The Los Angeles Country Club in June and held off the likes of Fowler, Scheffler and McIlroy to unexpectedly win. It wasn’t a flash in the pan, either. Clark is currently 12th in Strokes Gained: Total this season.

Unexpected is an apt description of Harman’s performance a month later. The 35-year-old had shown he could contend with the best players numerous times, but to win a major running away? That wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Harman dominated the field at Royal Liverpool and won by five shots.

What a difference a year makes. Neither had their 2024 card locked up before the season started. Now, both are exempt through 2028. Harman’s $9 million in earnings this season is equal to his previous four years combined. Clark had made less than $5 million in four full years on TOUR. He made over $10.7 million this season.

And both will make their Ryder Cup debuts in less than a month for the U.S. Team.

Stars struggle

It was a difficult season for several prominent TOUR players. With the FedExCup Playoffs field reduced from 125 to 70, ho-hum seasons that would typically be afterthoughts turned compelling.

Justin Thomas spent much of the year hovering around the top-70 threshold. Any other year, he would comfortably make the Playoffs. Not anymore.

Thomas was the subject of plenty of public scrutiny. The 15-time TOUR winner had what would amount to a solid season for most pros. He’s not like most pros, though.

He missed the Playoffs by a shot – his chip-in attempt for birdie on the 72nd hole at the Wyndham Championship turned especially cruel as it bounced off the flagstick. He would have advanced to the FedEx St. Jude Championship if it had dropped.

Instead, his FedExCup pursuit ended early. He ended the Regular Season at 71st in the standings, the worst finish of his career. He missed the TOUR Championship as a rookie but had been in Atlanta each of the last seven years.

He is not guaranteed a spot in the 2024 Signature Events, either. Thomas needed a top-50 finish in the FedExCup to lock that up or be inside the top 30 of the Official World Golf Ranking ahead of the event. He is currently 26th.

That’s a reality that many other top players share. Billy Horschel is 90th in the FedExCup and No. 49th in the OWGR. Shane Lowry is 78th in the FedExCup and 37th in the world.

They will need a robust FedExCup Fall to play their way into the top 30 of the OWGR or qualify for the events through The Next 10 or The Swing 5.