The Five: Stars with work to do to make FedExCup Playoffs at halfway mark

If the PGA TOUR season is a long, topsy-turvy journey from the West Coast Swing to the FedExCup Playoffs, culminating with the TOUR Championship in Atlanta, then we’ve reached a sort of Continental Divide. With a full 17 weeks of golf behind us and 17 still ahead, it’s time to take a deep breath, look around, and assess just where this is all headed.

For five players in particular, that’s a question with no easy answers.

Tom Kim (77), Viktor Hovland (95), Rickie Fowler (97), Justin Rose (105) and Nick Dunlap (142) are all outside the top 70 in the FedExCup, which means that if the FedExCup Playoffs were to start today at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, they wouldn’t be in attendance.

There’s still plenty of time, of course. On the PGA TOUR, one week can change everything, as Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry reminded at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last week. In between grilled oysters and karaoke, they pocketed 400 FedExCup points apiece in the Big Easy to each work his way into the top 15 in the standings.

Here’s a closer look at the aforementioned five big names who need to make a similar move.

1. Tom Kim (FedExCup 77)

When he won the Shriners Children’s Open last fall, Kim, 21, became the youngest three-time winner on the PGA TOUR since Tiger Woods – elite company. But for Kim, 23rd in the Official World Golf Ranking, those accomplishments have brought big expectations, which hasn’t been easy, as evident in his star turn in the second season of Netflix's “Full Swing” docuseries.

Sure enough, this season has been a struggle for Kim, who has no top-10s in 11 starts. He shot a final-round 66 to finish T30 at The Masters Tournament, and, in his last start, finished T18 at the RBC Heritage – his best finish since a T17 at the WM Phoenix Open in early February.

Kim, who has made his U.S. base in Dallas and befriended fellow Dallas pros like Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth, is in the field for THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson this week.

“I haven't really had the best of starts,” Kim said after his final-round 66 at the Masters, “And to see this round and see the hard work pay off, it's good.”

2. Viktor Hovland (95)

All Hovland did last season was win the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, storm to victory at the BMW Championship and hold on to capture the entire FedExCup. And after all that he made a coaching change, and has been tinkering in search of … what, exactly?

Whatever it is, for Hovland it’s been elusive. The seventh-ranked player in the world has had a peculiar season, to say the least, with nothing better than a T19 at The Genesis Invitational. He finished a lackluster T62 at THE PLAYERS Championship and shot a second-round 81 at the Masters Tournament to miss the cut. He hasn’t played since, presumably as he pieces his game back together, and is not in the field for THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson.

“I took a huge break after last year,” Hovland said at the Masters, “and when I came back, things were a little bit different and I had to kind of find my way back to where I think I'm going to play my best golf. And even at the end of the last year I still felt like, yeah, I was playing great, but I got a lot out of my game and it didn't necessarily feel sustainable.

“It's not like I consciously went in and said, hey, we're going to change everything up,” he added.

For one of golf’s hardest workers, 2023 was about the destination; 2024 has been a journey.

3. Rickie Fowler (97)

One of the best comeback stories of last season, Fowler came back from a swing change that didn’t take, reuniting with coach Butch Harmon before winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The emotional victory in Detroit broke a drought of four and a half years.

This season, however, has been a struggle for the 2015 PLAYERS Championship winner. The 38th–ranked player in the world, Fowler has yet to author a top-10 finish and has only one top-25 in 11 starts. His T18 at the RBC Heritage, his most recent start, was the best he’s done all year, unless you count the hole-in-one he made on a buddies trip to Pine Valley last week.

“I'm at least starting to head the right way,” Fowler said after finishing T30 at the Masters last month. “I saw some good progress this week. It was a slow start to the year, but I feel like everything is, like I said, starting to go the right direction.

“Starting to see some positive signs,” he continued. “Starting to get my iron play back. Just need to kind of get the tee ball, the driver, mainly driver, kind of get that thing back in the short grass more often than that. That will at least help us get things started.”

He is not in the field for THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson.

4. Justin Rose (105)

Rose, the 2018 FedExCup champion, was rock-steady for Europe at the Ryder Cup in Rome last fall, but that hasn’t been the case on the PGA TOUR so far this year.

Although he finished T11 in his title defense at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, that’s been the only top-30 finish for Rose. His T44 at the RBC Heritage, his most recent start, broke a streak of three straight missed cuts. He’s not in the field for THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson.

If anyone understands patience, though, it’s probably Rose, 43, who has racked up 11 victories apiece on the PGA TOUR and DP World Tour and won gold for England at the 2016 Olympics.

5. Nick Dunlap (142)

This was always going to be a season of transition for Dunlap, who expected to be finishing his sophomore year at Alabama right now but won The American Express in January to give himself a PGA TOUR exemption through 2026 and entry into all remaining Signature Events in ’24. All he had to do was turn pro and accept membership, which he promptly did.

He could not, however, accept the 500 FedExCup points for winning The American Express.

Since then, it’s been a bumpy ride, but not one without its high points. Although Dunlap missed the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters, he shot a third-round 63 and finished T11 at the Texas Children’s Houston Open in late March.

“It's starting to get a little bit more comfortable,” Dunlap said at THE PLAYERS. “I would say it's not as – my eyes aren't as wide as they were when first getting out here.

“There's new struggles and new problems that I didn't know I'd face,” he added.

With 17 weeks to go, he and the others still have all kinds of time – for now.