The Five: Players with most at stake at Wyndham Championship

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Welcome to The Five, bubble-style, as this week’s Wyndham Championship marks the final event of the PGA TOUR’s 2024 FedExCup Regular Season.

For those seeking a FedExCup title, the Wyndham Championship could be make-or-break. Only the top 70 in the FedExCup standings after this week will advance to the FedExCup Playoffs, the second year of the 70-player format after the FedExCup Playoffs had featured 125-player fields for more than a decade. Several winners this season are around the bubble, including Nick Dunlap, Jhonattan Vegas and Davis Riley. Defending champion Lucas Glover – the only player to move inside the top 70 at the 2023 Wyndham, where he broke a two-year win drought – needs to make a move yet again to extend his season.

The top 70 isn’t the only bubble to keep in mind this week at Donald Ross-designed Sedgefield Country Club, as players near the top 50 will monitor that number closely across the next two weeks. The top 50 after the first Playoffs event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, will advance to the BMW Championship and, crucially, qualify for next season’s Signature Events. The Wyndham Championship also finalizes the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10, the top 10 players in the FedExCup Regular Season standings who will earn bonuses for their efforts.

The number-crunching will come fast and furious at the Wyndham, first around the tournament cut line on Friday and then focusing on the top-70 cut line on Sunday. Meanwhile, as Glover’s story reminds us, there’s also a trophy on the line. For those who miss the Playoffs, it’s a month off until the FedExCup Fall begins at the Procore Championship in Napa, California. (The top 125 after the FedExCup Fall will retain exempt TOUR membership for 2025.)

Let’s get into it. Here are The Five players with high stakes this week in North Carolina.

1. Jordan Spieth

Spieth is a three-time major champion and the 2015 FedExCup champion. He has shined under the game’s brightest lights, including as a perennial U.S. Team member at the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. But past accolades don’t guarantee future success, and Spieth’s motivation across the next two weeks is twofold – to assure a FedExCup Playoffs berth and also earn a spot in next season’s Signature Events.

Spieth enters the Wyndham at No. 62 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, and although it’s possible that a specific confluence of events would knock him outside the Playoffs, that’s unlikely. His bigger concern is climbing inside the top 50 after the FedEx St. Jude Championship to ensure a place in next season’s Signature Events, which feature elevated points and prize money.

The Texan has been stuck in neutral for most of the summer, with a T25 at The Open Championship marking his first top-25 finish on TOUR since the Valero Texas Open in April (he had gone 11 events without a top-25). His two best finishes this year came in his first three starts (third place at The Sentry, T6 at the WM Phoenix Open) and he’ll need another sterling showing to move inside the top 50. It could come either at the Wyndham, where he finished second in 2013 but has played just twice since, or the FedEx St. Jude (preferably both). Time is of the essence.

2. Nick Dunlap

It would seem counterintuitive that a two-time TOUR winner this season would be stuck around the Playoffs bubble, but Dunlap’s year has been highly unusual.

He began the year as a student at the University of Alabama, then won The American Express in the Palm Desert in January, becoming the first amateur in 33 years to win on TOUR. He turned pro within a week and accepted TOUR membership, but he didn’t earn FedExCup points for that victory due to his amateur status. Dunlap worked through a learning curve through much of the season – mentors included frequent practice-round partner Scottie Scheffler – and things coalesced once again with a victory at last month’s Barracuda Championship. That vaulted Dunlap inside the top 70 in the FedExCup standings, and he enters the Wyndham at No. 65 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List.

Like Spieth, Dunlap has a two-part mission in the next two weeks, to not only protect that top-70 position but also to move inside the top 50 to earn a place at next season’s Signature Events. The Alabama native has ample career runway ahead – he doesn’t turn 21 until December – but he wouldn’t mind enjoying an adult beverage around the holiday season knowing that Signature starts await in 2025.

3. Lucas Glover

The wily veteran was the only player to break inside the top 70 at last year’s Wyndham Championship, and he did so in style with a win that vaulted him from FedExCup No. 112 to No. 49. Glover didn’t stop there, following with a win at the next week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship to move to No. 4, and eventually qualified for the TOUR Championship and finished 18th.

It was a dramatic turn of events in a short amount of time, and a reminder of the potential volatility come Playoffs season. Glover found a groove with the putter and rode it to back-to-back victories, quickly doubling his win total from the previous 12 years. (Between the 2011 Wells Fargo Championship and 2023 Wyndham, his only win came at the 2021 John Deere Classic.)

Glover doesn’t face quite as tall a task this week, but while his results have been mostly steady – 14 of 20 cuts made, including six top-25s – he has missed four cuts in his last six starts to fall outside the top 70. He’ll need a top-24 finish at the Wyndham, and perhaps more, to earn the chance to defend his title next week in Memphis.

4. Victor Perez

The Frenchman made a life memory Sunday at the men’s Olympic golf competition, carding a final-round 63 at Le Golf National (including a back-nine 29) to vault up the leaderboard and nearly earn a podium position. Perez ultimately fell one short of bronze medalist Hideki Matsuyama, but the moment instantly secured a place in both Olympic golf and French golf lore. He spoke emotionally afterward of hoping to show aspiring French golfers that they can compete against the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, and based on the crowd’s adoring reaction as Perez walked to the scoring area Sunday, he did just that.

Perez flew from Paris to North Carolina and now turns his focus to the FedExCup Playoffs bubble. The first-year TOUR member enters the week at No. 70 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, squarely on the line to advance to the first Playoffs event. Perez, 31, holds a tenuous three-point lead over No. 71 Davis Riley, and he’s just eight points clear of No. 72 Andrew Putnam.

It has been a steady if unspectacular season for Perez, who earned dual PGA TOUR membership via the 2023 DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai. Highlights on the PGA TOUR this season include a pair of third-place finishes at the Puerto Rico Open and RBC Canadian Open. He’ll likely need to make the cut at the Wyndham, and perhaps a bit more, to punch his ticket to the postseason.

5. Shane Lowry

It has been a successful, and victorious, campaign for the Irishman. He’ll look to cap off his FedExCup Regular Season with a spot in the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10.

Lowry begins the Wyndham at No. 10 for the FedExCup Regular Season; staying there or moving up through the conclusion of the Wyndham would bring him the corresponding monetary bonus for his efforts. He’s the highest-ranked player in the field at Sedgefield on the strength of a win alongside partner Rory McIlroy at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, plus a string of other high-wattage finishes. Lowry finished third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, sixth at the PGA Championship, and sixth at The Open Championship.

Now he looks to hold off challengers including Akshay Bhatia (No. 15), Robert MacIntyre (No. 17), Brian Harman (No. 21) and Christiaan Bezuidenhout (No. 22), all of whom have a mathematical chance to surpass him in the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 this week. The latter three need a win for a chance; Bhatia needs a solo second. Lowry is well positioned but isn’t resting on his laurels – he’s here in Greensboro intent on securing his spot.

Note: The FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List will determine the 70-player FedExCup Playoffs field. The late Grayson Murray is included on the official FedExCup standings but not on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List.