Following Patrick Reed's Northern Trust win on Sunday in leg No. 1 of the 2019 FedEx Cup Playoffs, we have a revamped top 10 in the standings, a host of golfers cut from the festivities (and some with much longer odds than last week) but the exact same favorite as before.
This week's BMW Championship takes place at Medinah Country Club near Chicago, and golfers are once again vying for 2,000 FedEx Cup points which go to the champ (four times the number for winning a regular PGA Tour event). Let's do a quick refresh on the revamped format, take a look at the new top 10 and how the new favorites shake out.
Format changes
FedEx ponied up some extra dough for the ending to the PGA Tour's season, which sweetens the pot for everybody. But that's not the only benefit for players. They also don't have to play as much as they used to as one week of the playoffs has been sliced off. Here's a list of the changes with the strangest, most curious one at the end.
| 2018 Playoffs | 2019 Playoffs | |
|---|---|---|
Events | 4 | 3 |
Field | 125 to 100 to 70 to 30* | 125 to 70 to 30* |
| Bonus money | $35 million | $60 million |
| Winner's purse | $10 million | $15 million |
| Northern Trust Winner | Bryson DeChambeau | Patrick Reed |
| BMW Championship Winner | Keegan Bradley | ? |
| Tour Championship Winner | Tiger Woods | ? |
* The field is cut after each event
The field of 30 at the Tour Championship starts with pre-determined score (leader of FedEx Cup at -10, second place at -8 and so on all the way down to the bottom five, who will start at even par). Nobody really knows how it will play out. Who cares, though?! If I can watch Justin Thomas start six in the hole down to Brooks Koepka and try to run him down from behind for $15 million, I say we're all winners.
FedEx top 10 (post-Northern Trust)
The top 10 didn't change a ton following Reed's win, but we do have two new names (including Reed's) and two golfers who fell out of the top 10 (Webb Simpson and Justin Rose). Here's a look.
| Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
1. | Brooks Koepka | 2,980 |
2. | Patrick Reed | 2,774 |
3. | Rory McIlroy | 2,670 |
4. | Matt Kuchar | 2,313 |
5. | Jon Rahm | 2,097 |
6. | Patrick Cantlay | 1,957 |
7. | Xander Schauffele | 1,858 |
8. | Abraham Ancer | 1,822 |
9. | Gary Woodland | 1,820 |
10. | Dustin Johnson | 1,819 |
The big movers here were Reed (who moved from 50th to 2nd) and Ancer (who moved from 67th, and on the bubble to get to the BMW Championship, to 8th). Rahm also moved up from 10th to 5th with his showing at Liberty National Golf Club.
Big names going home
A host of golfers dropped outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup, effectively ending their 2018-19 PGA Tour seasons. That list includes the following names.
- Sergio Garcia (72nd)
- Matthew Wolff (74th)
- Bubba Watson (81st)
- Henrik Stenson (90th)
I wouldn't feel that bad for them, though. They all took home over $100,000 in bonus money for finishing where they did.
Handicapping the field
With one event down and just eight rounds left in the season (four of them extremely manipulated by a predetermined scoring system), the list of contenders -- at least according to Vegas -- has been cut down quite a bit. Here's a look at everyone with better than 40-1 odds to win the 2019 FedEx Cup.
| Golfer | FedEx Cup Rank | Odds |
|---|---|---|
Brooks Koepka | 1 | 2-1 |
Rory McIlroy | 3 | 6-1 |
Patrick Reed | 2 | 8-1 |
| Jon Rahm | 5 | 10-1 |
| Dustin Johnson | 10 | 12-1 |
| Patrick Cantlay | 6 | 14-1 |
| Justin Rose | 12 | 16-1 |
| Matt Kuchar | 4 | 16-1 |
| Xander Schauffele | 7 | 20-1 |
| Justin Thomas | 15 | 20-1 |
Guys like Thomas and D.J. are getting a ton of respect at those numbers, considering how many guys they'll have to leap. But really, because of the new Tour Championship scoring system, a lot of this will shake out at Medinah. For example: Are you betting against Koepka if he has a two-stroke lead on the field with $15 million on the line at East Lake? I'm not.
Ancer, despite being No. 8 in the rankings, is still 80-1. My favorite sleeper is Webb Simpson, who is 30-1 to win the Tour Championship and No. 11 in the FedEx Cup rankings. Adam Scott (40-1) is another fun sleeper. He's No. 3 in strokes gained on the PGA Tour this season, and could easily win the next two tournaments.
What to expect from Tiger Woods
Who knows after last week. Woods withdrew from the Northern Trust with an oblique injury and fell to No. 38 in the FedEx Cup standings. This means he'll have to play his way into the Tour Championship at Medinah -- if he plays at all. Even if he does play the BMW, his game has been lousy of late, which is reflected by his 100-1 odds. If I'm betting, I think it's far more likely that Woods misses the Tour Championship than that he defends his 80th PGA Tour victory from last September.
