Colorado natives Wyndham Clark and Mark Hubbard make the grade for trimmed-down PGA Tour FedExCup playoffs
By Gary Baines – 8/6/2023
The PGA Tour’s FedExCup playoffs were almost twice as tough to qualify for this season as they were in previous years. Earlier, the top 125 in the standings earning playoff berths. Now, just 70 make the grade.
Despite that, two Colorado natives who graduated from high school in the Centennial State will compete in the playoffs starting next week.
Through the regular-season-ending Wyndham Championship, which concluded on Sunday, Valor Christian graduate Wyndham Clark is projected to stand in fifth place in FedExCup points, while Colorado Academy grad Mark Hubbard is 59th. Clark, who made the Wells Fargo Championship and the U.S. Open his first two PGA Tour victories, has competed just twice in July and so far in August and didn’t play in the PGA Tour event which seems such a natural for him, name-wise. Meanwhile, after top-10s in four of his previous seven PGA Tour starts, Hubbard has missed the cut in the 3M Open and the Wyndham Championship.
The three-event FedExCup playoffs start Thursday at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. From there, the top 50 on the points list (including those accumulated during the regular season) will advance to the BMW Championship (Aug. 17-20). Then the top 30 will make the Tour Championship Aug. 24-27 in Atlanta. None of the playoff events include a cut.
It will be Clark’s fifth straight year making the playoffs, while Hubbard is playoff-bound for the second straight season and fourth time overall. Neither has ever earned a spot in the lucrative Tour Championship, though Clark is positioned very nicely to make it after sitting fifth after the regular season. His best end-of-season showing in the playoffs has been 64th in 2019.
Meanwhile, Hubbard likewise will be looking for his best FedExCup showing ever as his previous standard has been 44th place in 2020.
It should be noted that the FedExCup playoffs will hit particularly close to home next year when Castle Pines Golf Club hosts the BMW Championship, reportedly scheduled for Aug. 22-25, 2024.
This year marks the 17th version of the FedExCup playoffs. They included four playoff events each year through 2018, but just three since 2019. The 2014 BMW Championship, won by Billy Horschel, was held at Cherry Hills Country Club.
The first two playoff events award 2,000 points to the winner — four times the number that were at stake at the Wyndham Championship. The overall bonus pool for the FedExCup playoffs will be $75 million, with the FedExCup champion earning $18 million.
Meanwhile, for players who don’t make the playoffs, they will compete in the FedExCup Fall, which runs from the Fortinet Championship (Sept. 14-17) through the RSM Classic (Nov. 16-19). The top 125 on the FedExCup standings after the RSM will be fully exempt going into the 2024 PGA Tour season. (Note: some of the non-playoff golfers will be exempt regardless, based on previous wins or other accomplishments.)
Among the players with strong Colorado ties who didn’t make the playoffs are Denver-area resident — and four-time PGA Tour winner — Martin Laird (112th in FeExCup standings) and former Air Force Academy golfer Kyle Westmoreland (193rd).