Rickie Fowler among the ‘bubble boys’ with Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood at the Wyndham Championship: ‘We’re just in the wrong spot at this time of year’
It’s officially bubble season in professional golf.
From the LPGA, where there are only two events left for players battling to qualify for a spot on the U.S. Solheim Cup team, to the Korn Ferry Tour, where 25 PGA Tour cards will be handed out to the top money leaders after the final regular-season event on Sunday, so much is riding on every putt.
The biggest bubble spotlight will be on the field of 156 players at the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, who are battling to secure a place in the top 125 of the FedEx Cup points standings and qualify for the first of three FedEx Cup Playoff events, which begin next week.
Among those on the bubble and playing at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, include Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and World No. 35 Tommy Fleetwood. In any of the last several seasons, that quartet would have been less surprising to have been the names of the last four major winners than scrambling to punch their playoff ticket, but such is the bed they’ve made.
“It’s an impressive group to be a part of,” Fowler said on Wednesday during his pre-tournament news conference. “We’re just in the wrong spot at this time of year, so hopefully we can kick things into gear and get ourselves tee times for next week.”
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Fowler elected to skip last week’s Barracuda Championship, and he slipped from No. 125 to No. 130 in the standings, meaning he’ll need to finish top 21 or better this week to extend his streak of making the playoffs in his previous 11 seasons.
Scott, the former Masters champion and World No. 1, is making his first appearance at the Wyndham Championship since 2015. He has recorded just one top-10 finish, a T-10 at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. He’s currently on the right side of the ledger, checking in at No. 121 after improving two spots from the previous week.
“I missed the boat on finding the right cadence for the super season,” Scott said, but noted, “I like the way I’m playing. I’m not liking the way I’m scoring, but I’m looking to change that this week.”
Scott is one of nine players to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs in all 14 years of its existence. Six of them are in the field this week and three of them along with Scott are on the bubble to keep their streak alive: Scott (121st), Matt Kuchar (124th), Justin Rose (138th) and Ryan Moore (142nd). Charles Howell III (137th) is not in the field and will miss the playoffs for the first time in the FedEx Cup era.
Rose, who won the 2018 FedEx Cup, has been on the outside looking in once before this late in the season, but came through in the clutch to secure his playoff berth with a T-5 at the 2009 Wyndham and pointed to that success for inspiration.
Justin Rose watches his tee shot on the 14th hole during the first round of the 2021 Masters Tournament. Photo by Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
“I do have exemptions and this and that, that’s nice to be able to rely on, but from a pride point of view, I think it’s really, really important to make a run into the playoffs,” he said.
The Wyndham Championship has been the regular-season finale on the PGA Tour calendar since 2007. In this year’s wrap-around “super season,” it is the 47th of 50 regular-season events and once again the tournament where players try to salvage a season.
Since the points structure changed in 2009, an average of 2.5 players per year have entered the final week of the FedEx Cup regular season outside the top 125 standings and gone on to qualify for the playoffs. Last year, Jim Herman, one of the longest of long shots beginning the tournament at 192nd, proved it can be done, winning the title to leap to 54th.
While the likes of Scott, Kuchar, Fowler and Rose don’t have to worry about losing their playing privileges due to previous successes if they fail to finish inside the top 125, not everyone has a lifeboat.
Bo Hoag better prepare for some sleepless nights as he enters the week straddling the cutline, sitting in the No. 125 position with 1,743 FedEx Cup points, just five points ahead of Scott Piercy, who finished third at the Barracuda Championship last week to improve 18 spots in the standings. Piercy is making a last-gasp effort to extend his streak of six straight FedEx Cup Playoffs appearances and 10 of the last 11, but he still has work to do if he doesn’t want his playoff bubble to burst on Sunday.
Those who don’t make it – Nos. 126-Nos. 200 on the PGA Tour join Nos. 26-100 on the Korn Ferry Tour – meet in the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, where only the top-25 finishers will be awarded a full year of PGA Tour status.
Which is why Scott’s game plan is one to follow: “It would be good to have my best week of the year,” he said.
List
On the bubble: A closer look at a few notable PGA Tour players ahead of the FedEx Cup Playoffs
