Robert TheodorsonThe final rankings have been determined at the conclusion of the PGA Tour regular season which concluded last week at the Wyndham Championship. Michael Brennan, seemingly out of nowhere, bested the field for his second PGA Tour victory of his young career and so joins a stacked elite field for the 2026 PGA Tour Playoffs.
Eligible PGA Tour members earned points throughout the season with the top 70 being selected eligible to compete in the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs – The St. Jude Championship.
It’s a special time of the year as the biggest stars make their last push to be crowned best of the best.
Navigating The 70-Man Field
The Top 70 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings will take the field on Thursday, and a complete list can be found on the tournament’s official site here.
In the past, those golfers who mathematically could not be unseated from a Top 30 position were free to skip the first leg of the playoffs. The good news for fans is that unlike last year, all the big names will be out in full force.
Some of the top contenders for this week’s tournament include:
Justin Rose – The 2025 champion returns to Memphis to defend his title. Rose beat then U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun in a playoff after the duo finished the tournament with a score of 16-under par. Rose boosted his ranking substantially with the win, moving from 25th overall to 4th.Â
Rory McIlroy – McIlroy’s absence from some signature tournaments has been the talk of the town during the 2026 season. Perhaps in an effort to make things right, McIlroy will not skip this iteration of the St. Jude Championship as he did in 2025.
The move to skip may have been in part due to the fact that Memphis is not McIlroy’s preferred course, as evidenced by his 9-over par T68 finish in 2024.Â
Scottie Scheffler – The world’s number one golfer is seeking what would be only his second win on the season after absolutely dominating 2025, including a win at the BMW Championship which serves as the second leg of the playoffs.
Tommy Fleetwood – Last season’s playoff champion is currently 9th in the standings and is looking for his first win since claiming the championship last summer. Fleetwood did earn some hardware earlier this season however, winning the TGL’s second-ever SoFi Cup after leading his team, The Los Angeles Golf Club to victory.Â
With the current state of play on The PGA Tour, the St. Jude Championship really is up for grabs as the past three winners on tour have all been under 25 years old, with two first-time champions.
With no repeat winners in previous years, this first leg of the playoffs could shape up to be very interesting indeed.Â
Who Survives and Moves on to The BMW Championship?
After the end of each phase of the FedEx Cup, the bottom twenty members of the field are cut. Think of the process in terms of the major 70-man cut that occurred following the Wyndham Championship.Â
Those members of the field who do make the 50-Man cut move on to the second leg of the playoffs, The BMW Championship, hosted in St. Louis, Missouri.
Some of the more memorable names who failed to move on to the BMW Championship last season included reigning U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark, fan favorite Min Woo Lee, and the now-dominant Chris Gotterup.
What this means is that even some of the biggest and best names in golf have a decent chance that their season ends earlier.
This season, there a number of big names who have gone winless for a number of years including: Jordan Spieth, Shane Lowry, and Max Homa. The trio is likely to be up on the chopping block, but as they say, anything can happen in the playoffs.
Like Clark and Lee last year, some fan favorites will not be making the trip to St. Louis and instead will get an early start on their offseason vacations.Â
St. Jude Championship – Last Season’s Biggest Surprises, This Season’s Favorites
Rickie Fowler and his T6; 10-under par finish had to have been the biggest surprise of last season. The fan favorite Fowler has shown flashes of his old self in recent tournaments, especially during early rounds, but has been unable to build on strong Thursday/Friday rounds to put himself into a position to win.
While perhaps not a total surprise, Akshay Bhatia, in between championship years shared Fowler’s T6 finish, and gave us another taste of what was to come for the then-23-year-old phenom.Â
Suggested Image: Koivun, Thor,or Brennan w/ recent trophy
When looking for potential winners in the 2026 field, take a second glance at the hot hands like Jackson Koivun, Michael Thorbjornsen, and Michael Brennan. Likewise, consistently good golfers such as Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, and of course, Scottie Scheffler will likely factor into being the favorites in Memphis.Â
Major championship winners Rory McIlroy, Aaron Rai, Wyndham Clark, and Ryan Fox were all up to the task of taking on an intense amount of pressure in super-events and came out on top.
Since the tournament started being held at TPC Southwind, only two of four former champions in Justin Rose and Hideki Matsuyama will be competing again for the fifth and final time at Southwind.
The Outcome – Who Will be Crowned Champion
The St. Jude Championship will certainly be one of the most difficult predictions of the season. There’s no clear-cut favorite, a repeat champion is unlikely, the hot hands all lie with the young guns, and sadly we don’t know for certain if we’ll get 100% out of the guys in the Top 10.
We’re going to take a flyer on last year’s runner-up in the playoffs. He’s been winless for the past four seasons, but always seems to show up and give it his all at this time of the season. Patrick Cantlay is our man for the last playoff game to be had at TPC Southwind.
Currently 41st in the OWGR, Cantlay has had some close calls over the years but hasn’t been able to seal the deal. His closest call came last season during his eventual loss to Tommy Fleetwood in the season finale.
Cantlay’s finishes of T9, T30, and T2 at the St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship, and Tour Championship, respectively let us know that Cantlay is able to compete for a win at Southwind and bring his all for the rest of August.Â
