Breaking Down the FedEx Cup Bubble

The end of the PGA Tour regular season sneaks up rather quietly when you’re distracted by the Eiffel Tower and Simone Biles. Anywho, it’s here, and there are a lot of things at stake at this week’s Wyndham Championship, including who is exempt into the signature events in 2025, as well as who will make the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Here are four players to watch this week, along with a fifth whose situation highlights some issues with the current state of the PGA Tour.

Nick Dunlap (No. 66) – It’s outrageous that someone who has won twice this season is even in this situation, but here we find Nick Dunlap, just four spots inside the playoff cutoff. His issue: the points he would have earned for winning the American Express don’t count, as he was an amateur at the time. He’s in no danger of losing status nor his place on the Tour, but let the record show that this rule has to change moving forward. If the playoffs are supposed to feature players who had the best seasons, a guy with two victories absolutely has to be included.

Victor Perez (No. 71) – Mr. Bubblé Boy (pronounced like Michael Bublé), Perez is rolling into an important week after a final-round run at the Olympics that left him one shot short of a medal. His statistical profile is trending in the right direction, and I would be pretty confident that he’ll earn his way through to the playoffs.

Keith Mitchell (No. 79) – As Joseph LaMagna highlighted in a recent Club TFE Tour Guide, Mitchell has had an amazing ball-striking year. His short game, though, has been dreadful. Given his history at the Wyndham, his odds of playoff qualification seem slim. He’s never finished inside the top 40 at the Wyndham Championship, but he’ll likely need to contend at least in order to jump to the top 70.

Nicolai Højgaard (No. 80) – After a banner year in 2023 (which included a Ryder Cup appearance), 2024 has not been all that kind to Højgaard. He began the year with a runner-up finish at Torrey Pines, but has just one top-30 finish in a PGA Tour since then. He’ll need a top-3 finish to get into the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Honorable Mention

Jordan Spieth (No. 63) – While not really on the bubble, Mr. Jordan Spieth brings up quite a few talking points as it relates to the modern PGA Tour. One, he is well outside the top 50 right now, which is the cutoff to get into the 2025 signature events. Assuming he doesn’t win this week, that almost assuredly means a sponsor exemption will be headed his way for every event he wishes to play next year. Two, as he discussed in his Tuesday press conference, he continues to battle a vague wrist injury.

Here's Jordan Spieth on his wrist injury (s/o to whoever asked the question, can't reaalllly tell here).

Added later he is "pain free until it subluxes and then I'm in very much pain until I get it back" which happens about every other week pic.twitter.com/K65Pler3b3

— Patrick McDonald (@pmcdonaldCBS) August 6, 2024

He even hinted that he may need surgery this offseason. As the world leans further into sports gambling, the lack of transparency seems like a major issue, and one I would want fixed if I were in that industry. Maybe the best advice is don’t gamble at all, although that’s not really the Speith way.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.