It’s the culmination of eight months of toil – a series of tournaments that determine the champion of the annual PGA Tour season.
The FedEx Cup Playoffs first began in 2007 and consist of consist of three events, including the Tour Championship finale. But how is a champion crowned?
Here’s what you need to know about the FedEx Cup Playoff system…
What is the FedEx Cup Playoff format?
The system for the FedEx Cup Playoffs has changed plenty over the years – sometimes controversially – but here’s how it’s operating in 2026.
From January to August, players competed in 34 regular season events, which include full-field and Signature events, as well as the major championships.
Players earned points depending on how well they finished, with 750 awarded to the winners of The Players Championship and majors. Signature Event victors picked up 700 points, while full-field event winners claimed 500 points. Players who won Additional Events received 300 points.
The winners of the first two FedEx Cup Playoffs events will also receive 750 points.
The regular season finished following the Wyndham Championship in early August, where the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings move on to play in the Playoffs.
Points accrued during the season carry over to the first two events, which are the FedEx St Jude Championship and the BMW Championship.
While there is no halfway cut in Playoff tournaments, the Playoffs themselves feature a progressive cut. That means the 70 that start in TPC Southwind for the FedEx St Jude Championship are whittled down to 50 for the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club.
Only 30 go to East Lake, in Atlanta, for the Tour Championship..
How the Tour Championship works
There have been all kinds of variations over the 20 runnings of the FedEx Cup, with previous iterations including players starting a number of strokes under par depending on their position in the FedEx Cup rankings.
Now, it looks like every other week on the tour. The player with the lowest stroke total over 72 holes wins.
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There is a $40 million purse up for grabs at the Tour Championship, with the winner claiming $10 million. The full prize fund looks like this:
1 $10 million
2 $5 million
3 $3.75 million
4 $3.15 million
5 $2.55 million
6 $2 million
7 $1.45 million
8 $1.07 million
9 $900,000
10 $745,000
11 $700,000
12 $660,000
13 $625,000
14 $590,000
15 $560,000
16 $530,000
17 $500,000
18 $475,000
19 $460,000
20 $445,000
21 $430,000
22 $415,000
23 $400,000
24 $390,000
25 $380,000
26 $375,000
27 $370,000
28 $365,000
29 $360,000
30 $355,000
The FedEx Cup winner also earns a $10 million bonus and gets a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour.
Who has qualified for the FedEx Cup Playoffs?
Here are the 70 players who have made it to the FedEx St Jude Championship this week (listed by rank, starting with number 1).
Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Chris Gotterup, Collin Morikawa, Si Woo Kim, Sam Burns, Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Aberg, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Jacob Bridgeman, Akshay Bhatia, Russell Henley, Ryan Gerard, Min Woo Lee, Kristoffer Reitan, Alex Fitzpatrick, Hideki Matsuyama, JJ Spaun, Ryan Fox, Viktor Hovland, Justin Rose, Alex Smalley, Tom Kim, Gary Woodland, Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott, JT Poston, Robert MacIntyre, Nicolai Hojgaard, Kurt Kitayama, Bud Cauley, Aaron Rai, Ben Griffin, Sepp Straka, Michael Thorbjornsen, Justin Thomas, Jake Knapp, Nico Echavarria, Patrick Cantlay, Ryo Hisatsune, Sahith Theegala, Eric Cole, Alex Noren, Michael Brennan, Matt McCarty, Keith Mitchell, Maverick McNealy, Harris English, Max Homa, Sungjae Im, Jordan Spieth, Sam Stevens, Pierceson Coody, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Harry Hall, Corey Conners, Daniel Berger, Michael Kim, Shane Lowry, Nick Taylor, Jordan Smith, Brian Harman, Patrick Rodgers, Aldrich Potgieter, Ricky Castillo, Matti Schmid, Jackson Koivun.
List of FedEx Cup winners
2025: Tommy Fleetwood
2024: Scottie Scheffler
2023: Viktor Hovland
2022: Rory McIlroy
2021: Patrick Cantlay
2020: Dustin Johnson
2019: Rory McIlroy
2018: Justin Rose
2017: Justin Thomas
2016: Rory McIlroy
2015: Jordan Spieth
2014: Billy Horschel
2013: Henrik Stenson
2012: Brandt Snedeker
2011: Bill Haas
2010: Jim Furyk
2009: Tiger Woods
2008: Vijay Singh
2007: Tiger Woods
Now have your say
What do you make of the format for the FedEx Cup Playoffs? Let us know in the comments, or get in touch on X.
