For the second straight year, I’m putting my picks for the FedExCup Playoffs into play as we welcome back “Perfect 30 presented by LocaliQ.”
My annual Power Rankings for the Playoffs represents the 30 golfers projected not only to advance to the TOUR Championship, but the ranking itself represents a prediction of the outcome. So, what you read below is my entry for the game, which is free to play.
While bragging rights for beating me, no doubt, are enough for you to celebrate, you’re also playing for the prizes for which I’m ineligible. And that’s a darn shame because the grand prize is $1,000,000. Suddenly, mere bragging rights seem unimportant, don’t they? (All prizing is detailed on the Rules page.)
The order of the contenders for the 19th FedExCup below reflects familiar forces, including recent form and course history, but it also loops in the mathematical possibilities of merely qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs finale after having navigated the first two legs. Those trends, my approach for how to build your entry with an edge, and much more are detailed below.
‘Perfect 30’: FedExCup Playoffs
| Rank | Players | Comment |
|---|---|---|
|
30 |
 Andrew Novak
United States of America |
A three-start burst in April is worth almost 60 percent of his FedExCup total, and he hasn’t done much lately to suggest that he’ll get off the schneid for his first Playoffs, but the 12-seed will be at the TOUR Championship. |
|
29 |
 Collin Morikawa
United States of America |
Based on the two-year historical trend chronicled below, he’ll be at East Lake for the sixth time in as many chances, but naturally, he’s just inside the bubble at 19th. Caddie turnstile aside, his form has been quite iffy. |
|
28 |
 Harry Hall
England |
One of four opening outside the top 30 in points, the 44-seed is the unproven flier. That said, the Playoffs debutant leads the PGA TOUR in red numbers and he’s cashed in 14 straight, eight of the last nine for a top 25. |
|
27 |
 Nick Taylor
Canada |
Despite three top 10s among 11 top 25s this year, five of which in his last six starts, he’s made little noise in the Playoffs. So, this is a fair slot for the 18-seed ahead of his second TOUR Championship (25th, 2023). |
|
26 |
 Wyndham Clark
United States of America |
At 49th in FedExCup points, he’s the lowest seed in the Power Rankings. He also arrives with dazzling form that’s generated some timely momentum, so I’m buying it and his rhetoric focuses on the Ryder Cup despite a tough year. |
|
25 |
 Chris Gotterup
United States of America |
Making his Playoffs debut and on the cusp of advancing to the TOUR Championship as the 22-seed, but he’s also among the hottest on the planet. Lethal power-and-precision combo. Second on TOUR in red numbers. |
|
24 |
 Sam Burns
United States of America |
The 24-seed could go win-win and still need to perform at East Lake, which has given him more fits than it should. It doesn’t help that, after an extended surge through June, he lost grip in the U.K. and at the 3M Open. |
|
23 |
 Sungjae Im
South Korea |
One of my tweeners at 29th in points. Finally reignited with a pair of 64s to open last week’s Wyndham Championship before fading for a T27. Solo third at Caves Valley in 2021 can’t hurt, so this slot is a compromise of beliefs. |
|
22 |
 Ben Griffin
United States of America |
After debuting as the last man in the 2023 FedExCup Playoffs, he rose to 56th to open last year. But with his breakout season this year, he’s sixth! More mileage on the learning curve straight ahead, but his attitude has been ideal. |
|
21 |
 Keegan Bradley
United States of America |
With automatic qualifying for the Ryder Cup ending at the BMW Championship, the captain will be wearing multiple hats. Form has been dicey of late for the 10-seed, so perhaps the rigors of the job have finally grounded him. |
|
20 |
 Brian Harman
United States of America |
After a two-month lull, he’s fresh off top 10s in two of his last three starts. Curiously pedestrian in three starts at East Lake, this ranking would represent a career-best finish in the finale. More on the 20-seed below. |
|
19 |
 Cameron Young
United States of America |
It was just two years ago when Lucas Glover connected victories at the Wyndham and at TPC Southwind. With the monkey off Young’s back, the 16-seed can replicate the rally en route to his second TOUR Championship. |
|
18 |
 Sepp Straka
Austria |
Classically polarizing, it’s smarter to err on the side of caution in Perfect 30 than to lead with him. Seeded third, it’s fair to wonder where he’ll deliver. Results at both TPC Southwind and East Lake are inconsistent. |
|
17 |
 Ludvig Åberg
Sweden |
It’s tough to envision a TOUR Championship in the near future absent the tall drink of water, but he’d happily settle for more consistency on the weekly. The 14-seed has managed just one top 10 across his last nine starts. |
|
16 |
 Patrick Cantlay
United States of America |
It’s been better than a coin flip for 23-seeds to reach East Lake, but he shouldn’t be amid any drama despite his lowest opening slot since 2020. En route to the FedExCup title the following year, he prevailed at Caves Valley. |
|
15 |
 Maverick McNealy
United States of America |
It’s been a long three years since he was on the cusp of qualifying for the TOUR Championship, but his debut is a lock as the 11-seed for the opener, second-highest among all non-winners in 2025. Nabbed three podiums, though. |
|
14 |
 Shane Lowry
Ireland |
It’d have been nice if he rolled into the Playoffs with the kind of form that he flashed earlier in the year, but the 17-seed is headed back to the TOUR Championship, where he recorded four sub-70s in his debut last year. |
|
13 |
 Corey Conners
Canada |
An aggressive send given that he’s been to four TOUR Championship and never cracked a top 20. However, all were contested with Starting Strokes and he now opens at a career-best 13th in points. (Last four: 28-30-30-30.) |
|
12 |
 J.J. Spaun
United States of America |
No matter what happens en route to his first TOUR Championship, 2025 will forever be a career-defining season. Yet, the U.S. Open champ is the 8-seed for whom it’d be unwise to expect to rest on his laurels. In his prime at 34. |
|
11 |
 Matt Fitzpatrick
England |
Given where he was two months ago, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to aver that his personal Playoffs got going in his last five starts. A T17 ahead of four straight top 10s position him as the 41-seed. Three top 10s at TPC Southwind. |
|
10 |
 Robert MacIntyre
Scotland |
While it was only early last year when he was searching for traction, that seems like forever ago, given how he’s thrived, and on the biggest stages, especially. The quick study is seeded 15th and poised to continue to impress. |
|
9 |
 Viktor Hovland
Norway |
Since winning the Valspar Championship, the 26-seed has showcased enough mojo to warrant elevated expectations only two years after his FedExCup title. He’s also advanced to East Lake in all five seasons with a PGA TOUR card. |
|
8 |
 Hideki Matsuyama
Japan |
Opens as the 21-seed, so this assumes that he’ll do well to defend his title at TPC Southwind on the heels of pretty good form. Owns a very nice record at East Lake, but his slot here angles at bonus points in Perfect 30. |
|
7 |
 Tommy Fleetwood
England |
Seeded ninth, he’s a lock to advance to his fifth TOUR Championship, but he’d like to become the third in Playoffs history to record a breakthrough PGA TOUR victory in the series. Two top fives in five starts at TPC Southwind. |
|
6 |
 Xander Schauffele
United States of America |
Oh, the irony. “Famously” low aggregate twice and co-low once at the TOUR Championship, but still without a FedExCup title. But now that Starting Strokes is gone, he’ll need to do work to return to East Lake as the 42-seed. |
|
5 |
 Harris English
United States of America |
It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, but he’s done both this year to splash as the 7-seed. It’s not unprecedented territory for the three-time veteran of the TOUR Championship, but he hasn’t advanced to it since 2021. |
|
4 |
 Justin Thomas
United States of America |
Current form takes a back seat to just having a chance in the TOUR Championship, which he will have as the 5-seed. Won the 2017 FedExCup with a runner-up finish at East Lake, one of seven top sevens in eight tries. |
|
3 |
 Russell Henley
United States of America |
Seeded fourth, it’s the first time he’s opened inside the top 10. Recorded a win, a T2 and another seven top 10s, including in his last four starts. Walked off a T4 at the TOUR Championship last year with a tournament-low 62. |
|
2 |
 Rory McIlroy
Northern Ireland |
Learned in 2022 that he can miss the cut in the first leg and still win the FedExCup, and that was in the Starting Strokes era. This year, the 2-seed rests ahead of a fierce fortnight to attempt to capture a fourth title. |
|
1 |
 Scottie Scheffler
United States of America |
As he’s in dogged pursuit of historical records in the sport and especially multiple FedExCup champions Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the top seed can accomplish what no one ever has – to successfully defend the FedExCup. |
Perfect 30 presented by LocaliQ measures your performance based on a litany of predictions, and you are encouraged to understand the entirety of the scoring (found under “How to Play”) before finalizing your entry. When you’re working on it, my advice is to ignore your thirst for the beefiest of the bonus points attached to golfers unlikely to advance to the TOUR Championship in favor of decisions that rely on what was learned since the field for the Playoffs was reduced to 70 in 2023. Building from the ground up retains the possibilities to connect for big bonuses attached to golfers who reach East Lake Golf Club, so the objective is to give yourself as many calculated chances to get lucky with the golfers who are, mostly, likely to deliver. While there is a leaderboard to monitor your progress relative to all throughout the Playoffs, what matters most is where you rank at its conclusion.
The cohort of the golfers above is influenced by known and largely predictable trajectories to qualify for the TOUR Championship. Since 2023, all of the opening 19 in the FedExCup have advanced to the finale in both editions. Also, exactly four golfers from outside the opening top 30 advanced to the TOUR Championship in both 2023 and 2024. So, my entry is a mix of all of the top 19, four golfers from outside the top 30, and seven others ranked 20-30.
Further note that none of my reaches begin outside the top 50. In the last two editions, only Viktor Hovland (57th) last year scaled from that range with a T2 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. In fact, he was my pick in last year’s preview/primer to crash the party at East Lake because TPC Southwind has small greens that are not tricky, so ball-strikers who are average putters at best are rewarded. Boom goes the dynamite.
Differences in FedExCup points from position to position are also a factor. Among the top 70 in points when the Playoffs began last year, there were 18 separations of fewer than five points, 16 of which were outside the top 30. This year, there are only 12 gaps smaller than five points, of which only eight are outside the top 30 (and all of those are outside the top 35). Although FedExCup points are quadrupled in the first two legs, there are no cuts in the Playoffs, so climbing even one rung is a heavier lift in the top layers of the standings and in smaller fields.
To specify one example near the bubble, Brian Harman opens at 20th, so he’s just outside the “guaranteed” range based on the two-year trend to advance to East Lake, but his margin of 103.69 FedExCup points over Hideki Matsuyama at 21st is the sixth-largest gap in all of the top 70. So the little lefty is all but a shoo-in to survive. Coincidentally, Harman opened at 20th last year and finished 31st, but his opening lead over Chris Kirk at 28th was just over 100 points, so Harman was much more vulnerable. This year, Harman’s lead over Sam Stevens (No. 28) is about 231 points. This calculus is baked into my entry.
If there’s a through line for all three host sites of the FedExCup Playoffs, it’s change.
As explained in my Power Rankings for the FedEx St. Jude, all greens and a few tees at TPC Southwind were rebuilt since last year’s edition. The challenge as it faces that field of 69 is real, but don’t permit it to knock you off balance as it concerns completing your entry for Perfect 30 presented by LocaliQ, for which the aforementioned factors reign.
The BMW Championship is returning to Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland. It previously hosted the tournament in 2021. Of that edition’s participants, 29 qualified for this year’s Playoffs, including Rory McIlroy (second in the FedExCup), who is the only golfer not to commit to the FedEx St. Jude. Like TPC Southwind, Caves Valley also underwent a large rebuild that yielded new tees, new greens, new locations of many greens and a reduction of overall par from 72 to 70. My Power Rankings, which will dive into all of it, will publish on Monday. Merely qualifying for the BMW Championship is a coup for the 50 golfers who do so because it rewards them with starts in all Signature Events in 2026.
But of course, the ultimate goal is the TOUR Championship. In addition to the Signature Events, qualifiers receive exemptions into the next year’s Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship. PGA TOUR membership exemptions through 2027 are also awarded where applicable. And that’s even before the first ball is struck at East Lake. The historic track debuted a restoration last year, but additional enhancements have been completed since, albeit not to the extent of the first two hosts of the Playoffs.
Last and certainly not least, the bonus structure for the FedExCup Playoffs was modified in response to the elimination of Starting Strokes while rewarding position upon arrival at East Lake. In addition to the massive cash prize, the 19th FedExCup champion will be fully exempt on the PGA TOUR via the official victory through 2030.
