Welcome to the Blue Ridge Mountains, PGA Tour!
The fall golf season kicks off in Asheville, North Carolina, where The Cliffs at Walnut Cove hosts the inaugural Biltmore Championship.
Playing status in 2027 remains a primary motivator for players making their way down south this week — and then out west to Black Desert Resort in Utah at the beginning of October, and then onto stops around the globe in Japan, Mexico and the Bahamas later on in the calendar.
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Of course, there’s the Presidents Cup at Medinah before all that end-of-year fun. Players in the Biltmore field, like Jacob Bridgeman and Jackson Koivun, will represent the U.S. following their work at Walnut Cove.
Bridgeman and Koivun are the exceptions, though, and the Presidents Cup will be in the rearview mirror soon enough.
Let’s take a look at 10 names with plenty to play for this fall (ranking on the FedExCup points list as of September 16).
Image for Biltmore Championship Asheville – Rd 1
Biltmore Championship Asheville – Rd 1
Watch the opening round of the Biltmore Championship Asheville from The Cliffs at Walnut Cove in Asheville, N.C.
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Brooks Koepka (No. 94)
The former world No. 1 came into the year ranked No. 246 the OWGR so part of this year could be viewed as a positive (he’s now No. 124). But we’ll take Koepka at his self-critical word after the Wyndham Championship.
“I think it’s pretty pathetic that I can’t get through,” Koepka said at the Wyndham Championship about missing the playoffs.
“Ball-struck it great,” he added. “It’s just all on the greens. I don’t know what the deal is, got zero confidence, can’t putt. I don’t know. There’s going to be a lot of changes here soon.”
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Short-game tweaks have been a season-long theme for Koepka since rejoining the Tour in January.
While he might not be panicking about earning full status next season since he’s got an exemption from winning the 2023 PGA Championship, the five-time major winner is clearly in the middle of a career crossroads. A good fall — if he decides to play — could be a springboard to success in 2027.
Tony Finau (No. 98)
Celebrating his 37th birthday this week, Finau is another player who needs a return to form.
A lone top-10 finish at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and a slew of missed cuts early in the season have the six-time Tour winner ranked 140th in the world. Like Koepka, his status is secure for 2027 (thanks to multiple wins in the 2022 and 2023 season), but the veteran is in need of a spark.
Billy Horschel (No. 100)
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The eight-time PGA Tour winner and 2014 FedExCup champ has fallen more than a hundred spots from opening the year at No. 53 in the OWGR.
Horschel is the bubble boy entering the fall season, with Lucas Glover one spot behind as “the last man out” for now (more on him in a moment).
But unlike the aforementioned, Horschel is playing without a net. His full status ends with this season — so there is no margin for error.
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Lucas Glover (No. 101)
Not a ton of other major winners on this list. So, if we’re doing this as a “fantasy draft,” he’s a pretty valuable name to get on the board.
Glover also began the year way inside the top 100 in the world (at No. 64) which was a key criteria for making it here — and this is not a place where you want to be, in case that wasn’t clear enough above.
After earning his way into all eight of the 2026 signature events, Glover had just one top-20 finish. He did, however, earn a couple of top-5s in July to offer a little hope entering this stretch.
Glover’s 2027 status depends on it.
A.J. Ewart (No. 105)
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Fellow Canadian Sudarshan Yellamaraju (No. 112 in the world) first drew our attention, but the fall is far more important for Ewart.
Yellamaraju is No. 58 in FedExCup points after finishing seven top-25 finished this year. Those currently ranked Nos. 51-70 have full status for 2027, with the players ranked Nos. 51-60, earning spots in first two signature events next season.
Ewart, who ranks No. 105 in the FedExCup Fall standings, won last year’s Q-School to earn his Tour card. He’s going to need that kind of play to keep it.
Ben James (No. 108)
A PGA Tour rookie, James is No. 108 in FedExCup points and is almost guaranteed a slot in our end-of-year biggest risers in the OWGR.
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Thanks to finishing No. 1 on the PGA Tour University rankings, the 23-year-old has full status through next season. But a win could be around the corner. He’s collected a pair of top-10s in eight starts and is the third favorite behind Bridgeman and Koivun this week in Asheville.
Max McGreevy (No. 123)
McGreevy started the year ranked 67th in the world and has fallen to 129th. He’s also missed the cut in four of his last five events.
In a bit of a free fall without a top-10 finish in 2026, McGreevy needs to turn the ship around if he wants to, at worst, keep conditional status.
Oddsmakers put him at +10000 in lifting the inaugural Biltmore trophy on Sunday, for what it’s worth.
Chris Kirk (No. 128)
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After ending last year No. 78 in the world rankings, Kirk didn’t earn a top-10 finish until late in the season at the Rocket Classic.
While that could be cause to sound the alarm, we’ll look at it more on the positive side, that his game is trending in a better direction.
Kirk hasn’t played a lot of fall events in recent years, because he hasn’t needed to. He does now.
Haotong Li (No. 133)
Li’s another player with just a single top-10 finish in 2026, and it came way back at the American Express in January.
The lack of top-level results sent the 87th-ranked player in the world entering the year tumbling outside the top 120. To make matters worse, Li is No. 133 in the FEC standings, so this fall could mean the difference between playing the PGA Tour or DP World Tour next season.
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Gordon Sargent (No. 134)
Seven points behind Li and just one in front of Brice Garnett, the 2022 Division I men’s individual champion has plenty on the line this fall.
He finished T-2 at the Corales Puntacana Championship this summer, but other than that result, it’s been a trying year for the former Vanderbilt standout who made the weekend in just six out of 17 events played.
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