Rory McIlroy has had an excellent season on the PGA Tour. He is second behind Scottie Scheffler in the overall rankings and among FedEx Cup points standings. McIlroy has decided to to skip the St. Jude Championships, the first event in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
The top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings qualify to play in the first round of the playoffs. The FedEx St. Jude Championship will be played at TPC Southwind in Memphis. That tournament will be played Aug. 7-10.
After that round is completed, the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup standings will move on to the BMW Championship. That tournament will be played a week later at the Caves Valley Golf Club, in Owings Mills, Md.
The Tour Championship will be held from August 21-24 at the East Lake Club in Atlanta. The top 30 golfers in the FedEx Cup rankings will be eligible to compete in that round.
In the past, the final round included a staggered start with the highest ranked player being given a stroke advantage at the start. That is no longer the case as the championship is determined by the lowest score in the 72-hole tournament. The winner at East Lake earns the FedEx Cup championship. The award for that honor is a $10 million bonus and five-year tour exemption.
McIlroy has had a solid season and his position in the BMW Championship is assured
While Scheffler’s position on top of the golf world is unquestioned, Rory McIlroy has had a brilliant year on the tour. The superstar from Northern Ireland has three wins this year and he has eight top-10 finishes.
McIlroy was able to complete the career Grand Slam when he won the Masters in April. That victory ended an 11-year dry spell when competing in golf’s major championships.
He also won the Players Championship and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am this year.
McIlroy has also had an impressive statistical year. He ranks 2nd in shots gained, 4th in shots gained off the tee and 4th in shots gained putting. He is known for his ability to pound the ball off the tee and he ranks 2nd in driving distance with an average of 323.4 yards. However, his biggest area of concern is his driving accuracy. He ranks 173rd in that area, hitting the fairway just 50.6 percent of the time.
Scheffler is on top of the FedEx Cup standings with 4,806 points. McIlroy follows with 3,444 points. Sepp Straka is third with 2,595 points. Russell Henley, Justin Thomas and Ben Griffin follow the top three in the standings.
Steve Silverman has been covering the NFL for more than 35 years, and his writing has appeared in ESPN Magazine, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Pro Football Weekly, and Forbes.com. He has written 10 books, including “Who’s Better, Who’s Best in the NFL.”
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