Playoffs set to start without some headliners
9 who face sabbaticals; not all young guns catch fire; U.S. Am match-play qualifiers
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Brooks Koepka will reevaluate after self-described “pathetic” first season back on PGA Tour (Jeff Haynes/USGA)
The FedEx Cup playoffs begin Thursday in Memphis, Tenn., with the top 70 in the season-long standings (minus Daniel Berger, who elected not to play) playing a $20 million tournament without a cut and an opportunity to advance to another $20 million event next week.
The possible riches are impressive, even for those who fail to make it from the FedEx St. Jude Championship to next week’s BMW Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis.
But while they fight it out for all the cash on offer, a group of players will undoubtedly be doing some soul-searching as they sit out this three-event playoff run. Brooks Koepka said so himself on Sunday at the Wyndham Championship after failing to advance. “Just need to go home and completely reevaluate everything,” he said.
He’s not oalone. Anyone who missed out on the playoffs is wondering what he needs to do to improve his position next year.
Also in today’s DD …
Transition to pros isn’t always as easy as some young stars make it seem
ESPN will offer some bonus coverage of first two rounds in Memphis
Ryan medals, Watts and Russell advance to U.S. Amateur match play at Merion
We identified nine players who would be considered surprises or disappointments based on their final regular-season FedEx Cup points finish.
Keegan Bradley (74th) — The 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain began the year ranked No. 16 in the world (now 48th), had access to all of the signature events and had zero top-10 finishes, his best a tie for 12th at the RBC Heritage.
Davis Thompson (77th) — A year after finishing 71st and just missing the playoffs, Thompson had two top-10s and a tie for 14th in his last three events, but couldn’t quite finish well enough at any of them to climb inside the top 70.
Jason Day (82nd) — Injuries again got the best of Day, who barely played even when his playoff status was on the line. He lamented his physical struggles after missing the cut at the Wyndham. He played just five times in the last 10 weeks dating to the Memorial, with three missed cuts and a withdrawal.
Brooks Koepka (94th) — The five-time major champion’s return to the PGA Tour after four years with LIV Golf was a huge disappointment, as he posted just a single top-10 and traced a lot of his woes to poor putting.
Tony Finau (98th) — Finau’s issues date to last year, when he was No. 54 in the world following the FedEx St. Jude and has kept dropping since. Finau had one top-10 … and zero major championship appearances in 2026. He is exempt through 2027 due to past wins.
Billy Horschel (100th) — Slow to recover from 2025 hip surgery, Horschel has dropped 100 spots to 53rd in the OWGR. He will need to play this fall in order to remain fully exempt next season by staying in the top 100.
Lucas Glover (101st) — Glover had his chances a few times this summer and now will need to play well this fall in order to remain in the top 100.
Chris Kirk (128th) — The six-time PGA Tour winner is also having to fight for his fully exempt status after missing eight cuts in 2026 and posting just a single top-10.
Luke Clanton (147th) — The former Florida State star who had a great run in PGA Tour events as an amateur had a shockingly poor year, making just nine of 19 cuts and putting himself in great peril for next year. He’ll need to at least move into the top 125 in the fall in order to have some status next year.
2025 PGA Tour U grad David Ford was among young stars who didn’t ignite in 2026 (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Golf is hard, even for young phenoms
One might get the impression that it’s a piece of cake transitioning from collegiate and amateur excellence to PGA Tour success watching the last few weeks. Highly touted young players Jackson Koivun, 21, Michael Thorbjornsen, 24, and Michael Brennan, 24, won each of the last three tour events while the latest PGA Tour University graduate Ben James has posted a slew of high finishes since turning pro this summer.
Well, it’s not always as easy as they’ve made it look.
Luke Clanton, 22, isn’t alone among recently highly touted collegiate stars who struggled as “sophomores” on the PGA Tour.
Former PGA Tour University Accelerated graduate Gordon Sargent, 23, is 134th in the FedEx Cup standings and will be fighting for his status this fall along with Clanton (147th). David Ford, 23, took up his card after topping the PGA Tour U list in 2025 and finished his first full regular season on tour at 154th and will also be fighting for his card in the fall.
And while Nick Dunlap, 22, doesn’t have to worry about his status for another year in 2027 because he won two PGA Tour events in 2024, he has a lot to worry about his game that left him 167th in points this season.
ESPN on board with early FedEx package
A development on the TV front this week has ESPN providing two hours of coverage of the FedEx St. Jude Championship both Thursday and Friday.
ESPN still has streaming coverage via PGA Tour Live but will provide regular broadcast coverage on ESPN from 9-11 a.m for the first two rounds. How this works with Golf Channel’s exclusive cable rights is an interesting sidenote.
The ESPN+ streaming coverage begins at 7:45 a.m. and will continue. Golf Channel has its traditional time shot Thursday and Friday from 2-6 p.m., then 1-3 p.m. on Saturday and Noon-2 p.m. on Sunday. CBS has weekend coverage from 3-6 p.m. on Saturday and 2-6 p.m. on Sunday.
2026 medalist Joshua Ryan grew up 10 miles away from Merion (Ishika Samant/USGA)
Local star Ryan claims U.S. Am medalist honors
Current Pennsylvania Amateur champion from nearby Norristown, Pa., Joshua Ryan, posted a 36-hole score of 8-under 132 to earn medalist honors over the 311-player field in the U.S. Amateur at Merion and Philadelphia Country Club.
Ryan, 22, followed up Monday’s 3-under 67 at stroke-play co-host Philadelphia CC with a 5-under 65 at Merion on Tuesday to beat U.S. Walker Cup selection Tyler Watts by two strokes.
He also becomes the first “local” medalist in the U.S. Amateur since Mark Goetz in 2021 at Oakmont Country Club outside of Pittsburgh.
Miles Russell — the top-ranked junior and No. 4 WAGR player who tied for 39th in this year’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, shared medalist at last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur before losing in the championship match and finished third at the Western Amateur after being medlaist — was among a crowd tied for fifth at 3-under and easily advances to the match play.
Play was suspended for darkness at 8:09 p.m. with a handful of competitors still on the course at Merion.
Among those guaranteed to make it through to match play are past U.S. Mid-Amateur champions Stewart Hagestad and Evan Beck, who are both finished and tied for 33rd at 1-over.
The cut line will be at 2-over par. With 17 players currently tied for 54th on that number, there will be a playoff to whittle it down to complete the 64-player match-play bracket before the Round of 64 can start Wednesday at Merion East. Among those players finished at 2-over: WAGR No. 5 Luke Poulter, the son of Ian Poulter; No. 6 William Jennings; No. 8 Ryder Cowan, co-low amateur at the 2026 U.S. Open; No. 11 Kihei Akina; and Fifa Laopakdee, last year’s Asia-Pacific Amateur champion.
Notables who failed to advance to match play are WAGR No. 1 and reigning NCAA champion Preston Stout (who was medalist in last year’s U.S. Amateur), 2025 Amateur champion and WAGR No. 9 Ethan Fang, 2025 U.S. Amateur winner Mason Howell and reigning Latin America Amateur champion Mateo Pulcini.
Television coverage from Merion will begin with the Round of 64 match play today on Peacock and NBC Sports Network from 3-6 p.m., with the Round of 16 and quarterfinals scheduled to be shown in the same 3-6 p.m. window on both platforms Thursday and Friday.
Saturday’s semifinals and the end of Sunday’s 36-hole championship match will be streamed on Peacock from 3-6 p.m. with NBC broadcast coverage scheduled from 4-6 p.m. after the first hour runs on NBC Sports Network both days.
Click here for full U.S. Amateur scoring and coverage.