5 Players Who Need a Big Week at the Wyndham Championship

It’s always a good week to have a good week on the PGA Tour, but it’s a little more important to have a good week at the regular-season finale Wyndham Championship, where some big-name players are sitting on some notable bubbles before next week’s FedEx Cup playoffs begin.

Here are five who could use a strong result in Greensboro to help improve their status moving forward.

5 Players Who Need a Big Week at the Wyndham Championship

Jordan Spieth

At 55th on the FedEx Cup points list, Spieth isn’t going to miss the playoffs. He’s not in danger of losing his card or dealing with any of the other pratfalls which come with being outside the top-70. That doesn’t mean, though, that he doesn’t need a big week. He’s played 20 events this season, and while he does own eight top-25 results, he has as many top-10s as you do.

Should he not improve his standing either this week or next week in Memphis, he’ll be resigned to yet another year of letter-writing to tournament directors in hopes of receiving sponsor exemptions. Once again, he’ll probably get ‘em, as any tourney would welcome his Q-rating, but that’s obviously not the end goal here. Since a playoff loss in Greensboro back in 2013, he hasn’t finished inside the top-30 here in four starts. He’d love to reverse a few trends before the playoffs begin.

Jackson Koivun

After his victory at the 3M Open in his third start as a PGA Tour member, Koivun moved into the 70th spot in the points standings – the final spot to qualify for the playoffs. Following a T-31 finish in Detroit last week, he remained in exactly the same position, which likely means it’ll take something very similar to move on to the postseason.

Why is that so important? Well, it’s less about what that ascendancy might do for his career over the long haul and more about what it could do for him in the short term. In the wake of his victory, many were calling for Koivun to be added to this year’s U.S. Presidents Cup roster, but it’s difficult to see him making the team if he’s sitting at home for the final three weeks of the season.

A big week at the Wyndham and another one or two in the playoffs should vault him up captain Brandt Snedeker’s list of candidates to make the trip to Medinah.

Keegan Bradley

Last year’s Ryder Cup captain has been transparent about the way that loss affected him on the course, as he failed to claim a top-25 finish this season until the Masters. He’s since been playing catch-up and the performance has been much improved, as last week’s T-15 at the Rocket Classic ranked as his fifth top-20 in his last 10 starts.

It also lifted him from 76th in the standings to 72nd, just two spots away from making the playoffs. With a win at last year’s Travelers Championship, the 40-year-old isn’t in danger of missing the playoffs or any other demerit, but for someone who’s been 54th or better on that list for the past half-decade, a return to Memphis would be a source of pride after such a poor start.

Tony Finau

One of the more dramatic star turns over the past couple of years has been that of Finau, who was once considered one of the top-10 players in the world, but enters this week at 89th in the standings. His lone top-10 this season came at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson back in May, which also happens to be his only top-25 in his last 13 starts.

For a player who’s been top-70 in every season of his PGA Tour career and reached the Tour Championship in every year from 2017 through ’24, this represents a shocking spiral which isn’t likely to be reversed this week. Finau has only played the Wyndham once previously, finishing T-44 last year, and it’s going to take something right near the top of the leaderboard to move into the top-70 this week.

Brooks Koepka

Unlike every other player on this list — and, well, every other player who might qualify for the playoffs — Koepka isn’t eligible for FedEx Cup bonus money after his return to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf. That alone could suggest that reaching the postseason matters less to the five-time major champion than anyone else, but there are reasons he should be fully motivated this week.

Namely, should Koepka not squeeze his way into the top-50 over the next few weeks, nor finish inside the top-10 during the fall portion of the schedule, he’d be back to the proverbial Square One next season — qualified for all the majors, but otherwise playing mostly second-tier tournaments, unless he receives sponsor exemptions into the signature events. For a player who fancies himself as one of the biggest talents around, another season of trying to climb into the biggest events isn’t what he originally planned for this comeback.