5 Potential Winner Narratives for the FedEx Cup

Last year’s PGA Tour season finale provided one of the most indelible images of the year, as Tommy Fleetwood overcame a decade of close calls and near-misses to finally triumph on U.S. soil, capturing the FedEx Cup title in the process.

If we’d been choosing the best potential stories prior to that event at East Lake, Fleetwood’s first win would’ve been on the short list of options.

Let’s take a look at five possible winner narratives entering this week’s Tour Championship.

5 Potential Winner Narratives for the FedEx Cup

Gary Woodland

On the ninth tee during Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship, Gary Woodland stood just one stroke off the lead – and then he cold-topped a 3-wood into a creek, with ShotLink measuring it as a 97-yard tee shot. He made double-bogey on the hole, but closed with nine straight pars on the back-nine to finish in a share of fourth place and move into the final top-30 for the first time since his U.S. Open-winning season of 2019.

After the round, he was emotional, his tears showing what it all means, even for a player who’s won a major championship and been around for so long. Just a few years removed from brain surgery and having been so transparent about dealing with the lingering repercussions, Woodland’s ascendancy as a fan favorite could crescendo with a victory this week.

Kristoffer Reitan and Alex Fitzpatrick

Only two rookies made it to the Tour Championship field – and four months into this season, both of them were still afterthoughts. Reitan had just two top-25 results in his first nine starts as a PGA Tour member, but teamed with Kris Ventura for a runner-up finish at the Zurich Classic … which got him into the Cadillac Championship, where he finished T-14 … which in turn got him into the Truist Championship, which he won.

Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick won the Zurich with his brother Alex, then proved he’s got plenty of individual staying power, finishing top-25 in six of his next seven starts. Maybe a win from either of these player wouldn’t exactly tug on the heartstrings, but it would prove that in today’s age of rich-get-richer formats in professional golf, there’s still an opportunity to work your way through the system and hit the big-time.

Alex Smalley

There’s only one player in this week’s 30-man field who’s never before won on the PGA Tour and that’s Smalley, whose inclusion in so many big events contrastingly has made it more difficult to win any of ‘em.

Of course, while Fleetwood’s first career win on this circuit validated so many years of title contention, a win by Smalley would validate something much different about the FedEx Cup format and what it all means, though such a scenario might be more polarizing amongst public opinion than any other possibility.

Scottie Scheffler

Alright, so this one would be neither heartwarming nor shocking nor polarizing, but for those who like their PGA Tour calendar wrapped up in a neat little bow, having the game’s best player conclude the season with a victory would be the tidiest outcome. It would also likely solidify a fifth consecutive Player of the Year award for Scheffler while tying him with only McIlroy and Tiger Woods as players with multiple FedEx Cup titles over the first 20 years of postseason play.

Playoff

Since 2019, when the PGA Tour moved from a points-based system of determining the FedEx Cup champion to a stroke-based leaderboard that mirrored the Tour Championship, we’ve never had a playoff to determine the winner of the playoffs. Whether it was the staggered scoring-start era through 2024 or last year, there have been five occasions of a champion winning by three strokes or more and just two – Patrick Cantlay in 2021 and McIlroy the next year – of someone winning by one.

We’re still waiting on that first head-to-head battle in extra holes, which would be a significant precursor to the impending match-play era of 2028 and beyond.