What is the FedEx Cup case? PGA Tour event calendar, what’s at stake for golfers through the end of the 2024 season

I hope everyone enjoyed the off-season. A brief week-long break following the lucrative Tour Championship, where Scottie Scheffler won $25 million and this year’s FedEx Cup, is now over. The PGA Tour is back in Napa, California, this week for the inaugural FedEx Cup Fall event.

The FedEx Cup Fall consists of eight events and offers plenty of incentives for anyone who finished outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup after the St. Jude Championship to advance to the playoffs in August. Even though most of the top players in the world will not be participating, there will still be interesting and valuable action to watch through the end of the year.

Let’s take a look at these incentives, the players trying to take advantage of them, and how it could all play out on the PGA Tour in the coming months.

FedEx Cup Fall 2024 Schedule

• Procore Championship – September 12-15
• Sanderson Farms Championship – October 3-6
• Black Desert Championship – October 10-13
• Shriners Children’s Open – June 17-20 October
• Zozo Championship – October 24-27
• Global Technology Championship – November 7-10
• Butterfield Bermuda Championship – November 14-17
• RSM Classic – 21st-24th November

The big change this year is the Black Desert Championship, which will be held in Utah on a course of the same name. Everything else is similar to 2023, although the total number of events played has increased from seven last year to eight this year and the FedEx Cup Fall ends a week later.

Field strength

Most top players will skip these events because they have already secured their status for 2025. If a player finished in the top 50 in the 2024 FedEx Cup – and thus advanced to the BMW Championship – he is already qualified for all major events in 2025 and virtually every other tournament. So don’t expect to see much or even all of Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa or Viktor Hovland in the next few months.

The same goes for players who finished in the top 70 or better. While they are not exempt from the signature events in 2025, they are eligible for the rest of the PGA Tour roster. They can upgrade their status for next year, but they have already secured PGA Tour cards for 2025 and nothing can change that this fall.

Interestingly, the first event – the Procore Championship in Napa, formerly known as the Fortinet Championship – has attracted Wyndham Clark, Gary Woodland, Webb Simpson, Max Homa, Corey Conners, Harris English, Min Woo Lee and Sahith Theegala, among others. Many of these players are trying to stay fit for the Presidents Cup, which takes place in Montreal in two weeks.

Other events could have good fields depending on what the top players are up to and what they plan to do this fall (staying focused, preparing for something).

What is at stake

Even though much of the 2025 field is set, there’s still a lot at stake. First, the fall winners will qualify for the Players Championship and a two-year exemption from the PGA Tour; they’ll also likely receive invitations to major championships (like the Masters), events that have featured PGA Tour winners in the past.

Golfers who work their way up the FedEx Cup rankings – places 51 to 60 after the fall – will receive an exemption for two of the first three signature events of 2025. Here is the full list of signature events:

• The guard post
• Pebble Beach Pro-Am
• Genesis Invitation
• Arnold Palmer Invitational
• RBC Heritage
• Truist Championship
• Memorial Tournament
• Mastery of Travelers

Since the FedEx Cup points from the 2024 regular season will be carried over to the FedEx Cup Fall, we already have a “Top 10” in the rankings:

These golfers are playing to maintain their current positions, which would allow them to participate in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational in February 2025. The players behind them are trying to take their spots to be able to participate in these events.

There is more at stake

Perhaps the even bigger competition is at the bottom of the rankings. Only the top 125 golfers will retain their PGA Tour cards for 2025, and there are some interesting names at the bottom of the pile like Zac Blair (No. 113), Kevin Tway (No. 122), Sam Ryder (No. 125), Alejandro Tosti (No. 127) and others. They will all be battling for a spot in the top 125 by the end of the fall to secure full PGA Tour status for next season.