Big names chase playoff spots at Wyndham Championship

Justin Thomas, Irishman Shane Lowry, Australia's Adam Scott and other desperate golf dignitaries are making their last push toward the FedEx Cup playoffs when the Wyndham Championship tees off Thursday in Greensboro, N.C.

The PGA Tour's regular-season finale at Sedgefield Country Club serves as the last opportunity to qualify for next week's FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first of three legs of the playoffs. Only the top 70 in FedEx Cup points will be in the field for the initial leg of the playoffs, which is pared down further before the annual Tour championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Thomas, a two-time winner of the PGA Championship, has been fighting through a slump all summer. He missed the cut in five of his last seven events and has just one top-10 finish since February. Thomas enters the Wyndham No. 79 in the FedEx Cup standings, and making the United States Ryder Cup team looks like a longshot.

"That is the reality of golf, like it's all on you," Thomas said Tuesday. "You're not relying on any teammates to bail you out, to hinder you, it's all on you. There's just guys that have played better than me this season whether they're ranked first in the world or 101st in the world. But now I have an opportunity to play well this week, get into the playoffs and to go to three courses that I love."

Thomas is far from alone in his last-minute quest to make the playoffs.

Lowry, the 2019 Open Championship winner, is 76th in the standings after a quiet season with just one top-10. Scott, another major champion, had a run of good results in May but has played just 16 PGA Tour events this season, leaving him No. 81 in points.

Scott and Matt Kuchar are the only two players who have qualified for every FedEx Cup Playoffs since its creation in 2007.

"I'm really thinking about winning the tournament, not just trying to squeak in next week," Scott said. "I probably have to have a pretty high result to get in anyway, so I may as well think about winning. That's what I would like to do the most this week."

The player currently "last man in" at No. 70 is Austin Eckroat. Other notable names fighting for their playoff lives include K.H. Lee of South Korea (No. 73), Matt Wallace of England (No. 80) and Joel Dahmen (No. 82).

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan is comfortably on the right side of the line at No. 56, but he'll tee it up in Greensboro aiming to improve that standing. This year, the playoff fields will be trimmed from 70 to 50 to the traditional 30 for the Tour Championship.

Tom Kim of South Korea won the Wyndham last year -- improbably overcoming a quadruple bogey on his first hole of the week. Still going by Joohyung Kim at that point, he was playing on a PGA Tour special temporary membership at the time and his victory earned him his full tour card.

But Kim tore a ligament in his ankle during The Open Championship two weeks ago, and although he fought through the pain and climbed the leaderboard to a T2 finish, he withdrew from the Wyndham to heal up for the playoffs.

Past champions who are in the field include Jim Herman (2020), J.T. Poston (2019), Brandt Snedeker (2018, 2007) and Si Woo Kim of South Korea (2016).