– Europe has reasons to keep boasting in the FedEx Cup. For the second consecutive year, it has placed nine players in the grand final, in the select club of the top 30 of the PGA Tour. It matches the absolute record reached in 2024. But this year’s Tour Championship, which will start this Thursday at East Lake, goes much further. There are nine, like last year, but we have three in the top 5 and five in the top 10, whereas in 2024 there was only one in the top 5 and only two in the top 10. Same quantity, but more quality. Europe continues to grow in the FedEx Cup.
– The nine who have qualified this year are: McIlroy, Rose, Fleetwood, Straka, MacIntyre, Aberg, Hovland, Lowry, and Hall. Compared to the previous year, there are two changes: Rose and Hall are in, and Pavon and Rai are out. Europe is going from record to record in the FedEx. In 2023, a record was already set by placing seven golfers in the grand final, among whom were Rahm and Hatton. Not even the departure of those two heavyweights of golf to this side of the Atlantic has weakened Europe in the FedEx Cup. Without them, it rose to nine last year and has remained in 2025. In the first five years of the FedEx Cup Final (2007-2011), the highest number of Europeans in the Tour Championship was four, and in two years there were only two representatives (2008 and 2009). The evolution is remarkable and palpable.
– Other curious facts. Do you know how many players are repeating the final this year compared to 2024? A total of 17. Do they seem like many or few to you? Almost half of the field is renewed. At first glance, it seems a lot, but historically it is not so. The Tour Championship changes its appearance a lot from year to year. In fact, there are only two years in which more players have repeated than in 2025. The record is 2021, right after the pandemic, when 20 players repeated. In 2019, 18 coincided. Meanwhile, 17 identical golfers have repeated on four occasions. The year with the fewest familiar faces compared to the previous one was 2008. Only eight repeated among the top 30. A revolution. In any case, the final conclusion is how difficult it is to qualify for the Tour Championship every year.
– In this regard, do you know who holds the record for the most consecutive qualifications for the FedEx Cup Final? A certain Dustin Johnson. He achieved it thirteen years in a row. Brutal. Between 2009 and 2021. However, in 2014 he did not play the playoffs even though he qualified. He had even qualified for the final. It was the year of the suspension for testing positive for cocaine. That is the reason why, despite being qualified, he could not play any of the playoffs. The next with the most consecutive presences is Patrick Reed, who reached nine.
– Precisely, who could reach nine next year is Rory McIlroy. He already has eight consecutive presences. He holds the current record ahead of Sungjae Im, who has seven. Schauffele would have completed nine consecutive editions this year, but he did not make it to the Final. We insist: how difficult it is to qualify every year. With six are Scheffler (let’s see where the counter stops, he has qualified since his first year on the PGA Tour), Hovland, and Morikawa. Another who reached eight consecutive presences in his day was Hunter Mahan. How good Hunter Mahan was, brought back to fame by doubling for Happy Gilmore in the second part of the recently released movie.
– The 40 million dollars distributed this year in the Tour Championship, with a cheque of 10 million for the tournament winner and, therefore, the FedEx Cup, will count towards the official earnings of the PGA Tour. It is a novelty this year. It hasn’t happened since 2018.
– There are seven debutants in the Tour Championship: J.J. Spaun (No. 3), Ben Griffin (No. 7), Maverick McNealy (No. 10), Andrew Novak (No. 15), Harry Hall (No. 26), Jacob Bridgeman (No. 27), Chris Gotterup (No. 29).
– There are eight players who have qualified for the Tour Championship despite not having won any tournament this year: Tommy Fleetwood (No. 5), Maverick McNealy (No. 10), Corey Conners (No. 19), Shane Lowry (No. 24), Harry Hall (No. 26), Jacob Bridgeman (No. 27), Sungjae Im (No. 28), Akshay Bhatia (No. 30). It’s not a bad time to achieve the first victory of the year, they will all think.
– Scheffler can become the first player in history to win the FedEx Cup twice in a row. It is the fourth consecutive year he arrives as the first in the ranking at the Tour Championship. Moreover, he has finished in the top 25 in all the tournaments he has played this year on the PGA Tour. 18 out of 18. With 15 top 10.
