10 Big Names Missing From The FedEx Cup Playoffs

The 2022/23 PGA Tour season is drawing to a close with the three-tournament FedEx Cup Playoffs getting underway with the FedEx St. Jude Championship. 

There are some notable absentees from the field of 70 who will tee it up at TPC Southwind, though. Here are some of the biggest names missing out on this year's FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Justin Thomas

After being out of sorts for much of the season, Thomas went into the Wyndham Championship knowing he needed a strong finish to have a chance of reaching the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Before the tournament, he insisted “I’m really not playing that poorly” and that view was given credence by a decent performance at Sedgefield Country Club that saw him finish T12. 

Unfortunately for the two-time PGA Champion, it wasn’t enough for him to make the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings needed to see him into the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Agonisingly, Thomas finished 71st, missing out by a single shot.

With that opportunity denied him, Thomas now faces a wait to see if he has done enough to convince Zach Johnson that he’s worth a place in his US Ryder Cup team for the upcoming match at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.

Adam Scott

Former World No.1 Scott fared even better than Thomas at the Wyndham Championship, finishing T7. Despite his best finish since May’s T5 at the Wells Fargo Championship, though, the Australian misses out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs after finishing 72nd in the standings.

That condemns Scott to his first absence from the Playoffs since 2015, but, as the tournament drew to a close, he attempted to draw a silver lining from the likelihood of that run coming to an end, saying: “If it does end, I think it's a good thing. I think it gives me a good chance to have a look at what I need to do differently to be more competitive in whatever competition I'm playing in.”

Before the Wyndham Championship, Scott said: “One better round of golf this year and I’d find myself well inside the FedExCup line at the moment at the right time, that’s how small a margin it is over a season, just one round that is a few shots better."

Given he also achieved top 10-finishes in the AT&T Byron Nelson and The Memorial Tournament in the 2022/23 season, he probably has reason for some optimism that his best isn’t far away.

Shane Lowry

Lowry began the Wyndham Championship beneath the cut off in the FedEx Cup standings, but, in 76th, still in with a good chance of qualifying with a strong performance. Unlike Thomas and Scott, though, things didn’t go as well for the 2019 Open champion.

The Irishman finished 17 shots behind winner Lucas Glover in a tie for 51st, which saw him drop two more places in the final standings in 78th.

That means he misses out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time in three years. After missing the cut at The Open, Lowry also fell out of the automatic qualifying spots for Luke Donald’s European Ryder Cup team, with patchy form proving costly as the season draws to a close.

Billy Horschel

Horschel won the FedEx Cup in 2014 and would have headed into the 2022/23 season confident of challenging for it again. 

After all, he went into it on the back of a season that included top 10 finishes in the WM Phoenix Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational and victory in The Memorial Tournament before finishing with a T19 in the Tour Championship.

It was a different story this season, though, with an alarming loss of form even leading him to reveal he “broke down” amid his struggles.

Therefore it was pleasing to see Horschel recover some of his best form in the Wyndham Championship.

The American held the joint lead heading into the final round, but he couldn’t quite maintain his form on Sunday. He still finished a highly creditable fourth, but it wasn’t enough to reach the Playoffs, as Horschel eventually finished 90th in the standings.

Gary Woodland

The 2019 US Open champion was steady throughout the Wyndham Championship as he finished T27, but it was only enough to move him up three places in the FedEx Cup standings to leave him 94th.

The four-time PGA Tour winner needed a top-three finish at Sedgefield Country Club to continue a run that has seen him qualify for the Playoffs each year since 2012. 

However, a disappointing season with just two top-10 finishes means he’ll need to take stock to come back stronger next season.

Danny Willett

The 2016 Masters champion knew his slim chance of reaching the FedEx Cup Playoffs had gone by the weekend. That’s because he failed to make the cut in the Wyndham Championship to eventually leave him 85th in the standings.

Willett’s most recent appearance in the FedEx Cup Playoffs came in 2019, and he’d have been confident of reaching them this year after beginning his season with runner-up in the Fortinet Championship.

Only one other finish in the top 20 followed that, though, in February’s Genesis Invitational, meaning he’ll need to wait at least another year to qualify again.

Matt Wallace

Another player who didn’t do enough at Sedgefield Country Club is Englishman Matt Wallace.

There have been several high points for Wallace in the 2022/23 season, including a T7 in the Valspar Championship and his first win on the PGA Tour in his next start, the Corales Puntacana Championship in March.

That promising form didn’t hold, though, with a string of missed cuts leaving him 10 places adrift of the cut off before the Wyndham Championship. A T45 in that tournament was nowhere near enough to bridge the gap, and he finishes the season 82nd in the standings.

Joel Dahmen

Like Wallace, Dahmen’s season tailed off after a purple patch that had appeared to set him up for a one of the best years of his career. 

Successive top-10 finishes in three tournaments in November saw him comfortably inside the world’s top 100 and seemingly on an upward trajectory, but 10 missed cuts since then left him with plenty to do in the Wyndham Championship to have a chance of reaching the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Despite an encouraging 67 on the Friday to make the cut, Dahmen finished T64, 20 shots behind the winner and 14 places adrift of the cut off in the FedEx Cup standings.

Alex Noren

Swede Noren’s chances of qualifying for the FedEx Cup Playoffs were slim before the Wyndham Championship. 

He started the tournament 102nd in the standings and a T38 barely improved things as he finished 101st, 31 places adrift of the cut off to wrap up an underwhelming PGA Tour season that at least had a couple of high spots in a T9 in the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a T13 in the 3M Open.

Looking ahead, Noren, who helped Team Europe to victory in the 2018 Ryder Cup at France's Le Golf National, is well adrift of automatic qualifying for this year’s match. 

With no other opportunities to impress on the PGA Tour this season, his chance of a second appearance as a captain’s pick for the September match appears slim.

Webb Simpson

Simpson has plenty of success in the FedEx Cup Playoffs in the past, and claimed victory in the 2011 Deutsche Bank Championship before eventually finishing 22nd in that year's Tour Championship. 

He followed that up for a T5 in the 2012 Tour Championship before finishing fourth the year after. Other Playoff appearances have followed, most notably culminating in a T4 at the 2018 Tour Championship, but any hopes he had of reaching the top 70 of the standings this year had all but disappeared before the Wyndham Championship. 

Simpson produced a strong performance at Sedgefield Country Club, finishing T5, but it was too little, too late, and a run of Playoff appearances that began in 2009 has come to an end.