What is at stake? The PGA Tour season is winding down with plenty left to play

The fall FedEx Cup schedule is in full swing, and the stakes are high in the final four tournaments for golfers still trying to secure their PGA Tour cards and playing rights for 2025.

The fall FedEx Cup finalizes the top 125 golfers who will qualify for next season’s full-field events and The Players Championship, as well as the final 10 players who will qualify for the first two signature events of 2025: the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational.

“For some of the guys here this week, I mean, it’s whether they keep their job or not,” Zozo Championship winner Collin Morikawa said. “With such a small field, it is an opportunity for some of these to stand out because they will be able to play four rounds, they will be getting points. This is a big tournament.”

There are five golfers in the 78-man field at this week’s Zozo Championship currently ranked Nos. 51-60 in FedEx Cup wins: No. 53 Séamus Power. No. 54 Patrick Rodgers, No. 55 Maverick McNealy, No. 58 Nick Taylor and No. 60 Kevin Yu. They need to play well.

Among the players trying to climb into the top 60 playing in Japan are Ben Griffin (No. 62), Min Woo Lee (No. 63), Beau Hossler (No. 65), Brendon Todd (No. 66) and Taylor Moore (No. 67) . They need to play better.

As for the top 125, Michael Kim (No. 112) and Joe Highsmith (No. 125) rode on the right side of the bubble after last week’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, while Kevin Tway (No. 126) and Joel. Dahmen (No. 129) fell.

Daniel Berger, who is trying to make a comeback after a long layoff due to a back injury, is 128th in points. Former US Open champion Gary Woodland, who recovered from brain surgery in September 2023, is 137 years old.

Dahmen, who received a sponsor’s exemption to compete in the Zozo tournament, withdrew from the Shriners Children’s Open before the second round after being assessed a four-stroke penalty for having an extra club in his bag.

Here are some of the stories to watch for the Zozo Championship, which begins Thursday at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan.

Homa is rebuilding

Max Homa arrived in Japan looking for his swing and confidence after enduring a tough FedEx Cup campaign. He had just three top-10 finishes in 21 starts and hasn’t had a top-20 finish since finishing eighth in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 12.

“I mean, I played badly,” said Homa.

Homa broke up with her tennis coach, Mark Blackburn, after finishing last in the field at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in 11 overs.

“I’m definitely a little rusty,” said Homa. “I took some time off after the Presidents Cup. I had some help along the way, but it was good to try to find my stuff a little bit. But yeah, the swing feels right.”

Homa, ranked 27th on the Official World Golf Ranking, missed the cut in his debut at the Procore Championship in Napa, California.

“Also, you might get rusty when you work with new things, it’s not the most fun thing in the world,” said Homa. “Sometimes, golf can feel a lot like riding a bike, especially when you get on the golf course, you’re not on the range, you can start to see the shot and feel what’s going to work well.

“It’s a good golf course to do that because the holes are well shaped by the trees. It’s been really hectic the last few weeks, especially the last week preparing for this, but we arrived on Sunday and I was happy to be Monday until Wednesday to get work and spend more time on the course.”

While Homa ranks 120th in shots gained: average (-.096) and 161st off the tee (-.414), he has earned a spot in his short game this season. He ranks 31st in shots gained: near the green (.232) and 28th in green save (60.9%).

“I’m happy with ’25 because many things I wasn’t good at at the beginning of ’24, I became good at,” said Homa. “So, with a few more months of practice and being able to hone in on the things I didn’t do well last season, you know, I’m still growing in places. It didn’t show because I didn’t drive it well this season.”

The tiger is on their minds

It’s almost the fifth anniversary of Tiger Woods’ last victory. The last of his 82 PGA Tour wins came at the 2019 Zozo Championship, when he beat national champion Hideki Matsuyama by three strokes.

Homa said he will never forget seeing hundreds of fans lining the road carrying Tiger signs on a day when the course was closed to the public.

“Obviously, Tiger is big everywhere he goes, but the crowd that week was amazing,” Homa said. “The tiger is a needle, make all that go away.”

Woods is out of action after announcing on September 13th that he has had back surgery to try to relieve the pain that has plagued him this season. It was his sixth lower back surgery in the last 10 years.

The 15-time champion did not say how long his recovery would take. Woods was also absent from the first round of the Hero World Challenge, which he hosted in the Bahamas on Dec. 5-8. The field includes five of the top 10 and 17 of the top 25 on the OWGR, including world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler. There are three sponsor exemptions left in the 20-man field, and Woods has used one of them in the past.

Schauffele’s return

Only one of Xander Schauffele’s two major trophies made the trip to Japan – the Claret Jug, which he picked up by winning the Open by two strokes at Royal Troon Golf Course in Scotland on July 21.

“You can’t put it in a cell, I’ll say that,” Schauffele said. “It would be a big trunk.”

Schauffele said he can’t wait to show his maternal grandparents, who live in Japan, the famous trophy. His mother, Ping Yi, was born in Taiwan but moved to Japan at a young age.

When Schauffele won the gold medal in golf at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he had to leave the bubble in the Olympic Village to celebrate with his grandparents.

They had adjoining rooms in a hotel near the Narashino Country Club.

“I don’t see them very often, so to bring them a gold medal was really special in that year of COVID,” Schauffele said. “I think to bring another win in front of them and for them would be even more special.”

Big month for JT

Justin Thomas makes his first start in Japan in five years. She is preparing for an even bigger event at home — the birth of her first child. His wife, Jillian, is expecting a baby girl in November.

“Any golf shooting incident or the situation I’m in this week, nothing will come close to what it will be like in a month or so when our little boy arrives,” said Thomas. “We are very lucky that I came here. I think the truth will come out when I get home because it will take time.

“I know my wife is going to be an incredible mother, and I’m excited for the opportunity to raise a little girl. She’s going to be wonderful. But this week I’m focused on business and trying to win a golf tournament. Then it’s time to go home and prepare to be a father.”

Thomas and his wife, the former Jillian Wisniewski, were married in November 2022. Thomas has had a lot of time to settle things down. He has not played since a 14th-place finish at the Tour Championship in early September.

“All I know is that I will be as ready as possible and we will do everything we can,” said Thomas. “I won’t tell you the truth if I’m ready because I’ve never done it before. I’ll let you know in a few months. It’s going to be a challenge in different ways, but one we’re excited about. .”