The PGA Tour’s regular season wraps up this week with the 2025 Wyndham Championship at Greensboro’s Sedgefield Country Club. For many contestants, the stakes couldn’t be higher — financially or professionally.
More than just the final chance to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the Wyndham marks a crucial checkpoint for players chasing postseason security, major championship exemptions and millions in bonus money.
The magic number is 70 — the cutoff for entry into the first FedEx Cup Playoff event next week in Memphis. Players who finish outside that threshold this Sunday may see their 2026 playing options diminished, while those who sneak inside are guaranteed a slice of the PGA Tour’s postseason bonus pool.
Beyond the top 70, another race is quietly unfolding: the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, which awards $40 million to the highest point earners of the regular season. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has locked up the $4 million top prize, but North Carolina native Ben Griffin sits at No. 7 and hopes to preserve his $2 million bonus position. Greensboro’s Alex Smalley is also in the field, seeking a strong finish on home turf.
The financial tension reaches deeper still. Players just inside the top 50 know that advancing to the second playoff event secures entry into next year’s eight “signature events” — a newly elevated series of $20 million tournaments. That line is razor-thin this week, with Jordan Spieth currently sitting exactly 50th in points and teeing it up in Greensboro for just the third time in a decade.
For players like Ryan Gerard, a Raleigh resident, UNC standout and recent Barracuda Championship winner, the Wyndham offers a different kind of stress — trying to protect a newfound spot inside the top 30 to qualify for the Tour Championship and exemptions into three of next season’s four majors. “The goalposts have shifted,” Gerard said during a Tuesday press conference. “Getting to East Lake would be an amazing goal.” East Lake Golf Club is Atlanta’s oldest golf course. Since 2005, East Lake has been the permanent home of the Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup.
The Wyndham also carries Ryder Cup implications. USA Captain Keegan Bradley is playing, as are candidates Griffin, Raleigh’s Akshay Bhatia, Andrew Novak — who was born in Raleigh and teamed with Griffin to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans one week after losing in a playoff at the RBC Heritage — and others hoping to earn one of six at-large picks for the September matches in New York.
Once again, North Carolina plays host to one of the most consequential weeks on the golf calendar. This year’s Greensboro event features 43 of the top 70 players in FedEx Cup points and 24 of the top 50, with global stars like Matt Fitzpatrick, Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler and Adam Scott joining the fray on Sedgefield’s classic Donald Ross design.
“This field has to be our strongest in the last 20 years,” said Executive Director Mark Brazil. “There’s a lot at stake at Sedgefield.”
-Brad King is a Winston-Salem-based writer