Who is on the bubble to make the Tour Championship?Mark SchlabachAug 19, 2026, 01:50 PM ETClose
- Senior college football writer
- Author of seven books on college football
- Graduate of the University of Georgia
ST. LOUIS — It seemed to be only a matter of time before world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler was lifting a trophy again on the PGA Tour.
It came in last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, in which Scheffler ran away from the field for an eight-stroke victory in the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.
Now, Scheffler returns to the BMW Championship, in which he picked up his fifth of six victories on tour in 2025.
“He hits the ball so well,” Viktor Hovland reported. “I think in 2023 he was maybe struggling — if you can use that word — on the greens. He seems to have rectified that problem. Now, it seems like putting and the rest of the game, like it doesn’t have a weakness.”
Fortunately for the rest of this week’s field, that victory came at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland.
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The BMW Championship moves to Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, which last hosted a tour event in the 2018 PGA Championship.
There’s plenty at stake this week. The 50 golfers in the field have already qualified for the eighth signature events in 2027. The top 30 after Sunday’s final round will advance to next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. They’ll receive a two-year PGA Tour exemption and a spot in each of the four majors next year.
The top six U.S. qualifiers for the upcoming Presidents Cup, which will be played Sept. 24-27 at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago, will also be finalized after the BMW Championship. U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker will make six captain’s choices following the Tour Championship.
Here’s a look at some of the golfers with the most on the line:
Rickie Fowler (30th in FedEx Cup points)
Ricky Fowler finished T-34 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Steve Roberts-Imagn ImagesFowler has quietly put together a solid season on tour. He didn’t win a tournament and had only one top-five finish, but he piled up five top 10s and 10 top 25s in 20 starts.Now, as the “bubble boy” in the BMW Championship, he’ll only have to play solid golf at Bellerive Country Club to reach the Tour Championship for the eighth time in his career.Fowler put himself in position to return to East Lake by playing well in the signature events, which have elevated FedEx Cup points at stake. He tied for ninth in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, for eighth in the RBC Heritage, for ninth in the Cadillac Championship and was runner-up in the Truist Championship.After a stretch of three straight missed cuts, Fowler had three consecutive top-20 finishes heading into the playoffs. He tied for 34th in last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship.Fowler didn’t qualify for the past two Masters and played at Augusta National in only one of the past six seasons (he tied for 30th in 2024).The top 50 golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the year qualify for the 2027 Masters (along with any others who are in the top 50 in the OWGR published the week before the Masters). Fowler is currently 44th.Getting to East Lake, which would assure Fowler of a Masters invitation next year, would erase any doubts.Gary Woodland (31st)
Reaching the Tour Championship would be icing on the cake for Woodland, whose fifth PGA Tour victory was in the Texas Children’s Houston Open on March 29. That emotional moment came more than two years after Woodland underwent brain surgery to remove a benign lesion that was pressing against part of his brain.
The win in Houston came 20 days after Woodland revealed that he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was still struggling with anxiety and hyperawareness as a result of the surgery.
Woodland had four other top-10 finishes this season, including a tie for seventh in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
Woodland, 42, hasn’t reached East Lake since 2019. If there are golfing gods, he’ll be back in Atlanta next week. He needs to finish solo 48th or better to do it.
Aaron Rai (37th)
Aaron Rai celebrates after winning the 2026 PGA Championship. Bill Streicher-Imagn ImagesAfter becoming the first English-born golfer to win the PGA Championship in 107 years at Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia on May 17, there’s less pressure on Rai to make the Tour Championship field.
By pulling off the stunning upset, Rai received a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour and invitations to the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship for the next five years. He gets a lifetime exemption into the PGA Championship and earned $3.7 million with the win.
But who wants to miss the Tour Championship after winning a major? Rai tied for 11th in the U.S. Open, but he had three missed cuts since mid-June and tied for 63rd in the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Rai rode a red-hot putter while winning the Wanamaker Trophy, but he lost strokes on the greens over his past five starts.
Rai will have to finish solo 12th or better to punch his ticket to Atlanta.
Sungjae Im (40th)
After suffering a wrist injury last fall while hitting balls off the cold turf in South Korea (following a four-week mandatory military boot camp), Im was seemingly playing catch-up this season. He didn’t make his first start until March and missed the cut in both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players.
Im has struggled with his irons — he ranks 148th on tour in strokes gained: approach (-.505) — and only recently did his form turn around.
The two-time PGA Tour winner has piled together three straight top 15 finishes, including a tie for fifth in last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. That allowed him to jump from 53rd to 40th in the FedEx Cup standings. He was the only golfer to climb into the top 50, bumping Keith Mitchell out of the BMW Championship field.
Remarkably, Im qualified for the Tour Championship in each of his first seven seasons on tour. Rory McIlroy is the only golfer with a longer current streak at eight in a row.
Im will need to finish solo eighth or better to avoid missing the Tour Championship for the first time.
Patrick Cantlay (43rd)
It is difficult to believe that it has been nearly four years since Cantlay last won on tour. His last victory came in the 2022 BMW Championship when he held off Scott Stallings to win by a stroke at the South Course at Wilmington Country Club in North Carolina.
The year before, Cantlay took down Bryson DeChambeau in a playoff to win the 2021 BMW Championship at Caves Valley. The next week, he held off Jon Rahm for a one-stroke victory in the Tour Championship.
Cantlay, 34, hasn’t lifted a trophy since. Can he turn it up a notch to return to Atlanta for the ninth time in 10 seasons? Cantlay needs to finish solo seventh or better to do it.
FedEx Cup playoffs bubbleThe top 30 players advance to the Tour Championship — here are the players on the bubble and how they would need to finish to move on.
PositionGolferMinimum finish for top 3028.Kurt KitayamaSolo 49th29.Bud CauleySolo 48th30.Rickie FowlerSolo 50th31.Gary WoodlandSolo 48th32.J.T. PostonSolo 31st33.Nicolai HøjgaardThree-way T1834.Alex NorenSolo 17th35.Jake KnappThree-way T1636.Robert MacIntyreThree-way T1537.Aaron RaiSolo 12th38.Ben GriffinSolo 11th39.Sepp StrakaSolo 11th40.Sungjae ImSolo 8th41.Michael ThorbjornsenSolo 8th42.Nico EchavarriaTwo-way 7th43.Patrick CantlaySolo 7th44.Justin ThomasSolo 7th45.Ryo HisatsuneThree-way 2nd46.Sahith TheegalaThree-way 2nd47.Michael BrennanTwo-way 2nd48.Eric ColeTwo-way 2nd49.Maverick McNealyTwo-way 2nd50.Matt McCartySolo 2ndSource: PGA TourCantlay has been a mainstay on U.S. international teams since 2019. He has a 10-4 record in the Presidents Cup after going 4-1 in an 18.5-11.5 victory over the International team in Montreal in 2024.Cantlay is 17th in the U.S. points standings and needs to do something to impress captain Brandt Snedeker.Justin Thomas (44th)
Justin Thomas needs a good finish at the BMW Championship to advance to the Tour Championship. Stacy Revere/Getty ImagesLike Cantlay, Thomas needs to finish solo seventh or better this week to qualify for the Tour Championship.It has been an up-and-down season for JT after he recovered from a microdiscectomy in November 2025 to treat a disc problem that was causing nagging hip and leg pain.
Thomas played well in big events, tying for eighth in The Players, for fourth in the PGA Championship and for 12th in the U.S. Open. He also had five finishes of 40th or worse, however, including a tie for 47th at TPC Southwind.
Thomas, the 2019 BMW Championship winner at Medinah Country Club, reached the Tour Championship in nine of the past 10 seasons.
JT also needs to do something special the next two weeks to secure his spot on the Presidents Cup team. He’s currently 11th in points.
