FedEx Cup Points 2022: Explaining Distribution and Standings

One-hundred and twenty five golfers have a chance to win the FedEx Cup, but that number will be cut down significantly over the next two weeks.

The top 125 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings qualified for the FedEx-St. Jude Championship, which kicks off the PGA Tour's championship season on Thursday.

Scottie Scheffler earned the most points over the regular season. He leads Cameron Smith by 1,221 points entering Memphis, but those numbers could change in an instant.

The point totals attached to high placings in FedEx Cup events carry more value than the regular season, which means someone at the bottom rankings could enter the FedEx Cup title picture with one win.

The FedEx-St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship and Tour Championship make up the three-tournament postseason. The winner will be crowned at the Tour Championship on August 28.

FedEx Cup Standings

1. Scottie Scheffler - 3,556 points

2. Cameron Smith - 2,335

3. Sam Burns - 2,275

4. Xander Schauffele - 2,153

5. Patrick Cantlay - 2,108

6. Rory McIlroy - 2,104

7. Tony Finau - 1,912

8. Justin Thomas - 1,783

9. Cameron Young - 1,774

10. Sungjae Im - 1,773

Full standings can be found on PGATour.com

How FedEx Cup Works

The FedEx Cup field begins with 125 players entered into the FedEx-St. Jude Championship in Memphis.

The 125 golfers earned the most regular-season points on the PGA Tour. Rickie Fowler finished in the last qualification spot.

The playoff field will be trimmed to 70 players for the BMW Championship. The top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings after that event will move on to the Tour Championship.

The top-ranked player entering the Tour Championship receives a two-shot advantage over second place to start the final event of the postseason. The starting scores of each Tour Championship participant will be determined by their spot in the standings.

Players above the cut line going into the opening playoff event are not guaranteed of a spot in the field the next week.

The PGA Tour added more FedEx Cup points to the playoff events. The winner of the FedEx-St. Jude Championship receives 2,000 playoff points. The regular-season winners earned 500 points.

The points system quadruples for the rest of the field as well. The second-place finisher receives 1,200 points instead of 300 and so on.

For example, Rickie Fowler could win in Memphis as the 125th-ranked golfer and he could potentially move into the top 10 depending on how other top players finish.

The potential for a ton of movement puts the pressure on the players currently in the 70 qualifying spots for the BMW Championship.

The top 10 golfers are under pressure to keep earning points to get scoring gaps for the Tour Championship and the golfers closer to the bubble are incentivized by large leaps to make them safer for the next two tournaments.

Recent FedEx Cup history suggests one of the top 10 golfers will leave the Tour Championship with the title. Four of the last five FedEx Cup winners were in the top 10 going into the postseason. Dustin Johnson won in 2020 after starting the playoffs in 15th place.

The FedEx Cup winner comes away with an $18 million purse and there is plenty to play for beneath the winner. Each player in the top 30 gets at least $500,000 for making the Tour Championship and the top 10 in the final FedEx Cup standings take away $1 million or more.