FedEx Cup Standings 2015: Updated Rankings Following Barclays Tournament

Entering the final round of The Barclays on Sunday, the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs was up for grabs among the top contenders.

And then, in a blink of the eye and some rolls of the ball, it wasn't.

Jason Day's final-round 62 and runaway six-stroke victory over second-place finisher Henrik Stenson was anticlimactic, but to say it was lacking in excitement would be witless. 

Coming off his first major victory at the PGA Championship two weeks ago, Day never appeared content to coast on his recent achievement.

The 27-year-old Australian's play was splendid enough to capture not just The Barclays title and FedEx Cup lead but also the undivided attention of anyone with even the slightest, most passing of interests in the game of golf. 

Place	Previous Rank	Player	Points
1	2	Jason Day	4,459
2	1	Jordan Spieth	4,169
3	3	Bubba Watson	3,167
4	41	Henrik Stenson	2,152
5	11	Zach Johnson	2,049
6	7	Dustin Johnson	2,028
7	4	Jimmy Walker	2,020
8	5	Justin Rose	1,956
9	6	Robert Streb	1,838
10	10	Danny Lee	1,709
11	18	Jim Furyk	1,671
12	8	Patrick Reed	1,623
13	17	Kevin Kisner	1,614
14	20	Hideki Matsuyama	1,605
15	9	Rory McIlroy	1,567
16	12	Brooks Koepka	1,544
17	14	Charley Hoffman	1,542
18	13	Brandt Snedeker	1,537
19	16	J.B. Holmes	1,530
20	22	Steven Bowditch	1,518
21	19	Paul Casey	1,507
22	15	Rickie Fowler	1,498
23	34	Sangmoon Bae	1,391
24	33	Jason Bohn	1,347
25	23	Bill Haas	1,345

Day's victory has put him in prime position for his first FedEx Cup title; every past champion, dating back to the event's inaugural year in 2007, has won at least one event.

Year	Champion	Points	Events	Wins	Top 5s
2014	Billy Horschel	4,750	4	2	3
2013	Henrik Stenson	4,750	4	2	2
2012	Brandt Snedeker	4,100	4	1	2
2011	Bill Haas	2,760	4	1	1
2010	Jim Furyk	2,980	3	1	1
2009	Tiger Woods	4,000	4	1	3
2008	Vijay Singh	125,101	4	2	2
2007	Tiger Woods	123,033	3	2	3

The PGA dramatically tweaked the points system entering the 2009 season, but the structuring still rewards victors far more than their peers.

Here's a look at some of the top-ranked players following The Barclays and what to expect at the second leg of the FedEx Cup: the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston (Sept. 4-7).

Jason Day

Mel Evans/Associated Press

With the long, imposing shadow of Jordan Spieth no longer looming over Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey, Day cast his own entirely over The Barclays field.

Immaculate shots, imaginative putts and some pure course swag filled Day's 63-62 weekend rounds—refreshing to see in a game as typically stiff as golf. 

These shots look like the highlights of an entire season, but no, this is merely a collection of shots from Day's final-round five-under back nine.

"

Jason Day is the best player in the world right now....Big Three era is going to be fun...who knows maybe other... http://t.co/aQ285H5oSx

— Golfalong (@Golf_Along) August 30, 2015"

"

Well as Stenson tries to keep pace, Day proves just how hard he will be to beat http://t.co/atIG9sEMJg #TheBarclays

— Golf Betting Guru (@GolfBettingGuru) August 30, 2015"

"

All of a sudden it looks like Day is once again walking in the park, 3 clear with 4 to play http://t.co/4k843Eab8K #TheBarclays

— Golf Betting Guru (@GolfBettingGuru) August 30, 2015"

Day's fourth victory of the year placed him in elite company, dating back to the 2010 season:

The Aussie rolls the ball better than any player on tour right now, and though putting can be a fickle mistress—see Woods, Tiger—golf's new No. 3 is in a zone that feels warm and powerful and incapable of being broken. 

Day is playing confident golf, emboldened and more sagaciously than he ever has since turning pro in 2006.

Speaking with ESPN's Jason Sobel following his Barclays win, Day pointed to this year's Open Championship—in which a shorted putt on the final hole left him one stroke out of a three-man playoff—as a defining moment in his career:

"

It was just the way that I felt calm, that no matter what happened, everything was going to be OK and you were just going to keep fighting and not give up. Ever since then, I just felt a lot more calm on the golf course. I felt like it was my time. Like mentally I felt like, you paid your dues, now it's time to go out and win tournaments. That's kind of the way it felt for me, especially coming out in final rounds.

"

Well, Day certainly hasn't let himself down, winning three of the last four tournaments he's played in.

Spieth isn't likely to miss another cut, and newly reinstated world No. 1 Rory McIlroy will be back in action in Boston, but Day has to be the favorite heading into the Deutsche Bank Championship. 

Jordan Spieth 

Mel Evans/Associated Press

This was Spieth's first tournament as world No. 1—it could have gone better.

Golf's golden boy earned himself another distinction, though: He became the first golfer to miss the cut in his first tournament as the No. 1 player in the world, per CBS Sports' Kyle Porter.

It's just one start, and as Sobel points out, not the end of the world:

But it was an inauspicious beginning to the PGA's, admittedly funky, playoff format.

Spieth isn't one to play coy, telling ESPN that this was "the worst round I've played in years."

He might not be wrong in that regard.

Spieth bogeyed or double-bogeyed 12 of the 36 holes he played, per PGATour.com. Spieth bogeying one out of every three holes feels unfathomable, but that just proves how incredible the 22-year-old has been this year.

"Yeah, tough week. I'm definitely searching for answers," said Spieth, per USA Today's Steve DiMeglio. "I don't know exactly what I'm going to do from here as far as how I get prepared for next week, but I have some time to figure it out. We don't start 'til Friday."

It's not ideal, but Spieth was so far ahead of the field coming into The Barclays that, despite his missed cut, he sits just 290 points behind Day.

All it takes is one win to erase the tarnished memories of past failure.

Henrik Stenson

Adam Hunger/Associated Press

Day pulled away like Secretariat on the back nine, but Stenson did what he could to make a respectable run at the Australian thoroughbred. 

No one could match Day's putting, but Stenson elicited roars and golf claps of his own with some clever long-range putts:

Though the Swede was unable to catch Day from behind, his pursuit was not for naught.

Stenson's second-place finish catapulted him to fourth in the FedEx Cup rankings, a 37-spot increase, second only to Zac Blair in regard to player movement.

The 39-year-old might appear to be something of a dark-horse candidate alongside players like Day, Spieth, McIlory, Bubba Watson and the Johnsons, but it was just two years ago that Stenson captured the FedEx Cup with the largest margin of victory (+2,007 points) since the PGA revamped the points system in 2009.

Stenson didn't finish in the top 10 of either The Barclays or the BMW Championship that year, but his victories in the Deutsche Bank Championship and Tour Championship propelled him to Cup glory.

Back in 2013, Stenson turned in a world-class, record performance at the Deutsche Bank Championship, tying the tournament record by shooting a 22-under 262.

Playing once again at TPC Boston, Stenson has a legitimate shot to replicate his success from 2013. 

He'll go in playing well under the radar compared to most of his top-ranked contemporaries, so the stage could very well be set for Stenson to make another surprising run at a championship.

Looking Ahead

The FedEx Cup's second event, the Deutsche Bank Championship held just outside of Boston, will be comprised of the top 100 players in the Cup standings, with a 30-man cut trimming the field after the opening two rounds.

Last year's champion, Chris Kirk, missed the cut at The Barclays but will be eligible to compete this weekend due to his No. 39 ranking in the FedEx Cup standings.

Dates: Sept. 4-7

Course: TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts

Reigning Champion: Chris Kirk (-15)