Cal Golf: Max Homa Well-Positioned to Make Noise in the FedEx Cup Playoffs

The three-week FedEx Cup playoffs begin Thursday with the opening round of the St. Jude Championship in Memphis, and former Cal stars Max Homa and Collin Morikawa both will be chasing the ultimate $18 million winner’s check at the Tour Championship.

Homa, who finished fourth in the regular-season FedEx Cup standings to secure a $2 million bonus, begins play with a five-stroke edge on his fellow Golden Bear.

Homa’s No. 4 spot earns him six strokes to take to TPC Southwind on Thursday, a nice head start on 12 rounds of golf over three weeks. Morikawa, who was 22nd in the regular-season standings, will start at minus-1.

Also qualified but a longer shot at No. 37 entering play Thursday is ex-Cal golfer Byeong Hun An of South Korea.

Seventy golfers will play the St. Jude event with the field cut to the top-50 in the updated FedEx Cup standings entering next week’s BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois.

After that, just the top 30 will advance to the Tour Championships, set for Aug.24-27 at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta.

Jon Rahm was the top FedEx Cup regular-season performer and will get a 10-stroke edge beginning this week. Scottie Scheffler (8 strokes) and Rory McElroy (7 strokes) were second and third, followed by Homa.

The starting point in the three-week event matters but isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker.

McElroy won last year’s Tour Championship after starting sixth in the playoffs and Patrick Cantlay parlayed a third-place finish in the 2021 regular season into victory at the Tour Championship.

But Dustin Johnson started the 2020 playoffs mired in 15th place and stormed back to win the whole thing.

Homa began in 13th place a year ago, still was 16th after two weeks then shot a 15-under score at Atlanta to climb to a tie for fifth place, good for $2.75 million.

Conversely. Morikawa won the 2021 FedEx Cup regular-season race but missed the cut at the Northern Trust, finished 63rd at the BMW Championship and wound up tied for 26th.

A year earlier, Morikawa was second in the regular-season FedEx Cup standings before dropping to sixth in the final tally.

All 70 golfers who qualified for the playoffs — down from 125 in the past — are guaranteed at least $500,000, and the top-10 finishers at the Tour Championship will be handsomely rewarded, each of them earning a minimum of $1 million.

Morikawa will tee off Thursday at 6:50 a.m. PT, with An set to go at 8:44 a.m. and Homa at 9:56 a.m.

*** Also at stake over the next three weeks are the final spots on the U.S. Ryder Cup team that will compete in Rome next month.

Fred Couples, vice captain of the U.S. team, leaked the names of three players certain to be on the U.S. team on his Sirius XM radio show late last month.

“Max Homa will be in Italy,” said Couples, who repeated the same comment about Cameron Young and Jordan Spieth.

Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark are already qualified, with Brian Harman, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele regarded as likely auto qualifiers.

“Collin Morikawa is another potential pick with decent odds,” the Golf Channel wrote.

Cover photo of Max Homa at The Open at Royal Liverpool by Kyle Terada, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo