Max Homa Ties for Sixth at St. Jude; All 3 Cal Golfers Advance in FedEx Cup Playoffs

Max Homa survived a wild five-hole stretch to finish in a tie for sixth place at the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Sunday and all three former Cal golfers advanced to next week’s second round of the FedEx Cup playpffs.

The top 50 players in the updated FedEx Cup rankings move on to the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club in Illinois.

Homa, Collin Morikawa and Byeong Hun An all will be in that field, hoping to secure a finish high enough to reach the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings, which qualifies golfers to the Tour Championship, Aug. 24-2 at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta.

The winner of the Tour Championship earns $18 million.

Lucas Glover won the St. Jude title at TPC Southwind in Memphis - his second win in as many weeks - with a victory over Patrick Cantlay on the first playoff hole after both finished 72 holes ago 15 under par. Cantlay forced the playoff by shooting a final-round 64 to pull even with Glover, the leader after the second and third rounds.

Glover took home a winner's check for $3.6 million while Cantlay settled for $2.16 million.

Rory McElroy and Tommy Fleetwood shared third place at 14 under, with Taylor Moore two strokes back in fifth.

Homa and Jordan Spieth were among seven golfers who tied for sixth, all at 11 under.

Homa, 32, who began the day in a tie for fourth, inched up to a share of third place after a birdie on No. 3 before things went haywire. He sandwiched double-bogeys on Nos.12 and 14 around a birdie on 13 but recovered with an eagle-3 on the 16th.

His payday Sunday was $584,286.

He will take a No. 6 FedEx Cup ranking to Illinois next week, a drop from No. 4 entering play Thursday.

Morikawa shot a 2-under 68 on Sunday but slipped from a tie for 12th place to a tie for 13th at minus-10, good for $386,667. Even so, his FedEx Cup position is secure, projected at No. 22 — just where he resided when the week began.

The 26-year-old has pledged to donate $1,000 for each birdie he scores during the playoffs to relief for the fires in Maui, where his grandfather owned a restaurant on Front Street in Lahaina. He had 15 plus an eagle at St. Jude.

An opened Sunday in a tie for 16th place at 7 under then was dragged down by a double-bogey on the 11th hole and a closing bogey on 18. That left him at 2-over 72 for the day and dropped him into a six-way tie for 37th place at minus-5, along with Jon Rahm. Each took home $88,000.

The 31-year-old South Korean was expected to drop just one spot to 38th, still well under the cut to advance to next week. But he will need to finish closer to the top in order to climb into the top 30 and earn a berth at the Tour Championship.

The projected top 5 in the FedEx Cup standings after Sunday has Rahm at No. 1, followed by Scottie Scheffler, McIlroy, Glover and Cantlay. The 43-year-old Glover climbed 45 spots from No. 49 when the week began.

Cover photo of Max Homa by Christopher Hanewinckel, USA Today

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