Rickie Fowler, Bud Cauley among 5 who played their way into next playoff event; Jordan Spieth’s PGA Tour season ends

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[PHOTO: Ben Jared]

Of all the players who hovered on either side of the bubble in the battle to advance to the second stage of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the most compelling story belonged to the man whose career has been on a bubble for seven years.

Bud Cauley, who seven years ago nearly saw his career end after a car accident, began the year on a major medical extension that had carried over from 2024. He saved his season with a clutch T-6 at the Players Championship, and today he extended it thanks to a dramatic bunker shot at the FedEx St Jude Championship.

RELATED: Ageless Justin Rose makes late charge in Memphis, tops J.J. Spaun in playoff as Tommy Fleetwood comes up short again

Cauley, 35, assembled a final-round, one-under 69 at TPC Southwind to tie for 14th place at eight-under 272. More importantly, he ended 46th on the FedEx Cup points list. That enabled him to advance to this week’s BMW Championship at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Maryland, reserved for the top 50 in the points standings. He also punched his ticket to all eight signature events on the PGA Tour in 2026.

What an amazing comeback after all the health challenges and the battle to return to form, a development that looked in doubt after he ended 158th on the points list last year when he missed 10 cuts in the 17 events he entered.

“I was thinking about it this morning before I played, like how I felt today is kind of how I felt starting the year, trying to fulfil my medical and get in all these events,” said Cauley, who entered the week ranked 63rd in the world and climbed to 55th. “It was stressful today, but yeah, I’m happy to be in all those [signature] events.”

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Photo: Stacy Revere

The key shot came from the right front bunker at the par-4 17th hole. Cauley holed out from 46 feet, the ball motoring to the hole and banging against the flagstick. Cauley’s fist pump told the story of his realisation that he was probably going to be moving on after starting the week on the outside at 53rd.

“Yeah, that hole has been kind of kicking my ass all week, especially yesterday, and then today I pulled it in the left rough again and just happened to get a little bit better lie than I did yesterday and was able to get it around that tree and that bunker,” he said. “That’s right where we were trying to hit it. It really wasn’t that difficult of a bunker shot. Kind of uphill. The green was pitched into me. I just kind of got lucky it happened to go in.”

He was due for some luck.

Cauley was one of five players who started the week outside the top 50 and kept their seasons going.

Rickie Fowler made the biggest leap, surging from 64th to 48th by finishing T-6 at 10-under 270. He closed with a 69 that also featured a key birdie coming home, a 10-footer at the par-4 15th.

“It feels good,” said the popular Californian, who has slipped to 104th in the world. “Being that I got a handful of spots this year, which I’m incredibly grateful for, unfortunately I really didn’t take advantage of many of those opportunities up until Jack’s event (the Memorial Tournament). Didn’t play that well in any of them. But it was great to have a tee-time in them this year and didn’t really want to bank on that for next year. Yeah, nice to be in a position where we’ll be able to be back in those and not have to write notes and calls and ask for favours.”

The others who came up with the goods this week were Kurt Kitayama, Jhonattan Vegas and J.T. Poston.

Continuing his fine play after a win two weeks prior at the 3M Open, Kitayama surged from 52nd place to 37th by finishing T-9 at 271. He closed with a 67. Vegas was inside and outside the magic number for most of the afternoon, but managed to submit at 68 to join Cauley at 272 to rise three spots to 49th. Poston got the last spot, moving up one key place to 50th. He shot 68 on the strength of four birdies in his first seven holes and then hung on to place T-22 with a 274 total.

Pressure? You bet.

“It’s a grind. I’m obviously not in contention to win a golf tournament out there, but it just felt like the same type of nerves,” Poston said. “You just know what’s at stake getting into that top 50 and what that does for your year next year, and you’re one good week from making it to East Lake.”

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Photo: Tracy Wilcox

Naturally, five players left Memphis disappointed, starting with Jordan Spieth, who, like Fowler, enjoyed some perks with sponsor exemptions into signature events this year. But the Texan still is battling some latent wrist issues a year after undergoing surgery, and even though he closed with a 68, it wasn’t near enough to play another week. The three-time major winner bogeyed the 18th hole and dropped from 48th to 54th after finishing at 277, tied for 38th.

The remaining players who moved out of the top 50 were Aldrich Potgeiter, the lone rookie to make the playoffs, who went from 43rd to 52nd, Jake Knapp (from 47th to 55th), Wyndham Clark (49th to 56th) and Australia’s Min Woo Lee (50th to 57th).

Here are the top 50 who qualified for the BMW Championship at Caves Valley (previous ranking in parentheses)… and the next 20 who finished in spots 51-70 and had their respective seasons ended:

1: Scottie Scheffler (1)
2: Rory McIlroy (2)
3: J.J. Spaun (8)
4: Justin Rose (25)
5: Sepp Straka (3)
6: Russell Henley (4)
7: Ben Griffin (6)
8: Tommy Fleetwood (9)
9: Justin Thomas (5)
10: Harris English (7)
11: Andrew Novak (12)
12: Cameron Young (16)
13: Ludvig Aberg (14)
14: Keegan Bradley (10)
15: Maverick McNealy (11)
16: Corey Conners (13)
17: Collin Morikawa (19)
18: Brian Harman (20)
19: Patrick Cantlay (23)
20: Robert MacIntyre (15)
21: Hideki Matsuyama (21)
22: Nick Taylor (18)
23: Shane Lowry (17)
24: Sam Burns (24)
25: Sungjae Im (29)
26: Chris Gotterup (22)
27: Jacob Bridgeman (33)
28: Viktor Hovland (26)
29: Akshay Bhatia (45)
30: Lucas Glover (27)
31: Sam Stevens (28)
32: Ryan Gerard (31)
33: Daniel Berger (30)
34: Ryan Fox (32)
35: Taylor Pendrith (38)
36: Thomas Detry (35)
37: Kurt Kitayama (52)
38: Denny McCarthy (39)
39: Brian Campbell (34)
40: Matt Fitzpatrick (41)
41: Si Woo Kim (46)
42: Michael Kim (36)
43: Xander Schauffele (42)
44: Jason Day (37)
45: Harry Hall (44)
46: Bud Cauley (53)
47: Tom Hoge (64)
48: Rickie Fowler (56)
49: Jhonattan Vegas (56)
50: J.T. Poston (51)

Played in Memphis but failed to qualify for the BMW Championship:

51: Chris Kirk (61)
52: Aldrich Potgieter (43)
53: Aaron Rai (55)
54: Jordan Spieth (48)
55: Jake Knapp (47)
56: Wyndham Clark (49)
57: Min Woo Lee (50)
58: Max Greyserman (57)
59: Joe Highsmith (54)
60: Stephan Jaeger (58)
61: Davis Riley (65)
62: Nico Echavarria (62)
63: Kevin Yu (66)
64: Patrick Rodgers (63)
65: Mackenzie Hughes (59)
66: Tony Finau (60)
67: Matti Schmid (70)
68: Emiliano Grillo (67)
69: Cam Davis (69)
70: Erik van Rooyen (68)