By Evin Priest – in Atlanta
Until this year, the Wyndham Championship was a much-needed week off for the elite players on the US PGA Tour.
It sat between the PGA Championship, the final major of the year, and the Northern Trust – the first event of the $US67 million playoffs.
Only those fighting to keep their cards or stay/move into the top 125 on the FedEx Cup standings would tee up at the Greensboro, North Carolina event.
That’s all about to change with the PGA Tour unveiling significant tweaks to the FedEx Cup for next year.
The biggest change is the FedEx Cup playoffs prize pool will be increased $US25 million to a whopping $US60 million, and the FedEx winner will now take home $US15 million of that.
In addition, a new $US10 million regular-season prize pool – the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 – has also been created to reward the top-10 points scorers on the FedEx standings through the Wyndham Championship.
The regular-season leader will receive $US2 million and $US1.5 million will go to second place, while 10th will still pocket $US500,000.
Leishman says the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is a game-changer for the regular season-ending tournament at Sedgefield CC.
“If I’m in ninth place on the Wyndham Rewards Top 10, I’m playing the Wyndham,” Leishman told Australian Golf Digest at East Lake.
The Wyndham Championship now more than likely to have a majority of the top-10 on the FedEx standings in the field.
“If I’m first or second, obviously I’m definitely playing,” Leishman adds.
“It’s nice that we play for a lot of money every week, but when there’s 15 million for the FedEx winner and 2 million for the regular season winner, it will be something the guys will be thinking about through the year.”
