Plenty could be on the line for Denver native Wyndham Clark in playoffs — a FedExCup title, Presidents Cup berth and Player of Year honors; meanwhile, part-time Coloradan Scott Vincent finishes a LIV-career-best third in New Jersey
By Gary Baines
Wyndham Clark has competed just once on the PGA Tour since the British Open, but the coming few weeks will be not only busy but very important on several levels for the Denver native.
Having won twice this year, including his second U.S. Open title, the Colorado Golf Hall of Famer has several big things potentially on the line as the FedExCup Playoffs take place over the coming three weeks:
Namely, with strong showings in the remainder of August, he could be in the running for the FedExCup season-long title, for PGA Tour Player of the Year honors, and for landing a spot on the American team for the Presidents Cup.
— FedExCup Playoffs: The Valor Christian High School alum sits fourth in the season-long FedExCup standings heading into the playoffs, which start on Thursday. Seventy players will tee it up in the FedEx St. Jude Championship Aug. 13-16 in Memphis, followed by 50 for the BMW Championship Aug. 20-23 in St. Louis, then 30 at the Tour Championship Aug. 27-30 in Atlanta. All three are no-cut events.
Points reset to zero for the Tour Championship, where everyone starts at even par. Whoever wins the Tour Championship is deemed the FedExCup champion.
Purses are massive for the three playoff events — $20 million each for the St. Jude and the BMW, and $40 million for the Tour Championship, where the winner will earn $10 million of that. On top of that, there’s nearly $100 million on the line in playoff bonus money, which will be divvied up after the BMW Championship. The top player in the FedExCup standings after the BMW will collect $22 million, plus another $1 million deferred.
Clark, now a five-time winner on the PGA Tour who’s ranked No. 8 in the world, has finished in the top 10 in the final FedExCup standings twice in his career; he placed third in 2023 and eighth the next year.
Though Clark had a remarkable performance stretch from late May to early July — six straight top-13 finishes, including two wins — he’s missed the cut in his last two events, the first time that’s happened since late March.
Another Denver native on the PGA Tour, Mark Hubbard, failed to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs for the second straight year as he missed the 36-hole cut in this week’s Wyndham Championship and sits 119th in the season-long standings.
— Presidents Cup: Though the Presidents Cup ranks nowhere the Ryder Cup in the golf zeitgeist — largely because of the U.S. has so dominated the event — Clark would love to earn a spot on the American team for the second time. He represented the U.S. there in 2024 — when the Americans beat the Internationals 18.5-11.5 — in addition to playing in the 2023 Ryder Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games. Clark went 1-2-1 in the ’24 Presidents Cup.
Thanks to his stellar late-spring, early-summer play, Clark currently sits 10th in the U.S. standings for the Presidents Cup, where the Americans will face a non-European International squad Sept. 24-27 at Medinah Country Club near Chicago.
The top six in the U.S. standings — following the BMW Championship — will automatically qualify for the team. Then Brandt Snedeker will make six captain’s picks to round out the American squad. It should be noted that Clark isn’t higher in the standings because they’re based on FedExCup points dating back to Jan. 1, 2025, and Clark posted just two top-10 showings on the PGA Tour in 2025.
— Player of the Year: The PGA Tour Player of the Year honor is voted on by the players themselves — at the end of the season, with the winner revealed in December. Clark wasn’t anywhere on the map regarding this award as of mid-May, But his red-hot play in the late spring and early fall changed all that. Most notably, he won twice in less than a month, closing with a 60 at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, then claiming his second major title at the U.S. Open in June.
Two players have won three times this year on the PGA Tour — Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup — though neither captured a major in 2026. Also certainly in the mix are world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and two-time winner in 2026 Cameron Young.
If Clark should add a victory in the FedExCup Playoffs this month — or otherwise played very well — he would certainly be in the running for Player of the Year.
The bottom line in all this is that despite all the 2026 majors being in the rearview mirror now, there’s a ton at stake for Clark in August.
Another Strong Showing for Scott Vincent on LIV: Scott Vincent, a part-time resident of Colorado, recorded his third top-5 finish of the year on LIV Golf as he tied for third out of 56 players on Sunday at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.
Vincent posted rounds of 69-68-72-66 for a 9-under-par total, which left him seven strokes behind champion Joaquin Niemann.
It was Vincent’s best showing ever on LIV as he had placed fourth twice — once this year and once in 2023.
For all the scores from the LIV Golf event at Trump Bedminster, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com