American Austin Smotherman has won a playoff for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship and moves up one place to 51 in the FedExCup Fall Standings with 1,545 points.
Ireland’s Seamus Power lost the playoff and moves up to 68 from 103.
American Taylor Moore tied for third place with Canada’s Corey Conners and Ben Silverman.
Moore moves up to 90 frpm 109, Conners to 54 from 66 and Silverman to 117 from 143.
Related: Austin Smotherman Wins Butterfield Bermuda Championship in Monday Playoff
What is the FedExCup?
The FedExCup is a season-long points competition on the PGA Tour, established in 2007. Players earn points at almost every official event they play, those points build into a running standings list. The season ends with the FedExCup Playoffs in August.
The prize for winning is substantial: a $10 million bonus, an official victory at the TOUR Championship and a five-year PGA Tour exemption.
The idea is to crown one player who has not only played well week in, week out during the regular season, but who has also stood up to the pressure of the Playoffs.
How do players earn points?
Every Tour member earns points based on where they finish, and the system leans heavily towards wins and high finishes. Turning up and making cuts helps but contending helps a great deal more. Not every tournament is worth the same. The bigger the event, the bigger the haul for the winner.
There is one quirk. The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is a two-man team event, so each player on the winning team gets 400 points rather than the usual 500.
In total, 15 events award 700 or more points to the winner: THE PLAYERS and the majors (five), the first two Playoffs events (two) and the Signature Events (eight). Those are the weeks that move the standings most, and the points structure is deliberately designed to push the top players into the strongest fields while adding extra weight to top-10 finishes in them. Full-Field Events still carry real value, which matters to the players outside the elite tier.
What happens when players tie? The Tour uses the same method it uses for prize money. If, say, two players tie for second, the points for second and third are added together, averaged and split equally between them.
Related: FedEx Cup Standings 35/2026
How do the FedExCup Playoffs work?
When the Regular Season ends after the Wyndham Championship, the top 70 players in the standings qualify for the Playoffs. Everyone else’s season-long chase for the trophy is over.
The Playoffs are three events, each with a smaller field than the last. Golf calls this a progressive cut:
- FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee: 70 players
- BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri: 50 players
- TTour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia: 30 players
Points from the Regular Season carry over into the first two Playoffs events, and both of those award 750 points to the winner, the same as a major. Even missing the trophy, reaching the final 30 is a prize in itself. The top 30 secure two-year PGA Tour exemptions and access to the major championships that traditionally recognise the season-ending top 30.
Why is the Tour still playing for points in October?
The trophy is decided in August, but the PGA Tour season does not stop. From September, the FedExCup Fall runs seven official events, and these matter enormously to players outside the elite.
Only players ranked 51st and beyond in the standings after the Playoffs can earn points in the Fall. The top 50 are already sorted. For everyone else, this is the chance to finalise the top 100 and improve their position in the priority ranking, which governs which tournaments they can get into the following season.
When the Fall wraps up, the points reset. The 2027 FedExCup season begins at The American Express in January, and the whole race starts again from zero.
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