McGreevy jumps into top 125, joins Moore, Tway, Streb, Hovland (maybe Gooch?) for FedEx Cup playoffs
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Max McGreevy was the odd man out entering the Wyndham Championship, ranked No. 126 in the FedExCup eligibility list.
At stake was job security and a berth in the FedExCup Playoffs. Move inside the 125 – he trailed by 10.24 points — and he would be fully exempt for the 2022-23 season and headed for the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis next week.
No longer. McGreevy shot four rounds in the 60s, punctuated by Sunday’s 65 that included six birdies in his last 11 holes, left him in a tie for fifth at 13 under. His second top-10 finish of season couldn’t have come at a more opportune time as McGreevy moved all the way to No. 104 in the FedExCup standings.
It was a great week for his fellow PGA Tour rookie from Edmond Taylor Moore as well. Moore finished tied with McGreevy in fifth place at 13-under and leaped all the way to a tie for 65th in the FedEx Cup standings, meaning he has a good chance to be playing in at least the first two weeks of the three-round playoffs.
Two more former Edmond golfers will be moving on to the playoffs this week. Robert Streb finished the final event of the regular season at 7-under and enters the playoffs at 112. Kevin Tway finished at 8-under and goes in at 116. Both will need great weeks to move into the Top 70 for the second round, but both have secured their PGA Tour cards for 2023.
They will be joined in the playoffs by former OSU great Viktor Hovland, who is at 19 on the points list. Former Cowboy Alex Noren enters at No. 59. Rickie Fowler got in at the final spot at 125 despite missing the cut.
As for those ranked 126 through 200 who will go to the Korn Ferry Tour finals to try to keep their cards, Bo Van Pelt of Tulsa is listed at 198, while Josh Creel of Edmond is listed at 202. As of today Creel is not in the Korn Ferry Tour finals, according to the Tour office.
One other Oklahoman and former OSU golfer may wind up in the playoffs, Talor Gooch is one of three LIV golfers who have asked for a temporary restraining order allowing him to compete in the playoffs. The hearing is set for Tuesday in front of U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division. If Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones, who were all within the top 125, are successful, it is likely the PGA Tour would go with a field of 128 for the first round rather than bumping the final three spots, but nothing has been announced.
McGreev didn’t exactly arrive at Sedgefield on a hot streak, having missed six of his last seven cuts, including the last three consecutively. So, he wasn’t really focused on the mathematics or analytics.
The former Oklahoma Sooner just wanted to start playing golf the way he knew he could.
“I wasn’t trying to get a certain amount of points or finish top‑30 or something like that,” McGreevy explained. “I haven’t played good golf in a long time, so I was just trying to play good golf and I thought it could take care of itself. Felt good to put four good rounds together, for sure.”
With those two moving in, Matt Wallace and rookie Austin Smotherman, who missed the cut by two strokes when he made double bogey on his last hole, were eliminated.
McGreevy said his solid play at Sedgefield Country Club will give him a boost of confidence heading into the first Playoff event.
“(It’s) huge,” McGreevy said. “Luckily, I’ve actually been able to play that golf course a couple of times before, so it’s even going to give me that much more confidence going into next week.
“Game feels really, really good and I feel like I could have popped off and played better than I did this week. Just super excited to have got it done, but just that hard work I’ve kind of put in these last couple months has actually shown.”