2023 FedEx Cup Playoffs: How Justin Thomas must finish at Wyndham Championship to keep postseason hope alive

Justin Thomas could roll out of bed most years and notch a top-20 finish on the PGA Tour. The problem is that this year is not most years and this Justin Thomas has had issues doing exactly that. Despite his poor play, the 15-time PGA Tour winner enters this week’s 2023 Wyndham Championship still with a chance to punch his ticket into the FedEx Cup Playoffs — though that’ll require a finish that has seemed impossible recently amid his struggles. 

The 2017 FedEx Cup champ finds himself 79th in the season-long race — nine players and 48 FedEx Cup points removed from the coveted 70th and final spot in the playoffs. Should Thomas fall outside the top 18 this week, none of this will matter, but even he does finish inside the top 18 it may not be enough.

Thomas has just five top-18 results in 20 starts this season with the latest coming at the Travelers Championship. It was that week — after he shot 81 at the U.S. Open — where it appeared a corner was turned as the 30-year-old put together his best approach numbers since the 2021 WGC-Workday Championship, the tournament prior to his victory at the Players Championship.

Since then, however, Thomas has fallen on additional tough times. He has missed three of four cuts with both FedEx Cup and Ryder Cup considerations breathing down his neck. He has lost strokes on approach in four straight tournaments — the longest streak of his career — and switched putters at the 3M Open. 

Though Thomas’s game continues to waver, his confidence does not.

“I’m very confident, I am. It’s different than trying to win a tournament or making a putt for a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, whatever it may be, but it’s still that same feeling,” Thomas said of needing to post a high finish. “I was and am so excited to be playing this week. Like I said, it’s just, it’s a cool opportunity, it’s a great opportunity for me. I just, I mean, I’ve been in the right frame of mind I feel like for the last kind of month or so. 

“I’ve been in a lot better head space of just a feeling like really good things are coming, but not as much expecting or saying, you know, when’s this going to be over. It’s just making it not as big of a deal as it is and just having an understanding that just having good scoring and doing what I have in the past, and know that any week just one shot, one round, one tournament could flip it and in a month nobody’s talking about it anymore.”

How Justin Thomas can secure FedEx Cup Playoffs berth

With plenty of movement to be had among those players ranked 65th to 80th in the FedEx Cup standings, the postseason picture remains blurry. What is clear is Thomas needs a quality outing. A top five will all but secure his place in the field at the St. Jude Championship. A top-10 result gives him better than a 50-50 chance. Anything in the neighborhood of, say, a T13, and luck will be required.

“I just, I know I’m really, really close to playing some really, really good golf,” said Thomas. “The reality is, you know, I need to play well this week to give that an opportunity to come out. That’s the unfortunate but also realistic part of where I’m at right now. I’m excited. I think it’s an unbelievable opportunity. 

“I’m enjoying it. I mean, this is — I think it’s great for the Wyndham. There’s plenty of guys here that … some big names that are going to get this tournament kind of some of the credit it deserves I feel like on a great golf course. I’m just going to go out and play the best that I can and try to see if we can get in contention to try to win a golf tournament and see if we can get on a little run to end the season.”

Should Thomas qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, he would assume the role of that pesky wild card team no one wants to face the first weekend of the NFL Playoffs — that team that can put up points in bunches, plays stingy defense and has a veteran head coach who has been there a time or two. 

The PGA Tour travels to TPC Southwind, Olympia Fields and East Lake Golf Club for the three playoff events, and Thomas is licking his lips at the prospect of making a postseason run for the ages. The two-time major winner has done no worse than T26 across the three golf courses throughout his career with a win at TPC Southwind in 2020. A win three years later could set the stage for a sprint to Atlanta where he raised the FedEx Cup in 2017. In seven trips to East Lake, Thomas has seven top-seven finishes. He just needs to get there, and anything is possible.

“This is golf,” said Thomas. “Like what is happening this year, it happens every single year … I’m like in a position where I might not make the playoffs and there’s a lot of other good players that have, too. There’s also guys that maybe have been in this position I’m in right now that have played as well as I have other seasons. It’s like that is the reality of golf, like it’s all on you. You’re not relying on any teammates to bail you out, to hinder you, it’s all on you. There’s just guys that have played better than me this season whether they’re ranked 1st in the world or 101st in the world. But now I have an opportunity to play well this week, get into the playoffs and to go to three courses that I love. I have a chance to have one of the craziest endings to a PGA Tour season and I’m going to try to do that.”