FedEx St. Jude Championship, the First Playoff Event, Kicks Off
Only Two Top-10 Finishes This Year, Currently Ranked 46th in FedEx Cup
Needs More Points to Qualify for the Final Tour Championship
"Raise your FedEx Cup ranking."
This is the special mission given to Siwoo Kim. Currently ranked 46th in the FedEx Cup standings, he needs to climb higher to ensure a stable run in the playoffs. After the conclusion of the regular season with last week's Wyndham Championship, the PGA Tour will kick off the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, from August 7 (local time) for four days at TPC Southwind (par 70, 7,288 yards) in Memphis, Tennessee, with a total prize fund of $20 million.
Siwoo Kim challenges for the title at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, his first playoff event. Photo by AFP Yonhap News
The playoffs are contested only by players who finished the regular season inside the top 70 of the FedEx Cup rankings. The top 70 players will compete in the FedEx St. Jude Championship, only 50 will advance to the second event, the BMW Championship (total prize fund $20 million), and just 30 will qualify for the final event, the Tour Championship.
For Korea, Siwoo Kim and Sungjae Im will compete in this year's playoffs. Last year, four Korean players?Sungjae Im, Siwoo Kim, Byeonghun An, and Joohyung Kim?participated, but this year the number has dropped to two. Sungjae Im, currently ranked 29th in the FedEx Cup, is highly likely to make it to the final Tour Championship. However, Siwoo Kim cannot yet be optimistic about qualifying for the second event, the BMW Championship.
Siwoo Kim has four career wins on the PGA Tour. This year, however, he has not performed up to expectations. Out of 26 tournaments, he has only finished in the top 10 twice. His best individual results were tied for 8th at the RBC Heritage in April and the PGA Championship major in May. In his last three tournaments?the Open Championship, the 3M Open, and the Wyndham Championship on August 3?he missed the cut in all of them. Regaining his sharp shot-making and confidence will be crucial.
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