Six Australian eyes $ 60 million FedEx finish
It's time for the PGA Tour with six Australians locked up for the opening event of the richest three weeks of golf for the year.
Our "Big Four" from Adam Scott, Jason Day, Marc Leishman and Cam Smith are accompanied by Tour regulars Aaron Baddeley and Matt Jones for the first week of the FedEx Cup Playoffs in New York from Thursday.
And with over $ 60 million to win for the next three weeks, there's plenty to play.
The 125-person field this week will be reduced to 70 for next week's BMW Championship, before the top 30 players on the seasonal money list start at the grand finale, the Tour Championship in East Lake.
In a change in this year's format, the leading player on the money list on his way to the Tour Championship starts the week at 10-under-par. The player who is second, starts at 8 at the bottom and so on.
That means that the scenario of a player who wins the Tour Championship, but not the overall FedEx Cup (think last year with Tiger Woods and Justin Rose) is off the cards.
The Atlanta winner will take home $ 15 million in 2019, an increase from $ 10 million last year.
The player who finishes 30th in the season finale wins an incredible $ US395,000.
Leishman is already a slot to enter the last week of the 2019 season in the top 30 based on his win at the CIMB Classic last October.
Despite having played only five events since April, Scott is only a few places further back in the 17th.
Fellow Queenslander Day is currently 30th, so he will probably have fourteen days to hit his ticket to Atlanta, while a rejuvenated Smith has more on the line this week, while he is in 74th place on the current money list.
At 122nd Baddeley has the most work to do this week in New York, while 114th ranked Matt Jones also urgently needs a good finish to extend his season.
Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Matt Kuchar finished one, two and three at the end of the regular season.