Power makes FedExCup Playoffs as Lowry secures $2 million bonus

Seamus Power

Shane Lowry picked up a $2 million bonus, and Seamus Power the right to continue his FedExCup chase in Memphis this week when the Wyndham Championship officially concluded on Monday

England’s Aaron Rai claimed the title and his maiden PGA Tour win in the final event of the regular season in Greensboro on Sunday night.

However, with halfway leader Matt Kuchar opting not to finish the final hole in near darkness, the standings weren’t official until he returned to complete the 18th yesterday, finishing tied 12th.

Despite missing the cut, Lowry won $2 million for finishing tenth in the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 - his share of a $40 bonus pool paid out to the top 10 in the FedExCup standings at the end of the regular season.

Power moved up from 69th to 66th in the FedExCup, making the top 70 who will contest the first playoff event, this week’s $20 million FedEx St Jude Championship.

The West Waterford man was projected at 70th after making the four-under cut on the mark in the weather-delayed event in North Carolina. 

But he moved smoothly up the leaderboard on a marathon 36-hole day at Sedgefield Country Club on Sunday.

After carding a one-under 69 in round three, he followed an opening bogey with five birdies in a final round 66 to finish tied 28th in the clubhouse on nine-under.

It means he’s safely into the Playoffs and will join Lowry and third-ranked Rory McIlroy at TPC Southwind in Tennessee this week.

His goal now is to make the top 50 in the FedExCup and qualify for the BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Castle Rock, Colorado, next week.

If he does so, he will be exempt into all the signature events next year, which will be a significant boost to his hopes of qualifying for the Ryder Cup in New York next year.

Under the new qualifying criteria unveiled recently by Ryder Cup Europe, signature events will be second in importance only to the majors in the points race to make the top six who will qualify automatically for Luke Donald’s team for Bethpage Black.

Making that team will be a goal now for Rai, a former Irish Open runner-up, after he became the seventh European to win on the PGA Tour this season.

A final-round 64 gave the Wolverhampton man his maiden US win by two strokes from American Max Greyserman on 18-under-par.

"I haven't really had much chance to think about that," Rai said of how it felt to finally win on the PGA Tour. "I think just that statement alone of being a PGA TOUR winner is truly a dream come true. To win on any professional golf tour is an incredible accomplishment.

"The PGA TOUR is the pinnacle of golf and it's amazing to be competing here week in, week out, but to have won a tournament is extremely special and something I'll always remember."

As for Kuchar, who needed to win to make the Playoffs for the 17th year in a row, he apologised for making officials return to the venue on Monday.

While playing partners Greyserman and Chad Ramey opted to finish after the hooter sounded suspending play, Kuchar marked his ball in the trees, 212 yards from the green.

“Listen, nobody wants to be that guy, which I feel I turned into, the one guy that didn't finish,” Kuchar said. “I can't tell you how many times I have been finished with a round thinking, bummed out that somebody didn't finish, that we didn't get to make the cut because somebody didn't finish. Here it's me now as the guy that didn't get to finish the tournament.

“But last night, last night was dark. I mean, we had texts that Round 1 was suspended at 8:15, Round 2 was suspended at 8:25. That was to make the cut, so they pushed it even longer. Last night Round 4 was suspended at 8:40, like it was dark.

“I think had I been in the fairway with a normal shot, I probably would have attempted to finish, but I had just seen Max four-putt the 16th hole. If there was daylight on that green, does he four-putt? I don't know, I don't know.

“But I just watched something happen. I had a putt three holes prior, 13th hole, decent daylight, no daylight on the green, totally covered in shade, missed a five-footer. Like I'm thinking it's hard to putt.

“The general rule of thumb, I don't know if you guys know, the general rule of thumb when you're playing, you try to hit a tee shot if you can hit a tee shot.

“If you've got a reasonable approach, you hit it, you putt in the morning. You mark it, you wait if you have any sort of important putt.

“I did not realize Aaron Rai made birdie on the last, so I'm over on 10 (fairway) trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I'm figuring no way Max is going to finish out with a chance to win a tournament.

“I thought Max for sure had a shot to win and I thought no way in this situation do you hit this shot, you come back in the morning 100 percent of the time.

“So I said, well, Max will stop, I'll stop, kind of make it easy on him. And for me, coming back in the morning, like I never would have taken that drop last night, I never would have thought to ask. I knew I was in a terrible situation, I was praying to make bogey from where I was. To walk away with par, nearly birdie, is a huge bonus.

“Again, it stinks to -- nobody wants to be that guy that's showing up today, one person, one hole. Not even one hole, half a hole to putt.

“So apologies to the tournament, to everybody that had to come out. I know it stinks, I know the ramifications, I know it stinks. Certainly I apologize to force everybody to come out here.

“I literally felt as we're putting on 16, I thought, all right, I'm first to hit, I'll go to 17 and be ready to hit expecting a siren at that time. It had to be 8:20 at that time on 17 tee. Thinking, man, I could maybe do what Gary Woodland did for our group, I could hit, allow the group to play 17.

“I know the rules officials are trying to -- everybody wants to get done, nobody wants to be that -- we all want to get done. So yeah, you hit the tee shot and kind of decide from there. And you guys saw the predicament I was in, it was a horrible place. Had it been a standard shot, I most likely would have proceeded.”

Asked if he saw Rai’s group waiting in the fairway, Kuchar said: “Clearly, clearly I was not hitting to hit just to push. I thought -- I was on the tee, there was a guy in pink walking on the green. I assumed it was Billy Horschel. There was a pink shirt walking on the back of the green, I assumed they were already up there and they were not.”

Asked if he would do anything different in retrospect, he said: “From that situation, no. Listen, I would have been so pleased with a bogey last night.

“All I was thinking was let's try to avoid double this morning. To come out and have, you know, the ability to take a drop, to get relief is a bonus.

“I just hope it doesn't cause too many problems. I was excited that at least they got -- Aaron Rai got to finish, got to do the awards ceremony. I think that would have really stunk had Aaron not cemented the win and been able to do the trophy ceremony and all that goes with it.”

Kuchar said he avoided looking at social media but was made aware of criticism online.

“I did get a call from my agent, said hey, you're causing quite a stir, so that was the little I heard,” he said. “I'm grateful to not be a part of the social media thing.”

Final 2024 Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 Bonus

Pos. Player FedExCup - Pts - Wins - Top-10s - Bonus

1 Scottie Scheffler 5,993 6 14 $8 million

2 Xander Schauffele 4,057 2 12 $6 million

3 Rory McIlroy 2,545 2 6 $4.8 million

4 Collin Morikawa 2,456 0 7 $4.4 million

5 Wyndham Clark 2,154 1 6 $4 million

6 Ludvig Åberg 2,092 0 7 $3.4 million

7 Sahith Theegala 2,037 0 7 $2.8 million

8 Hideki Matsuyama 1,899 1 5 $2.4 million

9 Sungjae Im 1,896 0 7 $2.2 million

10 Shane Lowry 1,867 1 6 $2 million