Rory McIlroy is closing in on the FedEx Cup title as long as he can hold off a star-studded leaderboard down the stretch at East Lake.
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A former college football player who was late to the game of golf, Billy Payne still managed to grasp its history, especially as it related to Augusta National Golf Club, where he made a relatively meteoric rise in stature at a place used to a different pace. Payne, who retired Wednesday (effective Oct. 16) as the club’s chairman, was fond of saying that he strived to maintain the ideals of Augusta National’s founders — great amateur golfer Bobby Jones and Wall Street financier Clifford Roberts — men he never met but whose legacy he strived to maintain. And yet, neither Jones nor Roberts would have been remotely familiar with any of the things Payne, 69, accomplished in his 11-year tenure as chairman. Unlike any of his five predecessors, Payne reached far beyond Augusta National’s boundaries and made the club and the Masters Tournament a force beyond one week a year in April.
The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. Scroll below for the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba field list as of Friday, Oct. 28 at 5 p.m. ET: Check here for updates. Winner of PGA Championship (five-year exemption) Collin Morikawa Winner of THE PLAYERS Championship (five-year exemption) Webb Simpson Winner of Masters Tournament (five-year exemption) Scottie Scheffler Winner of The Open (five-year exemption) Francesco Molinari Winner of World Golf Championships event (three-year exemption) Billy Horschel FedExCup Champion (five-year exemption) Justin Rose PGA TOUR tournament winner (two-year exemption) Ryan Brehm Cameron Champ Joel Dahmen Jason Day Tyler Duncan Harris English Tony Finau Lucas Glover Jim Herman Garrick Higgo Tom Hoge Viktor Hovland Matt Kuchar Martin Laird Andrew Landry K.H. Lee Sebastián Muñoz J.T. Poston Seamus Power Chad Ramey Chez Reavie J.J. Spaun Sepp Straka Robert Streb Nick Taylor Brendon Todd Erik van Rooyen Richy Werenski Career money exemption Jason Dufner Ryan Moore Rory Sabbatini * Sponsor’s exemption (Korn Ferry Tour Finals) Matti Schmid Sponsor’s exemption (members not otherwise exempt) Harry Higgs Charley Hoffman Sponsor’s exemption (unrestricted) Brad Adamonis Adria Arnaus José de Jesús Rodríguez Travis Vick Designated sponsor’s exemption Isidro Benitez Armando Favela Enrique Marin Santander Sebastián Vázquez Past champion of respective event Patton Kizzire Top 30 on prior season’s FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List Aaron Wise Brian Harman Top 125 on prior season’s FedExCup Playoffs & Eligibility Points List Davis Riley Denny McCarthy Maverick McNealy Keith Mitchell Russell Henley Andrew Putnam Emiliano Grillo Troy Merritt Adam Hadwin Taylor Moore Chris Kirk Alex Noren Lee Hodges John Huh Beau Hossler Brandon Wu Adam Long Dylan Frittelli Ryan Palmer David Lipsky Aaron Rai Patrick Rodgers Russell Knox Adam Svensson Kevin Streelman Mark Hubbard Danny Lee Hayden Buckley C.T. Pan Sam Ryder Vince Whaley Nate Lashley James Hahn Greyson Sigg Scott Piercy Callum Tarren Max McGreevy Doug Ghim Kevin Tway Matthias Schwab Kramer Hickok Matt Wallace Austin Smotherman Justin Lower Danny Willett Kelly Kraft # Major medical extension Nick Hardy Zac Blair Korn Ferry Tour Points winners (The 25 and The Finals 25) Justin Suh Korn Ferry Tour graduates via The 25 and The Finals 25 (reshuffled) Will Gordon Paul Haley II David Lingmerth Zecheng Dou Austin Eckroat Robby Shelton Philip Knowles MJ Daffue Michael Gligic Taylor Montgomery Dean Burmester Ben Taylor Eric Cole S.H. Kim Joseph Bramlett Harry Hall Austin Cook Brandon Matthews Augusto Núñez Henrik Norlander Byeong Hun An Ben Martin Erik Barnes Ryan Armour Ben Griffin Nicholas Lindheim Brent Grant The PGA TOUR uses a standardized system for determining event fields, based off the current season’s Priority Ranking while also including additional exemption and qualifying categories. Field sizes can vary by event, as can the number of event-specific exemptions. Fully exempt PGA TOUR members are guaranteed entry into all full-field events, with various conditional categories subject to periodic reshuffles based upon FedExCup Points accrued throughout the season. Categories with ‘reshuffle’ notation indicate that a reshuffle period has occurred. * = If all prior year Korn Ferry Tour graduates are eligible for event, exemptions become unrestricted # = Latest medical extension information can be found here. $ = Category breakdown can be found here.
This week, the U.S. Open returns to Torrey Pines, site of one of golf’s most memorable major championship showdowns. The on-course heroics of Tiger Woods that week in 2008 are forever ingrained in the minds of golf fans worldwide. Perhaps the bigger surprise came from Rocco Mediate, an unlikely foil who took Woods to the absolute limit that week in California. Thirteen years later, the story is no less enthralling, no less remarkable, than it was in real time. RELATED: 21st Group | Schauffele witnessed Tiger’s famous putt in 2008 Untouchable Tiger In order to best paint the picture of this David and Goliath matchup, you have to fully appreciate how dominant Woods was at this point in his career. Tiger wasn’t just the No. 1 player in the world, he was the unquestioned relentless force in the sport for a decade running. After a runner-up finish at the 2008 Masters, Woods had an Official World Golf Ranking points average of 21.19. Phil Mickelson was second, at 9.62. This meant that there was a larger gap between Woods and Mickelson (11.57 average points) than Phil and the bottom of the Ranking. Woods entered the week having won five of his previous 13 major starts. In his professional career, he had played in 45 majors, winning 13 of them – an absurd 29% clip. From 1997 through the 2008 Masters, there were 111 players with 50 or more rounds in major championships. Woods, at 125 under par in that span, was 198 shots better in relation to par than any other player (Ernie Els, +73). In fact, Els and Phil Mickelson (+74) were the only players within 200 shots of Woods in relation to par during that span in majors. Despite his knee injury, Woods was playing some of the most dominant golf of his entire illustrious career. Entering the 2008 U.S. Open, Woods had played in 11 tournaments worldwide since August of the previous year. He won eight times, with three of his victories being by eight strokes or more. He didn’t finish worse than fifth and posted a scoring average of 67.6 in that span. During that run of eleven tournaments, the combined total of opponents in those fields was 1,227. Woods was beat by six of them. Now consider how dominant Woods had been at Torrey Pines. In 11 starts at the Farmers Insurance Open from 1998 through 2008, Woods had won six times and never finished worse than tied for tenth. Woods was a combined 158 under par at the event during that stretch, 85 strokes better than any other player in that span (Mickelson was second, at 73 under). Only two players were within 100 shots of Woods in relation to par at Torrey Pines in those eleven combined tournaments. Woods won all five tournaments he played at Torrey Pines from 2005-08. Definition of an Underdog Rocco Mediate was 158th in the Official World Golf Ranking the week of the 2008 U.S. Open. At 45 years old, he was more than six years removed from his previous PGA TOUR win, in April of 2002. Woods had won 33 times on TOUR – including each of the four major championships (six majors in all) – since Mediate’s last victory. Mediate had missed the cut at Torrey Pines earlier that year in his first start there in a decade, one of seven missed cuts in his first nine starts that season. To that point in his career, Woods had missed just four cuts as a professional on the PGA TOUR. It had been six years since Mediate finished a PGA TOUR season ranked inside the top 40 in scoring average. Mediate had, however, come off his best finish of the season, a tie for sixth at the Memorial Tournament. He ranked fifth in the field that week in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and 11th in Strokes Gained: Approach, both high-water marks for his 2008 campaign to date. Mediate had found some previous success in the U.S. Open, finishing fourth in 2001 and tied for sixth in 2005. Statistical Profiles that Week Over the years, Torrey Pines has been kind to players who are a little wild off the tee. Over the last forty years, more PGA TOUR winners at the venue have ranked outside the top-50 that week in driving accuracy (15) than inside the top-10 (seven). Woods was part of that wilder group: at the 2008 U.S. Open, he hit just 54% of the fairways for the week, ranking tied for 56th in the field. Nobody would hit fewer fairways on their path to a U.S. Open victory until Bryson DeChambeau did in 2020 at Winged Foot (41.1%). Woods was rewarded, however, for hitting some more accurate tee shots on par-5s. On the twelve par five holes Woods played in regulation, he hit the fairway with his tee shot nine times. In turn, he led the tournament in par-5 scoring average, carding three eagles and four birdies on Nos. 9, 13 and 18. For the week, Mediate was outdriven by Woods on average by 37.5 yards. Still, he led the field in par four scoring average (4.0), par-4 birdie-or-better percentage (22.7%) and front-nine scoring (34.3). While the field scrambled at a clip of just 44.4% for the tournament, Mediate got up-and-down 61.5% of the time, the fifth-best rate of any player. His greenside magic helped him avoid the big number, as he made only one double bogey through 72 holes. The Playoff As Woods took a three-shot lead through 10 holes, it looked as if Mediate’s dream run had come to an end. But Rocco rallied, making three consecutive birdies on the back nine to take a one-stroke lead. In regulation, only two players had birdie streaks all week longer than what Mediate put together in that do-or-die situation against Woods. For the second day in a row, Tiger needed to birdie the 18th hole to force a playoff with Mediate. Of course, he did, and would win with par on the first hole of sudden death. The win was his 14th professional major, getting there more than three years younger than Jack Nicklaus was when he won his 14th, the 1975 PGA Championship. Woods remained perfect (14-for-14) when holding the 54-hole lead or co-lead in a major championship, a streak that ended at the following year’s PGA. Had Mediate won, he would have shattered the record for lowest world ranking by a U.S. Open champion, at 158th. To this day, that mark is held by Steve Jones, who was ranked 99th in the OWGR when he won in 1996. In the twelve U.S. Opens since, none have been decided by playoff, the longest streak without one in this championship’s history.
