The PGA Tour has made big changes to the FedEx Cup playoffs and how its bonus pool is paid out in recent years.
In 2026, though, the PGA Tour is again making another massive overhaul to how the playoffs work and how the best players in the world earn their share of the $100 million pot.
While the top 70 players in the points standings after the Wyndham Championship will still qualify for the playoffs, everything changes at that point.
Gone is the Comcast Business Tour Top 10, which paid out a $40 million bonus pool last year to the top 10 players in the final regular-season FedEx Cup points standings. That became redundant last year, when the PGA Tour carved out another $20 million of the FedEx Cup bonus pool to go to those same 10 players. Everything will be earned in the playoffs, starting at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
In the first two playoff events, in Memphis and at the BMW Championship, the winner will now earn 750 FedEx Cup points -- akin to winning a major championship or The Players on the PGA Tour. That's down drastically from the 2,000 FedEx Cup points players had been earning for winning a playoff event.
The scaled-down points available in the playoff events seemingly reduces the total volatility of movement in the standings, requiring a player ranked outside the top 30 heading into the playoff to have a strong two-week run to leapfrog their way into the East Lake field. In 2025, there was a 4,209-point spread between regular-season No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 70 Matti Schmid. However, there was just a 572-point difference between No. 30 and No. 70, meaning a playoff win for any player can hypothetically get them into the Tour Championship. With 500 FedEx Cup points to playoff-event runners-up, that finish and another decent one in the playoffs could also get a player into East Lake.
However, the vast majority of the 2026 FedEx Cup bonus pool will now be paid after the BMW Championship. The FedEx Cup points leader at the end of that middle playoff event will now earn $23 million, with $22 million in cash and $1 million in deferred retirement compensation. The other 49 players in the field will be paid from the bonus pool based on their standing at that point.
The Tour Championship format will remain the same for 2026, with no points reset or starting strokes in place. It will be a straight, 72-hole shootout to determine the tournament winner and the 2026 FedEx Cup champion. The winner of that tournament will get $10 million in official money from the $40 million purse, and all 30 qualifying players will earn money from that purse.
Additionally, fewer total players will be paid from the FedEx Cup bonus pool. Dating back to 2007, the top 150 players in the final FedEx Cup standings earned a piece of the bonus pool. That number will be capped at 125 players in 2026 in accordance with the reduction in the number of fully exempt players to 100 from the prior season's FedEx Cup Fall points list.
All told, the arc of the playoffs now changes for 2026, making the BMW Championship arguably the biggest event of the season from a financial perspective. However, by offering dramatically fewer points in the first two playoff events, the PGA Tour's regular season takes on even more importance to determining how much a player can earn in the FedEx Cup bonus pool.
