The 2026 FedEx Cup playoffs format has changed several times since the concept was introduced in 2007, and the current FedEx Cup playoffs format is in its second year for the 2026 PGA Tour season.
Explaining the FedEx Cup playoffs format means detailing how players earn FedEx Cup points, qualify for playoff events to the Tour Championship and determine who wins the lion's share of the $100 million bonus pool at two different stages.
If a player remains No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings at end of the BMW Championship and wins the Tour Championship, they'll earn a total bonus of $33 million.
2026 FedEx Cup playoff format
How to qualify
As has been the case since the start of the FedEx Cup, the entire PGA Tour regular season leads to the FedEx Cup playoffs, with each official PGA Tour event offering points to players who made the 36-hole cut based on a standardized system. For each regular PGA Tour event, the winner earns 500 FedEx Cup points. At the four majors and The Players, the winner earns 750 FedEx Cup points. At the Signature events, the winner earns 700 points. At opposite-field PGA Tour events -- that is, those played opposite the WGCs and majors -- the winner gets 300 FedEx Cup points.
All of the points from regular season events are tallied together at the conclusion of the regular season, which comes at the Wyndham Championship. The top 70 eligible players in the FedEx Cup standings at the end of that tournament qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs. Those 70 players also lock up their PGA Tour cards for the next season, with entry now guaranteed to every non-Signature, non-major event on the schedule.
Unlike last season, however, the top 10 finishers in the regular season FedEx Cup points list do not earn bonus money from either the now-defunct $40 million Comcast Business Tour Top 10 bonus pool, nor the $20 million bonus pool that was created last season separate from the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 that paid out to the top 10 in the regular season standings. The winner of the regular season last year earned a combined $18 million, but that money is paid out differently this year and at the conclusion of the BMW Championship.
FedEx Cup playoff events and cuts
Three FedEx Cup playoff events will be played. The FedEx Cup playoff events whittle a field of 70 down to 30 for the final event at the Tour Championship. The points are increased by a factor of four from the regular season events, with a winner picking up 750 FedEx Cup points in the first two playoff events -- down dramatically from 2,000 in recent years. Points earned in each of the first two legs of the playoffs are added to a player's regular season tally, with the field for subsequent playoff events determined on the combined points.
- The FedEx St. Jude Championship has a field of 70 players (with no cut), with the top 50 in combined FedEx Cup points from the regular season and FedEx St. Jude Championship moving to the next leg.
- The BMW Championship has a field of the top 50 in combined points (and has no cut), with the top 30 in combined points moving on to the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
At the end of the BMW Championship, a bonus pool of approximately $98 million is paid to the top 125 players in the standings at that point. The winner gets $23 million, and the pay scale continues down to $100,000 for each play ranked 101st through 125th, with positions locked after the Wyndham Championship for any player outside the top 70 in the standings.
Tour Championship format
The PGA Tour has eliminted the starting-strokes format, which had been used since 2019 to convert the FedEx Cup points standings after the BMW Championship into handicap strokes for the Tour Championship that would be attached to a player's 72-hole score to determine an overall FedEx Cup champion. Now, the goal is simply to qualify for the Tour Championship, when the slate is wiped clean, and there are no advantages (or disadvantages) at the start of the week.
A 72-hole Tour Championship will then be played, and the best total score from the tournament will be declared the FedEx Cup champion.
The FedEx Cup bonus pool is nearly $100 million, but the Tour Championship pool is approximately $40 million. The winner of that tournament gets $10 million.
