Rory McIlroy finished second in the PGA Tour's regular season FedEx Cup standings, just 2 points ahead of Matt Kuchar for the runner-up position to overall No. 1 seed Brooks Koepka.
Koepka picked up $2 million by winning the first-ever Wyndham Rewards Top 10, which awarded a $10 million bonus pool to the top 10 players in the final regular season FedEx Cup standings. However, McIlroy picked up $1.5 million by finishing second, while Kuchar took home $1.2 million for a multi-win season that landed him third in the standings.
The top 10 players were awarded their bonuses on Tuesday ahead of The Northern Trust, the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs. At the ceremony, Kuchar playfully joked about McIlroy's skin-of-his-teeth margin for $300,000. Then McIlroy, the four-time major winner, had the perfect quip to clap back.
Rory eviscerated Kuchar today. 💀 💀 💀 pic.twitter.com/omtMHRS8rh
— Chris Chaney (@Wrong_Fairway) August 6, 2019
"And we all know what money means to him," McIlroy said, leading to raucous laughter in the room.
Kuchar, who has been the butt of lots of jokes this year because of his controversial pay scale for a local caddie in winning the Mayakoba Golf Classic last November, really could do nothing but laugh at the joke. It was just too good.
Of course, neither McIlroy nor Kuchar could have caught Koepka after the world No. 1 took down the title at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis. Koepka's lead was too much to overcome, meaning McIlroy and Kuchar didn't have motivation to play in the regular-season conclusion at the Wyndham Championship. Just one player, Webb Simpson, played his way into the top 10 in the regular-season finale, which earned him $550,000 from the bonus pool.
There has been some talk of requiring players to compete in the Wyndham Championship to collect from the bonus pool, but it's unclear what changes the PGA Tour might pursue to help elevate the status of the Wyndham Rewards Top 10 so it doesn't become an afterthought in the Greensboro tournament they sponsor.
