History of the FedEx Cup

The BMW Championship has featured shoot-outs and thrills from a generation of PGA Tour stars

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By Jim Bebbington

The FedEx Cup is the PGA Tour’s season-ending playoff run. Players earn points all season, and the top 100+ have been invited to the first playoff. They accumulate more points that carry forward to the next tournament. Field sizes shrink each week, and by the final Championship, held since 2007 at East Lake Country Club near Atlanta, only the best of the best are still competing.

2007 – Tiger Woods wins two times and finishes second once in the FedEx series and takes the first FedEx Cup $10 million bonus.

2008 – Vijay Singh did so well in the first three FedEx Cup playoff tournaments – there were four then, not three – that to win it all the only thing he had to do was play all four rounds of The Tour Championship. He does, and he did.

2009 – A year after knee surgery kept him out of the playoffs, Tiger Woods returns to form and wins again. Phil Mickelson wins the final tournament, but Tiger takes the overall points title.

2010 – Jim Furyk gets up-and-down on the 18th from a bunker to take the Tour Championship title as well as the overall points title. This is peak Furyk.

2011 – Bill Hass stays calm, gets pars during a two-hole sudden-death playoff and wins the Tour Championship over Hunter Mahan as well as the FedEx Cup.

2012 – Brandt Snedeker comes from behind in the Championship, besting Tiger and Rory, to win the Championship and the Cup.

2013 – Tiger has the points lead going into the final weekend, but rides the bogey-train the first three rounds of the Championship allowing Henrik Stenson to win the final week and the Cup.

2014 – Billy Horschel wins both the BMW and the Championship en route to the 2014 title.

2015 – Jordan Spieth is nearly unbeatable in 2015 and takes the FedEx Cup with a four-shot victory at East Lake.

2016 – Rory McIlroy finally breaks through, taking the first of what will be three – and counting – FedEx Cup titles.

2017 – Justin Thomas begins the Justin era and finishes a dominant year in which he wins five times.

2018 – Justin Rose fends off Bryson DeChambeau, who enters the FedEx Cup playoffs the points leader then wins the first two tournaments. Tiger wins in East Lake and Rose takes the title despite not winning any of the playoff tournaments.

2019 – The FedEx Cup is trimmed to three tournaments – its current set-up – and Rory McIlroy wins again. He steam-rolls through a strong season and takes the Cup by winning again at East Lake.

2020 – Dustin Johnson. Remember him? He was pretty good. He wins in East Lake and takes home a newly increased paycheck – a tidy $15 million.

2021 – Patrick Cantlay defeats Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm in back-to-back weeks to take the Cup.

2022 – Rory McIlroy wins his third FedEx Cup – most by any player.

2023 – Viktor Hovland wins the BMW and the Championship en route to his first FedEx Cup win.