Rex Hoggard makes a claim about the FedEx St. Jude Championship which he admits ‘sounds ridiculous’

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The PGA Tour will be hoping that the FedEx Cup playoffs provide the kind of storylines and drama which leave the fans counting down the days until many of the world’s best head to East Lake and battle it out for the Tour Championship.

It is fair to say that the FedEx Cup playoffs have divided golf fans over the years. There have been a number of incredible moments since 2007. However, the PGA Tour is still working to find the perfect format.

In fact, it was midway through this season that it was announced that the Tour Championship would be making changes this year. No longer would the leading player in the FedEx Cup start the week at East Lake on 10 under par.

It appears that further changes are on the horizon. With that, Rory McIlroy has decided to skip this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. It is a decision which has led to some criticism, while others have praised McIlroy for resting up.

The most important week on the PGA Tour

It is obviously not the best look for the PGA Tour, but it seems that some feel that the stakes could hardly be higher anyway this week at TPC Southwind.

Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard has suggested that the coming days are about as important as it gets for the majority of the players on the PGA Tour, with the top 50 in Memphis securing their spot in the signature events next year.

“There’s plenty of players, you look at 48, 49 and 50, Jordan Spieth, Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee, that’s going to be fascinating to me going into this week, because I would argue as compelling as last week was, and we’ve talked a lot about the Wyndham Championship and what it now means to focus on different numbers, 100, 70, 50, 30, whatever the case may be, but this is the most important week, I would argue, of the year if you’re a PGA Tour player,” he said.

“And I know that sounds ridiculous, but if you’re paying attention to what players can do when they’re playing in the signature events versus what they can’t do, you have such an advantage being in those events where there’s virtually no cut. A few of them have a cut, but it’s very small, you have to play really bad to miss the cut at Memorial, or the Arnold Palmer Invitational. They have more points. It really just sets your season up for success.

“We’ve had two full seasons to sort of settle in and see how it impacts the list, I do think players put an enormous amount of pressure on themselves this week in Memphis because of that top 50 number. They know that next year’s success is going to ebb and flow with this. And unless your name is Jordan Spieth or Rickie Fowler or Adam Scott as we’ve talked about in the past, you probably shouldn’t count on any sponsor exemptions into those signature events.”

The players around the cut line heading into the FedEx St. Jude Championship

It is going to be difficult for players who just made it into the top 70 to earn their ticket to the BMW Championship. The likes of Rickie Fowler, in 64th, and Tony Finau, in 60th, are going to need outstanding weeks in Memphis.

On the other hand, Xander Schauffele has had a really underwhelming year by his standards. The two-time major champion is 42nd. But it will take something dramatic for him to fall out of the top 50 and not be in the field at Caves Valley.

It is probably ideal for the PGA Tour to have a player of Spieth’s stature in jeopardy this week. Plenty of fans will be tuning in just to see how he fares.

Spieth meanwhile will know that his chances of a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup will almost certainly evaporate if he cannot make it to the BMW Championship.

So there is definitely plenty on the line.