The FedEx Cup Playoffs
Three tournaments, a shrinking field, one champion — August 13–30, 2026
The PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs run across three consecutive weeks in August 2026: the FedEx St. Jude Championship (Aug 13–16, TPC Southwind, Memphis), the BMW Championship (Aug 20–23, Bellerive Country Club, St. Louis), and the season-ending Tour Championship (Aug 27–30, East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta). It's the PGA Tour's answer to a playoff system — a season of points funneling down to a smaller and smaller field, deciding the year's overall FedExCup champion rather than just a single tournament winner.
Quick facts
How the field narrows
The top 70 players on the season-long FedExCup points list qualify for the opening event in Memphis. The top 50 after that advance to St. Louis. Only the top 30 make the cut to East Lake for the Tour Championship — three straight weeks of genuinely must-perform golf for anyone hoping to still be in contention by the final round.
Three very different courses
TPC Southwind, Bellerive and East Lake each have their own character and history hosting big events — East Lake in particular, redesigned by Donald Ross-influenced architecture and steeped in tournament history, has become the sport's de facto season finale venue and carries a different atmosphere than a regular Tour stop.
Attending vs. following the leaderboard
Playoff-event tickets are generally more available and reasonably priced than a major championship, though East Lake's smaller 30-player field week tends to draw the most concentrated attention and demand of the three. All three venues are in genuinely walkable, spectator-friendly US cities if combining a tournament with a broader trip.
Practical tips
- —The Tour Championship at East Lake (Aug 27–30) is the highest-stakes, most-watched week of the three — expect it to be the busiest for tickets and hotels in Atlanta.
- —Weekday rounds (Thursday/Friday) are typically far less crowded and cheaper to attend than the weekend rounds at any of the three events.
- —Memphis, St. Louis and Atlanta are all workable as a single-city visit rather than needing a dedicated golf trip — combine with normal city sightseeing.
- —Check current-year seeding/points once the regular season wraps — who's actually in the top 70/50/30 shifts the storylines right up to each cutoff.
