Sungjae Im plays way into FedEx Cup top 50; Jordan Spieth knocked out

Aug 15, 2026; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Jordan Spieth plays his shot from the seventh tee during the third round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images Despite holding a share of the lead after the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Thursday, Jordan Spieth didn't have enough in the tank this weekend to push himself into the top 50 of the FedEx Cup points race. Instead, Sungjae Im of South Korea was the only golfer to play his way into the second leg of the PGA Tour's three-week playoffs. Despite a disappointing final-round 74 that took him out of contention for the victory Sunday at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Im tied for fifth (7 under par) and that was more than enough to boost him from 53rd in points to 40th. Only the top 50 players in the chase move on to the BMW Championship. The one player to give up his spot was Keith Mitchell, who entered the week 49th overall, tied for 34th at the St. Jude at 1 under and fell two spots to 51st. Matt McCarty (T63, 7 over) slipped from 48th to the 50th and final qualifying spot. Spieth, meanwhile, entered the week No. 54 in the standings and needed a solo 23rd finish just to have a mathematical chance of advancing. He was in fine position to achieve that after opening the tournament with rounds of 65 and 69. But a 2-over 72 Saturday and an even-par 70 Sunday impeded his progress, and he settled for a five-way tie for 19th at 4 under. He landed No. 52 in points, the second one out. "I needed to be almost flawless (Sunday). When the wind was blowing, it's a hard golf course," Spieth said. He was 2 under for his round through 10 holes but recorded three bogeys with one birdie from Nos. 11-15. "(Saturday) really set me back," Spieth said. "Felt like I stayed pretty calm, got off to the start I wanted (Sunday). Then around that 11, 12, 13, 14 stretch, if you can get through there unscathed, you know you're looking at some opportunities on the other holes. I did pretty well around those holes this week, but (Sunday) kind of caught a couple that could have gone one way or the other and ended up mis-executing the shots just barely and didn't get away of it." Spieth reiterated the confidence he had in the way he was playing as his season came to an unceremonious end. "In some ways I feel like I'm leaving some out there, and in some ways it's a good thing because like I mentioned after the first round, this will be the last time I finish like this for a while," Spieth said. "I'm very, very confident in what's coming. I just ran out of steam and maybe made a couple bad decisions over about a six-week stretch on what I was working on, and I just didn't quite have enough time to make up for it." Other notable players who did not advance to the BMW Championship included Max Homa (No. 53), Harris English (No. 54), Corey Conners of Canada (No. 59), Shane Lowry of Ireland (No. 62), Brian Harman (No. 65) and rising rookie Jackson Koivun (No. 67). Below is the full list of the 50 players to qualify for the BMW. The top 30 players in points following that tournament qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship. 1. Scottie Scheffler 2. Matt Fitzpatrick 3. Cameron Young 4. Si Woo Kim 5. Wyndham Clark 6. Sam Burns 7. Chris Gotterup 8. Tommy Fleetwood 9. Collin Morikawa 10. Ludvig Aberg 11. Xander Schauffele 12. Jacob Bridgeman 13. Rory McIlroy 14. Russell Henley 15. Akshay Bhatia 16. Hideki Matsuyama 17. Ryan Gerard 18. Min Woo Lee 19. Kristoffer Reitan 20. Alex Fitzpatrick 21. J.J. Spaun 22. Viktor Hovland 23. Alex Smalley 24. Justin Rose 25. Ryan Fox 26. Tom Kim 27. Adam Scott 28. Kurt Kitayama 29. Bud Cauley 30. Rickie Fowler 31. Gary Woodland 32. J.T. Poston 33. Nicolai Hojgaard 34. Alex Noren 35. Jake Knapp 36. Robert MacIntyre 37. Aaron Rai 38. Ben Griffin 39. Sepp Straka 40. Sungjae Im 41. Michael Thorbjornsen 42. Nico Echavarria 43. Patrick Cantlay 44. Justin Thomas 45. Ryo Hisatsune 46. Sahith Theegala 47. Michael Brennan 48. Eric Cole 49. Maverick McNealy 50. Matt McCarty --Field Level Media