Harris English Sneaks into TOUR Championship, Has Long Road to Win FedEx Cup

By Matt Cochran | Sep 21, 2015

The beautiful thing about the FedEx Cup Playoffs is that there are plenty of scenarios for golfers to make their way into the TOUR Championship and have a chance to win the FedEx Cup. We saw that happen this weekend with Harris English at the BMW Championship. Unfortunately for Harris, he’s going to need a miracle to win the $10 million.

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A series of events allowed English to sneak his way in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings and qualify for the field this week at East Lake Golf Club.

English was paired with Justin Thomas for Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship and the final spot would eventually come down to those two on the 18th hole. Thomas, probably unaware of what was on the line, ended up going for the par 5 green on his approach shot, but came up short in the hazard.

Meanwhile, Harris laid up and put his third shot 20 feet away on the back of the green. The Georgia Bulldog would drain the putt for birdie and little did he know that it would be the most important putt of his season. Thomas ended up parring the hole and it appeared he would take the final spot. In steps, Kevin Na.

Na was left with a must make par putt on the final hole, which he drained. Little did he know that the putt helped him jump from No. 34 in the standings to No. 27 and allow him to qualify for East Lake. It also bumped Justin Thomas out of the 30th spot to make way for Harris English.

And now Justin Thomas projected outside the number. Family was told it was a done deal. Still waiting for it all to unfold.
— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) September 20, 2015

Harris’ entry into the field for the TOUR Championship is a long time coming. He missed out on the final event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs in 2013 by coming in at No. 31 and in 2014 he barely missed out again by placing No. 32. After two long years, he’s finally made it to the final tournament, but now his challenge is even more difficult.

If English’s fate was in his own hands, then I’d pick him as one of my favorite to win this week and take the FedEx Cup at the No. 30 ranking. He’s trending in the right direction down the final stretch, finishing T-19 and T-12 in his last two playoff events. Not to mention he’s riding the confidence of cracking the top 30 for the first time in his career.

However, the list of scenarios that needs to happen in order for English to win the FedEx Cup is quite complex. The stars need to align if there is even going to be a chance of this happening for him.

The points for the TOUR Championship reset and points are distributed depending for whatever ranking the golfer may be. For example, Jason Day is entering this week first in the standings, so he will be awarded 2,500 points to start.

Harris English, on the other hand, is last in the standings and will only receive 250 points. He’ll be praying to the golf gods this week. The following scenarios need to happen for him to become $10 million richer, but I’m giving you fair warning, it will make your head hurt.

PGA TOUR has posted the list of scenarios on their website. In order for Harris English to win the FedEx Cup, he must win the TOUR Championship AND:

Jason Day must finish in 29th or worse (good luck with that)
Jordan Spieth must finish in a 3-way tie for sixth or worse
Rickie Fowler must finish T-4 or worse
Henrik Stenson must finish T-3 or worse
Bubba Watson must finish in a 3-way tie for second or worse
Zach Johnson must finish T-2 or worse

Notice that Harris English must win and all those things must happen. It isn’t like he can win and just have one of those scenarios happen. ALL of them must happen.

It’s great to see him finally make it to the final event, but that’s a tall order to fill. Godspeed, Harris.

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