During yesterday’s final round of the BMW Championship, there was considerable movement inside the top 30, but only two players in the field at Caves Valley played their way from outside the bubble to a position this week at East Lake and the Tour Championship.
Erik van Rooyen shot a Sunday 65 to finish in solo-fifth, moving from 45th to 27th in the standings. Amazingly, the South African was positioned outside the Top 125 before his win at the Barracuda earlier this month.
The other player to shoot their way into the field at The Tour Championship was Sergio Garcia, who finished T6 at Caves Valley, which jumped him from 44th to 28th. It will mark the Spaniard’s first East Lake appearance since his Masters winning season of 2017.
To make room for van Rooyen and Garcia, Charley Hoffman (29th to 32nd) and Max Homa (30th to 35th) dropped out.
The final position at East Lake went to Patrick Reed, who’d missed the final two regular season events (Memphis and Greensboro) as well as both playoff stops (Northern Trust and BMW) after coming down with pneumonia during his overseas travel in late July.
With the Tour Championship now using handicaps, here’s the starting score of each player before balls go live at East Lake:
Leaderboard: 2021 Tour Championship
1. Patrick Cantlay -10
2. Tony Finau -8
3. Bryson DeChambeau -7
4. Jon Rahm -6
5. Cameron Smith -5
6. Justin Thomas -4
7. Harris English -4
8. Abraham Ancer -4
9. Jordan Spieth -4
10. Sam Burns -4
11. Collin Morikawa -3
12. Sungjae Im -3
13. Viktor Hovland -3
14. Louis Oosthuizen -3
15. Dustin Johnson -3
16. Rory McIlroy -2
17. Xander Schauffele -2
18. Jason Kokrak -2
19. Kevin Na -2
20. Brooks Koepka -2
21. Corey Conners -1
22. Hideki Matsuyama -1
23. Stewart Cink -1
24. Joaquin Niemann -1
25. Scottie Scheffler -1
26. Daniel Berger E
27. Erik van Rooyen E
28. Sergio Garcia E
29. Billy Horschel E
30. Patrick Reed E
