Brendan Steele didn’t tear up the course in Louisville last week, but he played the weekend, earned some money and gained a few more FedExCup points in the PGA Championship, the final major of the year. It also was the Idyllwild native’s final tournament of the regular season, since he will sit out this week’s Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Steele posted an even-par 70-71-73-70 — 284 on the Valhalla course, finishing in a tie for 59th place. His major stats were off a bit across the board, particularly strokes gained putting, which was -0.417. Still, he won more than $20,000 in prize money and gained 10 FedExCup points.
Steele finishes his regular season in 65th place on the FedExCup points list, which earns him a spot in next week’s The Barclays, the first of the four FedExCup playoff tournaments. Although the playoff tournaments are worth quintuple the points of regular-season events, which injects a great deal more volatility into the point standings, he should also have enough points after The Barclays to compete in the second tournament, the following-week’s Deutsche Bank Championship, open to players in the top 100 on the points list.
If Steele is still in the top 70 after the Deutsche Bank, he will play in the BMW Championship the week after that. He will need to improve into the top 30 to make the Tour Championship by Coca-Cola on Sept. 11.