{"id":12497,"date":"2026-09-16T10:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/12497\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T10:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:03:14","slug":"spieth-koivun-and-real-stakes-10-things-for-the-fall-swing-of-the-pga-tour-season-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/12497\/","title":{"rendered":"Spieth, Koivun and real stakes: 10 things for the ‘Fall’ swing of the PGA Tour season \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the professional golf calendar starts to wind down for the year, the Presidents Cup is fast approaching at Medinah, and we\u2019ve already had some fun with the Walker Cup and Solheim Cup. Times are good in Europe too, with the Race to Dubai coming down to a blood feud between Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019re not here to talk about all that. We are here, you and me, to talk about what remains of the PGA Tour: the good ole Fall Swing. There are eight tournaments between this week\u2019s Biltmore Championship in beautiful Asheville, N.C., and the season-ending RSM Classic in Georgia\u2019s even beautiful-er barrier islands, and as a fall golf apologist, there\u2019s nobody quite like me to serve as the ferryman to row you through the fall season and deliver you to winter. Are there things to look forward to, storylines to savour, players to love?<\/p>\n

OH YEAH.<\/p>\n

1. What\u2019s actually at stake here? <\/p>\n

Explaining this feels a little like a contractual obligation, especially now that a newer, funner tour format is just a year away, but let\u2019s do it anyway, and let\u2019s do it in a single sentence. Take a big breath. You ready?<\/p>\n

The top 50 in FedEx Cup points are already set for next year\u2019s signatures but can still play in these events but probably won\u2019t very much unless the blackmail is very good and as you see Jacob Bridgeman is the only OWGR top 30 in Asheville so mostly the players below have something to play starting with those close to No. 100 because the top 100 get full status and after that it\u2019s just conditional unless they can catch fire at Q-School in December and while Nos. 51-70 are already locked into the top 100 they can still play for the AON Next 10, which means the top 10 players on the FedEx Cup points list not already eligible, which gets them into the next two 2027 signature events after The Sentry and also if you win a tournament, you get the full two-year exemption a spot in the Players but not a Masters berth anymore.<\/p>\n

If you read that, understood it and don\u2019t like it, don\u2019t worry\u2014Brian Rolapp and the Future Competitions Committee is essentially (and happily) stripping it for parts after this season.<\/p>\n

2. The Jordan Spieth Sadness Index (JSSI) \"2288633404\"\/ <\/p>\n

[Photo: Raj Mehta]<\/p>\n

When last we left the index, we were at a -5.4, incredibly happy and optimistic about Spieth\u2019s future. We\u2019re still there, or at least close, but the question is, how much will he actually play? He finished the year 52nd on the points list, so while he has his top 100 locked up, in theory he\u2019ll want to compete for those signature event spots. He\u2019s not in Asheville but it looks like we\u2019ll see him at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan, and that is cause for celebration. The Sadness Index remains at -5.4, joy and promise abound. The promised prince has turned the fall into the spring!<\/p>\n

3. Do we get to visit exotic locales? <\/p>\n

Yes! Japan, Bermuda, Mexico twice, a return to Austin (although sadly not for match play), and the aforementioned Barrier Islands, which truly are a beautiful slice of America \u2026 there\u2019s a reason that St. Simon\u2019s Island has the second-largest contingent of tour players outside of Jupiter. Now, whether these locations do anything for you is a different question, because clearly the foreign sites are mostly just resorts. Hey, at least golf is spreading across the globe.<\/p>\n

On the theme of the Rolapp-volution, it\u2019s going to be way better when top players start spending their fall in places like Australia and Europe in the International Series. Might be as soon as next year.<\/p>\n

4. The Koivun Show continues! \"2290478446\"\/ <\/p>\n

[Photo: Andy Lyons]<\/p>\n

This is actually my most anticipated part of the fall, and definitely the highlight of the first week\u2014Jackson Koivun is back and fighting for entry into the signature events. I was excited for him in a vague way when he turned pro, and that vagueness turned very real and very specific when he won his third start. He\u2019s the most intriguing guy on the fall series, and I hope he plays every event. Also, kudos to him for being one of only two American Presidents Cup players (along with Jacob Bridgeman) teeing it up in Asheville, thereby getting a bit of warm-up for Medinah. Is it only because he kinda has to for positioning, since he\u2019s 67th in points and wants to fight his way into signature events? Sure. But still, he and Bridgeman are there, and the rest are not after a weekend WD by Justin Thomas. I hope Captain Brandt Snedeker benches the rest of his team in Thursday\u2019s opening session and only sends out the Koivun\/Bridgeman team, sacrificing the entire session to prove a point. [Gene Hackman voice] \u201cMY TEAM IS ON THE COURSE!\u201d<\/p>\n

We have a couple tour debutantes in the course department, starting with The Cliffs at Walnut Cove this week and the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin (godawful name). They\u2019re designed by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio, respectively, and even though I\u2019ve never been to Walnut Cove, I\u2019ve been all over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I can guarantee you it\u2019s going to be beautiful. Read more here. As for the Austin Fazio course, I have no clue, but the best chicken sandwich in existence is at the Spicy Boys truck on East Sixth St. I would die for one of those sandwiches right now. I would even kill. Actually, I would prefer to kill.<\/p>\n

Related: I\u2019m fairly convinced Asheville is the greatest small city in America. It\u2019s one of those cities where the pure vibes put you on a different plane of happiness. Go to Asheville, it will solve all your problems.<\/p>\n

6. Is Max Homa back from the dead? \"2274815635\"\/ <\/p>\n

[Photo: Tracy Wilcox]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little uncertain, but finishing solo second to Chris Gotterup at the John Deere Classic bumped Homa way up in the FEC standings, and he finished 53rd after a T-24 in the first playoff event in Memphis. I think we\u2019ll see him plenty in the fall, and I\u2019ll admit I have a secret fantasy that he\u2019ll rediscover his old form this year, make the 2027 US Ryder Cup team and help defeat the Euros in Ireland while an entire continent weeps. Far-fetched? Yes. Should I probably not use the words \u201csecret fantasy\u201d to describe it? Also yes.<\/p>\n

7. Will we see Patrick Reed in an American tour event? <\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible! Reed\u2019s time in the PGA Tour penalty box came to an end Aug. 25, and while he doesn\u2019t have member status for the fall events, he could play via sponsor\u2019s exemption or try to qualify in. What makes this less likely, though, is that he\u2019s currently first in the Race to Dubai standings in Europe, which means that will undoubtedly be his primary focus, and also he\u2019s slated to earn status for next year with a top-10 finish there, and had past champion status anyway. Which means there\u2019s no great reason for him to tee it up between now and Sea Island stateside, but \u2026 you never know.<\/p>\n

8. What about Brooks Koepka? \"2209786390\"\/ <\/p>\n

[Photo: Harry How]<\/p>\n

Book it. Koepka is 94th in the FEC standings and will need to play in order to stay inside the top 100. He\u2019s not going to Asheville, and it looks like he\u2019s hanging around Europe for the Dunhill Links, but I suspect we\u2019ll see him in the second half of the fall. Interestingly, after returning from LIV via the \u201cyou\u2019re very famous, come on back\u201d exemption, he was at his best in the first half of 2026 and slowed down considerably around the time of the US Open. Watching him try to get his mojo back will give some of these drowsy fall events a little bit of extra zazz.<\/p>\n

9. The Rogue Golf Thought: Rise of the Plucky Fall Internationals <\/p>\n

You know how I said only Koivun and Bridgeman are getting a Presidents Cup warm-up this week in Asheville? The International team has FIVE players in the field. Dedication! Grit! And a little something called \u2026 heart. With this kind of moxie, I can see them losing only 18-12 in Medinah!<\/p>\n

10. The Rogue Non-Golf Thought: Raking leaves is the only outdoor chore that has gotten less annoying with age <\/p>\n

Can someone explain this to me? Mowing the lawn is equally annoying as when I was a kid; shovelling snow is a billion times worse (thank you, North Carolina, for having almost no snow compared to my upstate N.Y. childhood), and things like weeding or painting are at least incrementally worse because they involve bending over, which is now the equivalent of running a marathon in a wool suit. But raking leaves? Somehow, that got therapeutic and fun, at least until my children jump in the piles and ruin everything. Otherwise, it\u2019s a breeze. This must be why the Japanese have those gardens where you rake sand for inner peace. Something about the sweeping raking motion just really hits the adult sweet spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the professional golf calendar starts to wind down for the year, the Presidents Cup is fast approaching…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[208,4538,155,209,20,82,251,22,1089],"class_list":["post-12497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jordan-spieth","tag-article","tag-fall-swing","tag-fedex-cup","tag-golf-digest","tag-jackson-koivun","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-news","tag-pga-tour","tag-presidents-cup","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117280148333170415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}