Justin Thomas in Jeopardy of Missing FedEx Cup Playoffs, Ryder Cup After Missed Cut at 3M Open

Thomas’s missed cut at the 3M Open leaves him with one last chance to save his season.

Justin Thomas’s latest missed cut at the 3M Open could have serious consequences for the end of his PGA Tour season, his Ryder Cup chances and even his 2024 schedule. 

Thomas, who entered the Blaine, Minn. event hoping to make a significant move in the FedEx Cup standings and enter into the top 70, shot rounds of 69 and 71 to miss the cut by one shot. 

He’ll walk away from the event empty-handed in terms of points. 

The two-time PGA champion’s second round was stained by his ninth hole of the day (No. 18 at TPC Twin Cities), where he hit two balls into the water and made a double bogey. Thomas made another double on the par-3 fourth and responded with three birdies in a row, but the back-nine score of 33 wasn’t enough to put him safely within the cut line. 

Thomas will now head to the Wyndham Championship, played at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., for one last attempt to improve his FedEx Cup ranking, which was No. 75 at the start of the week. Thomas is now projected to sit at No. 80 at the end of the weekend. 

Battling until the end.

Despite birdies on four of his last five holes, @JustinThomas34 will miss the cut @3MOpen.

He’ll need a strong finish next week @WyndhamChamp to qualify for the #FedExCup Playoffs for the ninth straight year. pic.twitter.com/dyv3xtM16z

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 28, 2023

The top 70 players in the FedEx Cup earn eligibility for the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship. 

Thomas currently has 546 FedEx Cup points, while Cam Davis, who sits at No. 70, is projected to have 594.125 points by the conclusion of the 3M Open. Thomas will therefore likely need to earn at least 48 points next week at Sedgefield, which would mean a finish of 18th place or better at the regular-season finale. 

Thomas has never finished outside of 32nd in the FedEx Cup. He has played in the Tour Championship in each of his last seven seasons on the PGA Tour. 

The 15-time PGA Tour winner has not played the Wyndham Championship since 2016, and he has yet to finish T56 or better. 

Thomas will also need a strong finish at the Wyndham Championship to improve his chances of making the U.S. Ryder Cup team. He currently sits at No. 14 in the U.S. team standings. Six picks are locked in through the rankings, and U.S. team captain Zach Johnson will select the next six players as captain’s picks. 

If Thomas finishes outside the top 50 in FedEx Cup points this season, he also won’t have secured spots in the designated events on the PGA Tour unless he’s in the top 30 in the world golf rankings (he’s currently No. 24). Sponsors exemptions, past victories, and hopefully his fall performance will likely get him into the limited big-money fields, but it will nonetheless be a hurdle for Thomas’s upcoming year on Tour.  

For Thomas, it all depends on one week of strong golf in Greensboro.