Matt Fitzpatrick's season ended early.
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Justin Thomas woke up Sunday morning in a difficult situation.
Saturday's 74 left him tied for 46th in the 48-player field at the BMW Championship and he narrowly missed out on the top 30 at the FedEx Cup and missed out on the Tour Championship for the second year in a row.
It felt a lot like last year's Wyndham when Thomas had one shot at making the playoffs. But not to him.
“I mean, it's weird,” Thomas said Sunday. “The Playoffs are so fun because I heard certain things on those last holes like trying to win a golf tournament, if you know you're not going to the next round, you don't have a chance. . That's all I want.
“I understand that if I go to Atlanta it will be a long time, but in my eyes I have a chance, and that's all I want. It's a lot of pressure, but you have to play well at the right time, and that's what the Playoffs are all about.”
Keegan Bradley wins the BMW Championship, first title since getting the captain's nod
Jack Hirsh
He played well at the right time as he posted a bogey-free 68 to climb seven places on the leaderboard, looking like it would be enough to enter the Tour Championship field on Sunday as the 30th-ranked man. When Alex Noren missed a seven-foot slide for par on the 16th hole to move out of a tie for 4th place, Thomas returned to the field to finish the season.
While Thomas stayed in the top 30, four players (this week's winner Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood and Chris Kirk) moved from outside the top 30 to inside the East Lake field this week. There are other surprises in the field of 30 men who all received a two-year exemption from the Tour and entered three of the four majors. There will be a shock East Lake debut for Shane Lowry, who had never made a Tour Championship before.
But not all were lucky as four players made it out of the 30. A number of top players couldn't even make it to BMW this week to get a chance at East Lake.
Read on below for some surprising names not to miss at the 2024 Tour Championship.
7 amazing players who missed out on the Tour Championship
No. 31 Brian Harman: Harman was one of four players to finish in the top 30 this week after finishing solo in 25th place in Colorado. He misses East Lake for the first time since 2021.
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No. 33 Jason Day: Day couldn't do anything over the weekend at Castle Pines and finished T33 this week to be eight spots from 25th.
No. 38 Will Zalatoris: Playing well in the playoffs (T12 last week and T13 this week) wasn't enough to make up for the ups and downs of an injury-plagued year that saw him miss three straight cuts heading into the playoffs.
No. 40 Matt Fitzpatrick: Fitzpatrick faced a strange rules situation on Sunday at Castle Pines as he was denied the ability to replace his cracked driver during the round. He ended up finishing T28, which wasn't enough to keep a low season, where he recorded only three top-10s, going. He misses East Lake for the first time since 2021.
No. 44 Cameron Young: Young added to his streak of seven winless runs at Valspar earlier this year, but a T61-T43 run in the playoffs saw him slide from 31st to 44th in the standings.
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No. 46 Max Homa: Homa seemed to be in charge this week. After his T3 at the Masters, he recorded one top-10 and finished dead last in Memphis before a final-round 67 salvaged a T43 this week.
No. 49 Nick Dunlap: Dunlap was on a hot streak after winning at Tahoe and competing in Memphis just to advance to Colorado. A Sunday 66 would have found the rookie at East Lake, but he went the wrong way with a final round 77.
He did not make the BMW field (and is not included in the calculation): No. 51 Tom Kim, No. 55 Justin Rose, No. 58 Nick Taylor, No. 59 Jake Knapp, No. 60 Min Woo Lee, No. 66 Jordan Spieth, No. 73 Kurt Kitayama, No. 77 Lucas Glover, No. . 81 Nicolai Hojgaard, No. 103 Matt Kuchar, No. 106 Rickie Fowler, No.
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