Wyndham Rewards Chase Ends A Week Early Because No One (With A Chance To Win) Is Playing The Wyndham

We’ve heard all year about the excitement of the Wyndham Rewards chase—a $10 million bonus pool to make players add the Wyndham Championship to their schedule—but it’s all over. That’s partially the fault of winner Brooks Koepka, and also because it was not a well-conceived bonus pool.

As Rex Hoggard reports here for GolfChannel.com, only Paul Casey from the top 10 receiving the bonus money is playing this week’s Wyndham, with the rest passing up the event. The pool was added presumably to incentivize players to tee it up at the Wyndham and reward season long play. It managed the latter but doesn’t do this week’s event much good, or make that $10 million investment exactly sing.

Here’s what was promised when announced last fall:

The bonus program will provide additional drama to the Regular Season finale and also place a greater premium on full-season performance, thus elevating the significance of each tournament on the schedule.

"The Wyndham Championship plays a pivotal role in the regular season as it's the last chance players have to secure a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs," said Eliot Hamlisch, vice president and leader of the Wyndham Rewards program. "In joining with the PGA TOUR to introduce the Wyndham Rewards Top 10, we're not only elevating the significance of our own tournament, but also placing a premium on great golf all season long. What's more, as the world's most generous rewards program, we couldn't think of a more fitting way to recognize the PGA TOUR's best of the best than by saying, 'You've earned this.' "

You’ve earned it, and you don’t have to play the Wyndham to cash the check!