Upper Midwest Connection of the Week Ending 30 July 2023

 As the 2022-23 PGA Tour regular season gives way to the FedEx Cup playoffs, it bears repeating five things:

1. The field for the playoffs from this year is only seventy strong, which will impact plans for less highly achieving players.
2. Missing the playoffs isn't necessarily a death sentence, as 125 players will still retain their cards on account of FedEx Cup points. Fifty-five players who miss the playoffs, of course, will do so via the seven FedEx Cup Fall events, and that's before other forms of exemption like the multiyear reprieve given to winners on tour.
3. If one does miss the playoffs, he will need to earn his way into the next designated event the hard way, either by winning a FedEx Cup Fall event or by performing well enough otherwise during that "sprint" to earn his way in.
4. But even if the same player does make the playoffs, it's not a guarantee of qualification because only the top fifty after the quarterfinals--the FedEx-St Jude Championship--get into the designated events all next season. Otherwise, the third consideration applies.
5. Major criteria concerning event victories are unlikely to change. The Players Championship, which the Tour runs, will still admit all remaining 2023 winners, as will the PGA Championship, which the PGA of America (not the PGA Tour) runs. Furthermore, with the last opposite-field event having taken place at the Barracuda Championship (the technically surviving WGC-HSBC Champions is effectively dead, or the Bermuda Championship would have been an opposite-field event), Augusta National will likely admit all remaining winners this year for next year's Masters, and the USGA is bound to count them towards the multiple-wins criterion for exemption into next year's U.S. Open.

It's a lot to digest, but even for those who fail to qualify for the playoffs, there is still much to play for. I bring this up because for the first time since 2019, when Troy Merritt stood alone as an Upper Midwest connection among playoff participants, I anticipate only one Umcee making the playoffs this year, and that is Tom Hoge. As a result of his tie for 20th at last week's 3M Open, Hoge moved up to #41 in the FedEx Cup standings. He won't compete this week at the Wyndham Championship, and it's possible he'll drop out of the top fifty by week's end, leaving him with work to do to reach the designated events for next year. Even so, he was one of only five Umcees to make the cut anywhere in the world this past week. The other four were Frankie Capan III, also at the 3M, and Thomas Longbella, Will Grevlos and George Kneiser at the Osprey Valley Open in Caledon, Ontario (near Toronto) on PGA Tour Canada. Except for Longbella, who finished T17 to move up to #28 in the Fortinet Cup, none of the four was sufficiently impressive to warrant consideration for the honours. Even then, Longbella has some way to go to secure a placement in Q-school comparable to last year, when he finished 23rd in the Fortinet Cup to enter directly at Second Stage.

Showing up at TPC Twin Cities again.

Hence, the new Upper Midwest Connection of the Week is Tom Hoge, simply because he has secured a shot at the new series of designated events on next year's PGA Tour. His performance at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, coupled with a good showing at the Renaissance Club in Scotland two weeks earlier, also puts him in contention for Upper Midwest Connection of the Month of July 2023. Will it be enough? Stay tuned.

Edward the Scop