Coming off two straight top-10 finishes at the Wyndham Championship and The Northern Trust, Webb Simpson will skip the BMW Championship to get rested for the Tour Championship next week at East Lake Golf Club. Simpson is currently No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings and will retain a top-10 position going into this season's final event. However, he will miss out on some points at Olympia Fields this week that could benefit him come next week's event.
The Tour Championship now includes a staggered start where the No. 1 player in the FedEx Cup standings starts the event at 10 under; whomever is in second starts at 8 under while third (Webb right now) starts at 7 under. Fourth is 6 under, fifth is 5 under and the next five start at 4 under. Simpson will probably drop to that 6-10 range and start East Lake at 4 under instead of 7 under, which is where he's at right now.
According to a statement from his management, Simpson is simply taking off this week to rest up and prepare for the finale next weekend, which will be steamy and tough in Atlanta. He's played each of the last four weeks.
Simpson has had one of the better years of his stellar pro career. He won the Phoenix Open before the PGA Tour paused for the COVID-19 pandemic, and then he took the RBC Heritage -- the second event back -- once the PGA Tour started back up.
Other than those two wins, Simpson also has eight top 10s ad nine top 25s in just 13 starts. He's ranked No. 6 in the world and has collected a little over $5 million on the year. He'll be playing for a lot more than that next week at the Tour Championship where $15 million will go to whoever finishes first.
Simpson is having the best strokes-gained season of his life (currently 5th on the PGA Tour) and has been one of the two or three most consistent players worldwide for the last three years. His highest finish at the FedEx Cup came in 2011 when he finished 2nd behind Bill Haas. He doesn't have any other top 10s in the FedEx Cup.