Taylor Pendrith had a memorable day as he secured his first PGA Tour victory at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. While he celebrated his win, Ben Kohles and Alex Noren also had reasons to be happy as they finished second and third, respectively, at TPC Craig Ranch. Pendrith’s triumph also guarantees him spots in the final three signature events of the season, including next week’s Wells Fargo Championship, as well as next month’s Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship. Kohles and Noren also earned tickets to Wells Fargo through the Aon Swing 5.
The top five players who accumulated the most points from the Corales Puntacana Championship, Zurich Classic, and Nelson were Pendrith, Kohles, Noren, Billy Horschel, and Kevin Tway. These players qualified via the Swing 5 category. Tournament winners automatically qualify through the Swing 5 or Next 10 categories, which take precedence over the tournament winners’ category. Chad Ramey narrowly missed out on the top five, finishing in sixth place in the Swing 5 category.
In the Aon Next 10 category, which exempts the current top 10 players in FedExCup points who did not finish inside the top 50 last season, there were minimal changes from the previous signature event, the RBC Heritage. Only Shane Lowry, who won Zurich with Rory McIlroy, broke into the top 10 list, which included Ludvig Åberg, Matthieu Pavon, Stephan Jaeger, Will Zalatoris, Akshay Bhatia, Jake Knapp, Justin Thomas, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and Austin Eckroat.