Justin Thomas awaits a 3-way tie at 2023 Wyndham Championship to secure FedEx Cup Playoff spot

Justin Thomas needs to finish in a 3-way tie for fourth place or better at the Wyndham Championship to guarantee his spot in the FedEx Cup playoffs. At the moment, he is a long way from that result.

At the 12th hole, Justin Thomas is one stroke over the projected cut line, with a score of -3. This result would give him two more rounds to look for an improvement in his game, which he needs to be noticeable.

At this moment, Thomas is five strokes behind Brendon Todd and Billy Horschell, who are in T5. Seven strokes separate him from the three players in T2.

Thomas has 546 points in the FedEx Cup standings and is currently ranked 79th. A fourth-place finish at the Wyndham Championship tied with two other players would give him 115 FedEx Cup points, which would secure his presence in the first play-off event.

Mathematically, Thomas would only need around 50 points to enter the Top 70, but this is a long shot. The FedEx Cup points distribution system indicates that, after fourth place, the American would not be receiving enough and would depend on the results of his competitors.

Justin Thomas has one thing in his favor and it is that, of his most direct rivals, only one (David Lingmerth) is better placed than him in the Wyndham Championship at the moment. Another (Shane Lowry) is tied with Thomas.

Justin Thomas' chances: how are the FedEx Cup points distributed?

FedEx Cup ranking points are distributed throughout the PGA Tour regular season. Not all tournaments receive the same points amount and, in a general sense, the points distribution system has its complexities.

Justin Thomas, Wyndham Championship - Round Two (Image via Getty).

Tournaments are divided into four categories (Majors, Designated Events, Additional Events, and PGA Tour Events).

The Majors are the four tournaments so recognized. The Designated Events refer to the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, and Memorial Tournament.

The Additional Events are those tournaments co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour, which are not the same every year. Finally, the PGA Tour event category includes all other tournaments.

When players tie, the points corresponding to their places are prorated equally among them.

For example, if in a tournament, there is a solo runner-up and a solo third place, to distribute the points in a three-way tie for fourth place, the points corresponding to fourth through sixth place must be taken, summed together and divided by three. The result will be the number of points assigned to each of the tied players.

Only players who make the cut receive points.

FedEx Cup Points List

The following is the list of points to be distributed for the FedEx Cup ranking:

Position	PGA Tour events	Masters, Players, U.S. Open, The Open, and PGA Championship	Designated events[a]	Additional events
1	500	600	550	300
2	300	330	315	165
3	190	210	200	105
4	135	150	140	80
5	110	120	115	65
6	100	110	105	60
7	90	100	95	55
8	85	94	89	50
9	80	88	83	45
10	75	82	78	40
11	70	77	73	37.5
12	65	72	69	35
13	60	68	65	32.5
14	57	64	62	31
15	55	61	59	30.5
16	53	59	57	30
17	51	57	55	29.5
18	49	55	53	29
19	47	53	52	28.5
20	45	51		28
21	43	48.73		26.76
22	41	46.47		25.51
23	39	44.2		24.27
24	37	41.93		23.02
25	35.5	40.23		22.09
26	34	38.53		21.16
27	32.5	36.83		20.22
28	31	35.13		19.29
29	29.5	33.43		18.36
30	28	31.73		17.42
31	26.5	30.03		16.49
32	25	28.33		15.56
33	23.5	26.63		14.62
34	22	24.93		13.69
35	21	23.8		13.07
36	20	22.67		12.44
37	19	21.53		11.82
38	18	20.4		11.2
39	17	19.27		10.58
40	16	18.13		9.96
41	15	17		9.33
42	14	15.87		8.71
43	13	14.73		8.09
44	12	13.6		7.47
45	11	12.47		6.84
46	10.5	11.9		6.53
47	10	11.33		6.22
48	9.5	10.77		5.91
49	9	10.2		5.6
50	8.5	9.63		5.29
51	8	9.07		4.98
52	7.5	8.5		4.67
53	7	7.93		4.36
54	6.5	7.37		4.04
55	6	6.8		3.73
56	5.8	6.57		3.61
57	5.6	6.35		3.48
58	5.4	6.12		3.36
59	5.2	5.89		3.24
60	5	5.67		3.11
61	4.8	5.44		2.99
62	4.6	5.21		2.86
63	4.4	4.99		2.74
64	4.2	4.76		2.61
65	4	4.53		2.49
66	3.8	4.31		2.36
67	3.6	4.08		2.24
68	3.4	3.85		2.12
69	3.2	3.63		1.99
70	3	3.4		1.87
71	2.9	3.29		1.8
72	2.8	3.17		1.74
73	2.7	3.06		1.68
74	2.6	2.95		1.62
75	2.5	2.83		1.56
76	2.4	2.72		1.49
77	2.3	2.61		1.43
78	2.2	2.49		1.37
79	2.1	2.38		1.31
80	2	2.27		1.24
81	1.9	2.15		1.18
82	1.8	2.04		1.12
83	1.7	1.93		1.06
84	1.6	1.81		1
85	1.5	1.7		0.93