GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Victor Perez came into the Wyndham Championship at no. 70 in the FedExCup rankings—just inside the playoff bubble—while Davis Riley started at no. 71, in the first spot out. Three eventful days of golf later, that's where they both finished, but it took some wild swings and a late charge by Ryo Hisatsune falling short to maintain the status quo. It was all up for grabs at the Tour's regular season finale, but in the end, for the first time since 2013, the Wyndham produced absolutely no change in the playoff picture—the 70 players who came in at the top of the rankings are the same 70 who will be heading to Memphis next week for the first playoff leg at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
By the early evening on Sunday, as players were finishing up a long day of 36 holes (and occasionally more) as organizers attempted to finish a tournament that was postponed on Thursday due to heavy rain from Tropical Storm Debby, it had become clear that the last bit of bubble drama involved Victor Perez and Davis Riley. Emiliano Grillo had dropped, but not low enough; Keith Mitchell rose, but not high enough. Only Perez and Riley were still in play, and Riley had work to do. He trailed Perez by a shot at 7 under, and not only did he need to beat the Frenchman, but then he had to pray that Ryo Hisatsune wouldn't finish in solo second. Riley gave himself a shot with a birdie on 15, and Perez didn't make a single birdie on the back nine, but the critical moment came on 18, when Perez hit his drive into the right rough and couldn't find the green on his approach. It's a monster of a hole, and Riley desperately needed Perez to bogey, but his chip from 82 feet stopped six feet from the cup, and he made a critical, playoff-saving par.
To have a prayer of playing spoiler, Riley needed to birdie both 17 and 18, but when he missed his 15-foot birdie attempt on 17, the dream was over. At that point, Perez needed Hisatsune not to finish solo second or better, which looked quite good at the time, but seemed less certain after Max Greyserman, holding a four-shot lead, somehow made a quad on 14. But when Hisatsune bogeyed the last hole, pushing his five-foot par putt past the hole, Perez was into the playoffs on the same number he'd held at the start of the week—70th.
"I feel like I definitely gave it a good shot," Perez told reporters after his round, before he knew how things would finish. "There's still scenarios out there doctor I could be bumped out, could be bumped in, so we have to wait and see."
Perez admitted to almost total exhaustion after his long day, compounded by the fact that a week ago, he completed an emotional Olympic performance in his home country that resulted in what he called "the best and worst fourth-place finish of my life." As he came off the course, his agent kept him updated with Riley's birdie chances on the final two holes, and his caddie James Erkenbeck told reporters that his player had been too tired to pay much attention to the playoff race while he was on the course. But after getting the lay of the land from Tom Alter, he planned to stick around, eat dinner, and see what fate had in store.
For Riley, who just missed the playoffs, the 2024 season stands as more than a little strange—a frustrating stretch, for the most part, with only a single top-ten finish, but that lone top-ten was a win at the Colonial, which gives him status for two more years despite this disappointing end.
"Yeah, it was a very weird year," he said. "To be honest, I struggled a lot with my ball-striking this year, which I haven't done previously. That's kind of been my strong suit. It was my best putting season of my career, I just didn't hit the ball very consistently. I still haven't figured out why, so it's been very trying year, an exhausting year trying to figure it out."
The last piece of drama for Perez was praying that both Aaron Rai and Max Greyserman wouldn't fall from their perch atop the leaderboard and sink to 15 under, which would bring HIsatsune back into the mix. Rai put his fears to rest with a tournament-winning birdie on 18 in the dying light, though, and Perez was heading to Memphis.
"Playing next week in Memphis would be best case scenario," Perez had said 90 minutes earlier, and with that final bit of drama in Greensboro, he had his wish.