He qualified easily for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, coming in at No. 25 in the points standings, but the California native has never made it to the Tour Championship, and in his six years on the tour hasn’t finished higher than 62nd in the final standings.

Spaun has a chance to improve on that — quite massively, in fact — if he maintains his form at the FedEx St Jude Championship. In his first career appearance at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Spaun, 31, has the outright lead after following up his opening 62 with a three-under 67. His 129 total is a stroke better than Sepp Straka and Troy Merritt.

Were he to win the first of the three playoff events, Spaun would jump to No. 2 behind Scottie Scheffler.

Now that’s how you take advantage of the playoffs. Of course, he’s only halfway home, so Spaun didn’t want to get ahead of himself even though he is ahead of everyone else. “It’s exciting. Still a lot of golf left,” said the 98th-ranked player in the world. “Just going to try to keep doing what I’ve been doing the last two days and hopefully it will pay off.”

After winning in Texas, Spaun finished T-23 at the Masters, but then his game cooled off with only one top-10 finish the rest of the regular season. He missed the cut in four of his last seven starts and also withdrew from another event. But he hasn’t panicked.

“I sort of went a little crazy after my three-week hiatus after my win,” he explained. “Wasn’t swinging it how I thought I was at Valero and the start of the year, so I was trying to fix that. So when you’re kind of playing with your golf swing out there, it’s not really going to pay off well for you.

“So I worked on some good things in the past couple weeks that are starting to pay off. And especially this week, too, kind of got a nice feel with my swing and just trusting it.”

He knows he has to take advantage of his improved form. Now is perfect timing. The playoffs.

“It’s so hard to be consistently good at the highest level,” Spaun said. “Some guys that do it like that, like Tiger and McIlroy and all those guys, it’s just insane how good they are for so long. It’s really hard to play consistent great golf like those guys do. I did it for a few months and then kind of fell off, but here I’m kind of making my way back.”

And making his way to the top of the standings. So far.

You may also like:
WATCH: Jon Rahm’s ridiculous skip shot
Bubba resignation could change fate of four PGA Tour hopefuls
Tony Finau closing in on Tiger Woods’ mark
Why PGA Tour has not suspended Cameron Smith
Rickie Fowler in the swing with new caddie at FedEx Cup Playoffs
Ferguson and Doherty lead the way in Northern Ireland tri-sanctioned event
LIV Golf’s Scott Vincent rolling again in Singapore
Patrick Reed expects more LIV Golfers to compete on Asian Tour
Reed was ‘on the fence’ but loving team life on LIV Golf
LIV Golfers take in the sights ahead of International Series Singapore
Key stories to follow at FedEx Cup Playoffs
Carlos Ortiz withdraws from LIV Golf lawsuit
Cameron Smith tight-lipped over LIV Golf reports
PGA Tour wins court battle over LIV Golf to prevent banned players from competing in FedEx Cup
Youngster gets Aramco Team Series spot
WATCH: Highlights of the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield
Relief for Buhai at AIG Women’s Open
R&A increases Women’s Open purse to 7.3 million
Get the August 2022 edition of Golf Digest Middle East FREE here in English and Arabic
Joh Rahm welcome’s second son to family ahead of FedEx Cup Playoffs
’17 holes to go’: Rory and JT on LIV Golf/PGA Tour legal saga
Matsuyama withdraws from first FedEx Cup event
The mystery behind Dustin Johnson’s missing FedEx Cup plaque
PGA looks to the future with projected earnings
PGA Tour says LIV Golf players ‘fabricating an emergency’
LIV Golf numbers grow on Asian Tour