This Thursday marks the start of the Wyndham Championship, the final tournament of the regular season on the PGA Tour. It’s the last chance to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The top 70 in the rankings at the end of this event on Sunday will gain access to the FedEx St Jude Championship, the first stop of the post-season. The rest will have to wait until September to compete again in the well-known Autumn Series, with the main goal of retaining their tour card for the next year. The top 100 will achieve this.
Therefore, it’s a good time to take a look at the progress of the ten golfers who earned their PGA Tour card last year through the Race to Dubai. We can already tell you that the results are clearly improvable. The ten mentioned are: Rasmus Hojgaard, Thriston Lawrence, Paul Waring, Jesper Svensson, Niklas Norgaard, Matteo Manassero, Thorbjorn Olesen, Antoine Rozner, Rikuya Hoshino, and Tom McKibbin. From this list, McKibbin must be removed as he decided to move to LIV Golf. We can also remove Paul Waring and Rikuya Hoshino. Neither will participate in the Wyndham, partly because they no longer had any mathematical chances of making the Playoffs. Not even by winning.
Of the other seven, none are currently among the top 70 in the FedEx Cup (to qualify for the Playoffs), while only one is among the top 100 (those who will retain their card at the end of the year). That is Rasmus Hojgaard, who is in 82nd place. This is the situation for all of them before the Wyndham:
– Rasmus Hojgaard: is in 82nd place and needs to finish at least tied for 4th with one other to make the Playoffs.
– Thriston Lawrence: is in 146th place and needs to win to make the Playoffs.
– Jesper Svensson: is in 105th place and needs to finish at least tied for 2nd with one other to make the Playoffs.
– Niklas Norgaard: is in 161st place and needs to win to make the Playoffs.
– Matteo Manassero: is in 147th place and needs to win to make the Playoffs.
– Thorbjorn Olesen: is in 116th place and needs to be at least 2nd alone to make the Playoffs.
– Antoine Rozner: is in 145th place and needs to win to make the Playoffs.
Some might reasonably argue that this poor situation for players arriving on the PGA Tour from the DP World Tour is due to the low category they receive, which reduces their playing opportunities. Well, apart from Waring, who missed some tournaments due to injury, and Manassero, who has played 14 events, the others have participated in at least 16 weeks of the PGA Tour, with Svensson playing the most at 20. It’s not the full schedule, but it’s not bad at all.
Against this argument, one can also add what last year’s players who obtained their card through the Race to Dubai did. Their performance was much more notable. The ten who earned their card were: Adrian Meronk, Ryan Fox, Victor Perez, Thorbjorn Olesen, Alexander Björk, Sami Valimaki, Robert MacIntyre, Matthieu Pavon, Jorge Campillo, and Ryo Hisatsune. Of all of them, two played the Tour Championship, meaning they finished among the top 30 in the FedEx Cup. They were MacIntyre and Pavon, winners last year. They ended the year in 17th place. Additionally, Victor Perez, Hisatsune, and Valimaki finished the year among the top 100, and Ryan Fox also managed to retain his card in 106th place. Last year, the top 125 retained their rights. From those 10 players, Meronk must also be removed, as like McKibbin, he decided to move to LIV Golf.
The 2023 promotion wins by a landslide over the 2024 one with very similar opportunities. Six out of nine retained their rights. Furthermore, it demonstrates that one can retain the card and even play the Playoffs with the DP World Tour category. You have to play very well, that’s evident.
Speaking of the last chance to make the Playoffs, it’s worth noting that even Webb Simpson, ranked 173rd, has mathematical chances, and the man occupying that coveted 70th spot is Matti Schmid.
The other collateral battle, beyond entering the Playoffs, is the Ryder Cup, both the qualification for Europe and the United States. Rasmus Hojgaard needs to make the Playoffs to have a good chance of entering the top six in the Ryder ranking, who qualify automatically. He is currently seventh. If he doesn’t succeed, he’ll have to resort to plan B, which means playing the final tournaments of the DP World Tour. The same goes for Nicolai Hojgaard, Matt Wallace, or Olesen himself.
Finally, in the fight to make the Playoffs, there are some important names in a very tight situation. These are the cases of Adam Scott (needs to finish third tied with another to have any chance), Tom Kim (only a solo third place gives him mathematical chances), or Max Homa (needs to be second tied with one).
