Reached the halfway point of the RSM Classic, the last scoring tournament of the season on the PGA Tour, only two players, Michael Thorbjornsen (-9), tied for fourth place, and Daniel Berger (-5), tied for seventeenth place, could climb from outside the top 125 positions of the FedEx Fall to secure full playing rights on the tour next season. They would do so at the expense of Joel Dahmen (-1), who still has 36 holes ahead to regain his position in the autumn tour standings, and Wesley Bryan (+1), who, after missing the cut by two strokes, is left at the mercy of his rivals’ performances.
Falling outside these top 125 places has the minor consolation of having a full card on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2025. However, the conditional status maintained on the PGA Tour significantly reduces the number of accessible tournaments in the top division of American golf in 2025, so the battle in the final two rounds of this event in Georgia promises to be intense. A contest with a good number of contenders that could end up being decided by a small margin of points.
Birdie for @WesleyBryanGolf on No. 10 💪
He's currently 2 shots inside the projected cutline @TheRSMClassic.
📺: @PGATOURLIVE pic.twitter.com/QL6MzQRFyF
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 22, 2024
This fight does not affect Patrick Fishburn (-11), the sole leader of the standings after completing his course rotation today with a sensational 64-stroke card at the Plantation Course with six birdies and an eagle. However, winning this tournament would give him very different prospects for next year, at least to start. He began the week in 87th place in the FedEx Fall, but a victory in Georgia, which would be the first of his career in his rookie season on the tour, would place him in 56th position, with access to the first two designated events of 2025, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational (a reward for those finishing between 51st and 60th).
Maverick McNealy (-10), who has secured his exemption in these two tournaments with extra points and higher prize pools, and Lee Hodges (-10), who could reach them by winning on Sunday, will not make it easy for Fishburn. Nor will amateur Luke Clanton (-9), who is playing spectacularly and would cause a real sensation by winning in a tournament where he competes on a sponsor’s invitation, or Ludvig Aberg (-5), who, after a poor start to the week, recovered today with 64 strokes and still aspires to repeat the title he won at this same event a year ago.
A clutch putt on 18 with his job on the line.
@Joel_Dahmen makes par at the final hole to make the cut @TheRSMClassic.He's currently projected No. 127 in the #FedExCup but 36 holes remain for him to get inside the top 125 bubble.
📺: GOLF Channel pic.twitter.com/eztOgXgG3G
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 22, 2024
The bad news of the day was, in addition to the players who failed to make the cut and are out for the weekend, for Davis Love III, forced to withdraw due to a wrist injury, and for Seamus Power, also out of the tournament due to back problems. Ahead for the rest are two exciting days of competition with which the PGA Tour will close the 2024 season, with only Tiger Woods‘ tournament remaining, which does not count towards the FedEx, and the mixed pairs and parent-child events, of a festive nature, which conclude the course in December.
