The PGA Tour kicks off this week the countdown to the end of its season. The Cardonal at Diamante Cabo San Lucas in Los Cabos, Mexico, a course designed by Tiger Woods, hosts a new edition of the World Wide Technology Championship, a tournament that distributes six million dollars in prizes and, more importantly for the vast majority of players present, a good handful of points to try to secure playing rights for 2026, in some cases, or their presence in the first two designated events of the next year.
American Austin Eckroat will defend the title he won a year ago with the aim of joining Scottie Scheffler as the only player to have repeated victory in 2025 from a tournament won last season (the Memorial in the case of the Number One in the world ranking) and to follow in the footsteps of Norwegian Viktor Hovland, the only player to have won the tournament on more than one occasion (years 2020 and 2021). In his case, with the need to earn points as he starts the week in 106th place in the FedEx Cup, outside the cards (up to 100th place).
The World Wide Technology Championship became the first official PGA Tour event held in Mexico in the modern era when it debuted on the calendar in 2007 and has the honour of being the first official circuit event held outside the United States or Canada. This year it celebrates its 19th edition of the event in what is its third visit to El Cardonal at Diamante. An event in which six of the top 50 players of the OWGR will be present: J.J. Spaun (6th), Ben Griffin (12th), Max Greyserman (31st), Wyndham Clark (33rd), Nick Taylor (41st) and Michael Brennan (42nd).
In addition to Eckroat, three other tournament winners are part of the field: Patton Kizzire (2017), Matt Kuchar (2018) and Erik van Rooyen (2023). Although in this fifth event of the so-called FedExCup Fall, the group of seven tournaments that take place after the TOUR Championship that determine eligibility for the 2026 PGA Tour season, all eyes will be on the players hovering around the 100th place in the standings, the last one that would retain full playing rights for the next season.
After the Bank of Utah Championship, players like Max McGreevy or Thorbjørn Olesen jumped to these privileged positions. Unlike Sami Valimaki and Patrick Fishburn, who fell out of that top 100. So in the four rounds ahead from tomorrow, they will seek either a victory that ensures their card until 2026, with invitations to THE PLAYERS, the RBC Heritage and the PGA Championship, or the points that allow them to be in that list of chosen ones who maintain the card, which today is closed by Beau Hossler (99th place in the FedEx) and Adam Scott (100th place and not playing this week).
David Lipsky (101st), Isaiah Salinda (104th) or Frenchman Victor Perez (107th) are some of the players, along with the aforementioned Valimaki and Fishburn, present this week in Mexico in search of points that allow them to take that necessary step to retain the card. The other battle will be at the top, after Kevin Yu managed with his 15th place tie in Utah to climb from 61st to 59th place, knocking Joe Highsmith out of the top 60. Those who finish between positions 51st and 60th will have access to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational, the first elevated events of the next season, in which the top 50, with immovable positions in this autumn calendar, already have a place. A battle for ‘survival’ and another for the leap towards tournaments with more points and money at stake in four days of competition in Mexico, before travelling to Bermuda and closing the season at the RSM.
