Joel Dahmen completed simply inside the highest 125 to maintain his PGA Tour card for 2025.
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Verify in each week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the most well liked subjects within the sport, and be part of the dialog by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we talk about Maverick McNealy’s first PGA Tour win, the FedEx Cup Fall winners and losers, the most effective programs you possibly can play and extra.
Maverick McNealy closed the 2024 PGA Tour season with the primary victory of his profession, beating three others by a shot on the RSM Basic on Sunday. What took the previous top-ranked newbie so lengthy to get his first title on Tour, and do you count on it to snowball right into a breakout 2025?
Jack Hirsh, affiliate gear editor (@JR_HIRSHey): That looks like a loaded query. Profitable is tough on the PGA Tour. We’ve seen quite a few top-ranked amateurs get to the PGA Tour and by no means win and we’ve seen a lot who’ve gone on to have hall-of-fame careers. Whereas he was coping with an damage final yr, he nonetheless performed higher in 2022 than he did this yr, even with the win on the finish. I say it’s seemingly he wins once more, however I don’t count on him to all of a sudden turn out to be a top-10 or top-20 participant rapidly.
Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): He’s form of distinctive the place he’s by no means been a star however has by no means actually struggled to maintain his PGA Tour card. He’s simply been… fairly good: strong off the tee, not so nice into greens and an excellent putter. It was a matter of time. It’s not a fluke he had a lot success on the collegiate degree. The primary one’s all the time the toughest. He’d positively be a breakout contender for subsequent yr.
Alan Bastable, government editor (@alan_bastable): Golf’s a humorous outdated sport. Mav had six high 10s this season but in addition 13 missed cuts or withdrawals. Forecasting what gamers are able to from one week to the subsequent is sort of not possible. What a month for Mav, although! He helped mastermind the Tour’s not too long ago introduced revamp of its FedEx Cup factors distribution system, and now he has his first Tour title. If solely he’d lobbied the Tour to dole out extra factors for the RSM…
6 notable gamers who misplaced their PGA Tour card Sunday
By:
Sean Zak
Final week we came upon (formally) that come 2026, solely 100 gamers will earn full-time PGA Tour standing. However for 2025, that magic quantity continues to be 125, and we discovered these gamers on the season-ending RSM Basic on Sunday. Which participant who made it simply inside (or outdoors) that reduce line was essentially the most notable to you?
Hirsh: Needs to be Joel Dahmen, who put collectively a Sunday 64 to complete No. 124 within the FedEx Cup. Dahmen has struggled with adjusting to his newfound fame since being a key determine within the Netflix docuseries. Finally, having him on the PGA Tour makes for a way more entertaining, compelling and relatable product, so having him battle to get into fields beneath the previous champion class wouldn’t have been too enjoyable. I nonetheless assume his greatest years are but to come back.
Berhow: Yeah, arduous to argue with Dahmen, since he was the most important title inside a number of of that No. 125 spot. Two different younger former faculty standouts, Parker and Pierceson Coody, each landed on the mistaken facet of that line, too.
Bastable: Should say, I didn’t foresee anybody within the Creator Basic discipline making a run at a Tour card, however that’s what Wes Bryan did, narrowly lacking out by three spots. When Bryan took warmth for enjoying in that hit-and-giggle occasion for influencers earlier this yr, he tweeted, “Are there really ppl mad that I’m enjoying on this occasion? I’ve filmed 100+ lengthy kind youtube movies over the past two years…missed nearly each reduce on the pga tour…and infrequently apply.” Not precisely a recipe for Tour success, however Bryan discovered a strategy to keep related till an MC this week doomed his card hopes.
We’ll spend extra time subsequent month unpacking the yr that was on the PGA Tour, however off the highest of your head, what’s the one large factor you discovered or will bear in mind concerning the 2024 PGA Tour season?
Hirsh: Actually, {that a} Tiger-like run continues to be attainable. I feel I had began considering that the era of youngsters who bought into golf due to Tiger Woods had made the game too deep for anybody to essentially go on a run of victories like he did practically twenty years in the past. Scottie Scheffler proved that mistaken this yr. So he didn’t win a number of majors like Woods would accomplish that usually, however nobody had gained seven occasions in a PGA Tour season since Woods did in 2007. And it’s not like Scheffler’s competitors was weak both. Certain, LIV Golf has taken away Jon Rahm, Cam Smith, Jaco Neimann and extra, however Scheffler was successful in opposition to Xander Schauffele, who gained two majors himself, week in and week out. Let’s not overlook about that gold medal win, too.
Berhow: Scottie Scheffler won’t ever return to Louisville.
Bastable: Yeah, the Scheffler PGA fiasco will go down because the one of many wildest sports activities tales of all time, however nonetheless, this yr may be remembered extra for what occurred off the course. Or, extra the purpose, what didn’t occur. And that can proceed to be the case till the PGA Tour and PIF lastly strike a deal. The drawn-out negotiations have sucked a lot oxygen out of the room. Complete bummer.
Additionally full is the 2024 LPGA season, with Jeeno Thitikul successful the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. Nelly Korda tied for fifth to place a bow on a spectacular seven-win marketing campaign. Fast: Will Korda match or surpass that season-win complete once more in her profession?
Hirsh: I’ll go forward and say it: sure! For as unimaginable as Korda’s season was, it was additionally form of bizarre. She missed three cuts randomly in the course of the season that included two majors, she took two months off between her first and second wins, she let possibilities to win the Open and Olympics slip away and he or she additionally handled some damage. So long as her mechanics keep intact, I might see her successful in bunches like this for a number of extra years.
Berhow: Sure. And boy, that sounds loopy to say, however I got here to that conclusion in my head fairly rapidly. I feel she will be able to maintain getting higher — as Jack talked about, she had some bizarre issues occur this yr too — and I’d not be a bit shocked to see her do that once more.
Bastable: Buzzkill Bastable says no. Seven wins is staggering, and the tour is just getting deeper, which means victories will turn out to be more and more more durable to come back by. As Jack notes, Nelly’s additionally been liable to accidents; successful in bunches requires staying wholesome.
Final week, GOLF launched its newest rating of the High 100 Programs You Can Play, an inventory stuffed with famous person layouts accessible to any Common Joe. When you had been creating the last word public-golf highway journey with this checklist in thoughts, the place are you taking our readers?
Hirsh: I’ve used this area earlier than to shout-out my former hometown of Bend, Ore., and I’ll do it once more. Bend is represented on our newest High 100 Programs You possibly can Play checklist with Pronghorn’s two programs, however it has a lot extra to supply. Sunriver’s Crosswater course as soon as was within the high 15 of our rating and I consider it is without doubt one of the most stunning inland programs I’ve ever performed. The checklist goes on and on with Tetherow, Brasada Ranch, Black Butte Ranch and extra. Inside 90 minutes is a fully improbable hidden gem within the mountains referred to as Tokatee, which is on GOLF’s checklist of America’s greatest golf programs for beneath $100. And whereas a five-hour drive to Bandon Dunes could seem lengthy, it is without doubt one of the most scenic drives you possibly can take.
Berhow: The straightforward reply is to spend a while kicking round Pebble Seaside or Pinehurst, and so on., and enjoying all of these crazy-good — and sometimes spendy — tracks, however I’m gonna use my homer card as properly and decide a extra Midwestern journey that gained’t damage your pockets quiet as a lot and isn’t as apparent. Play a kind of elite Wisconsin programs (Whistling or Sand Valley or Erin Hills, and so on.) however then cease off for a worth play at Lawsonia, then head to Minnesota (which I’m shocked didn’t get one nod on our High 100 You Can Play checklist) and go means up north and double up at Giants Ridges’ two programs earlier than driving to close by The Wilderness at Fortune Bay. It’s an excellent space that’s residence to a few of the higher public programs within the state, and until you might be courageous sufficient to journey that far, a variety of out-of-staters don’t even find out about it.
Bastable: No, Josh, the simple reply is, in reality, Bandon Dunes, which has 5 programs within the high 25. Bonus: the one highway journey you want fear about is attending to the resort. A much less apparent rec: the Tampa, Fla., space. Three Streamsong High 100s, the brand new unfold at Cabot Citrus Farms and the Copperhead course at Innisbrook are all inside two hours of each other.
