This article is part of our The Reshuffle List series.
The conclusion of the Small Business Connection Championship at River Run on the Web.com Tour Finals last Sunday marks halfway through their four season-ending events. With that in mind, here's a chance to look at how our PGA Tour Reshuffle List players are faring.
A quick reminder: 25 Web.com Tour players already have their cards for the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season via the regular-season money list. They are competing in these four events for Reshuffle List position. Everyone else is competing on a brand new money list -- the Web.com Tour Finals money list -- with the top-25 money earners who don't already have cards earning them. Per Golf Channel calculations, since this system was implemented it has taken anywhere between $33,000-36,000 to earn a PGA Tour card.
Anyone who wins three events, wins the Web.com Tour regular-season money list (Patton Kizzire) and the Web.com Tour Finals Money List, is fully exempt, has special perks and is in a different exemption category for the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season.
Clinched Card
The following Reshuffle List players have clinched a trip back to the PGA Tour through their play in the first two Web.com Tour Finals events.
Sam Saunders - $44,000
Saunders' story is even more remarkable considering that he fractured his skull after falling off a scooter (yes, you read that correctly) two weeks before the Hotel Fitness Championship, the first Web.com Tour Finals event. He rallied both physically and golf wise, finishing T4 there and earning enough money to have
The conclusion of the Small Business Connection Championship at River Run on the Web.com Tour Finals last Sunday marks halfway through their four season-ending events. With that in mind, here's a chance to look at how our PGA Tour Reshuffle List players are faring.
A quick reminder: 25 Web.com Tour players already have their cards for the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season via the regular-season money list. They are competing in these four events for Reshuffle List position. Everyone else is competing on a brand new money list -- the Web.com Tour Finals money list -- with the top-25 money earners who don't already have cards earning them. Per Golf Channel calculations, since this system was implemented it has taken anywhere between $33,000-36,000 to earn a PGA Tour card.
Anyone who wins three events, wins the Web.com Tour regular-season money list (Patton Kizzire) and the Web.com Tour Finals Money List, is fully exempt, has special perks and is in a different exemption category for the 2015-2016 PGA Tour season.
Clinched Card
The following Reshuffle List players have clinched a trip back to the PGA Tour through their play in the first two Web.com Tour Finals events.
Sam Saunders - $44,000
Saunders' story is even more remarkable considering that he fractured his skull after falling off a scooter (yes, you read that correctly) two weeks before the Hotel Fitness Championship, the first Web.com Tour Finals event. He rallied both physically and golf wise, finishing T4 there and earning enough money to have a return ticket back to the PGA Tour. Saunders, who lost in the five-man playoff at the Puerto Rico Open early in the PGA Tour season, was inconsistent at best in 2015 but said that having no expectations after the fall may have helped him notch the high finish. For the week he ranked first in greens in regulation.
Projected to Clinch Card
The following Reshuffle List players are projected to keep a PGA Tour card for 2015-2016.
Eric Axley - $29,350
Ryan Armour - $23,368.75
Tom Gillis - $23,368.75
Bill Lunde - $17,350
Axley is in the best spot of any of these guys, although most need a solid finish to lock up their spot. If the Web.com Tour Finals have proven us anything over the years, however, you don't want to go to the Web.com Tour Championship on the edge. Those nerves are real, and it's as close to Q-School as we get these days. It's a great day of golf to watch, but not participate in.
We wrote numerous times about the PGA Tour Non-Member FedEx Cup Points List this season in regard to players trying to clinch their cards. But for those who didn't get that far, they had the same goal as regular members of the PGA Tour: stay in the top 200 and punch a ticket to the Web.com Tour Finals.
It took the equivalent of 103 points to get there, and three players who made it have already clinched their PGA Tour cards for 2015-2016 through the first two Web.com Tour Finals events:
Emiliano Grillo - $103,666.66
Anirban Lahiri - $49,750
Hiroshi Iwata - $44,000
Another Puerto Rico Open playoff participant, Grillo has had a sensational Web.com Tour Finals, finishing ninth at the Hotel Fitness Championship and backing that up with a T2 last week at the Small Business Connection Championship at River Run. He's clinched his card by a long shot and now has two goals in front of him: lead the Finals-only money list, which gets you fully exempt, OR place as high as he can on the Finals-only money list. The Reshuffle List placement alternates between the Web.com Tour regular season money list and the Finals-only money list, so the higher up you are on the list, the more early season starts you'll get. These next two events are crucial for him in that regard.
Lahiri's journey from India is a fascinating read and I highly recommend Tim Rosaforte's read from Sept. 14's Golf World. The 39th-ranked player in the world, Lahiri has gone T6-T16 so far in the Finals, eight rounds have included a 65 and a 67. This is all the more impressive considering he's never seen these venues, let alone spent that much time in America besides his play at the majors and WGC events. So to travel all these miles and play this well and this consistently in what may be the most important four tournament stretch of his professional career? Really impressive.
Some of you may remember Iwata as the player that nearly won the WGC-HSBC Champions event last fall (Bubba Watson did), and a fourth place finish at the Hotel Fitness Championship -- which included a second-round 64 and final-round 66 -- was enough to most likely give him a spot on the PGA Tour next year.
