Golf is played on a number of different levels, and yet whether you’re trying to make that putt on the 18th hole to break 100 or attempting to chip in for birdie on the final hole to get a place on the PGA Tour, pressure is very much a part of the game. While there are ranges to that pressure, such as a career-defining moment by winning a major championship versus capturing the net flight in your local club championship, perhaps the greatest amount of pressure on a professional golfer played out this weekend in Greensboro and Portland.
Late on Sunday afternoon in Portland, Web.com Tour regular Kevin Dougherty walked toward the 18th green at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course. Dougherty is a 27-year-old Californian from Murietta who played collegiate golf at Oklahoma State and turned pro in 2014. This is his first full season on the Web.com Tour and the WinCo Foods Tournament in Portland was his 23rd tournament of the year on golf’s version of AAA minor league competition. One of the perks of membership on the Web.com is that the top 25 golfers at the completion of the regular season receive exempt status on the PGA Tour the following year.
Dougherty had a 45-foot chip to the 18th hole for birdie. If he made the chip, he would end up 25th on the season ending Web.com Tour money list and advance to the PGA Tour for 2018-19. If he missed, then he would end up 26th on the money list. A 26th place finish would guarantee Dougherty another season on the Web.com Tour. Aside from the prestige of playing on the PGA Tour, a place on the world’s premiere circuit is also all about the money.
Sungjae Im, the leading money winner on the Web.com this past season, banked $534,326 in earnings. Im had a great season with two victories. Sam Burns, who finished second in the Web.com standings pocketed $291,878. The 25th qualifier this year was Hank Lebioda, who finished the season with $167,014 in winnings. Meanwhile, Sam Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer, finished 120th on the PGA Tour’s Fed Ex Cup points list. His earnings this year penciled out to $962,964. When all is said and done, 120th place on the PGA Tour is far more lucrative than first place on the Web.com Tour, plus a PGA Tour member tees it up at Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines while Web.com Tour pros go to places such as Boise and Omaha.
Dougherty lined up his chip and took a deep breath. Simultaneously, Hank Lebioda did the same thing. A Dougherty make would get him on the PGA Tour and Lebioda would miss out on a tour card. Dougherty’s chip came off the club and started toward the cup on the 18th green. Within 5 feet of the cup it looked like it might actually go into the hole for that much needed birdie. With a foot to go it still looked very good. At the last moment it drifted to the left of the hole. It stopped exactly one inch from going into the hole. The margin between success and failure was one stroke and one inch over the course of a long season of tournaments.
At the end of the day, 25 Web.com Tour regulars received new engraved PGA Tour cards that Sunday evening in Portland. Kevin Dougherty would go on to Columbus, Ohio, this week to play in the first tourney of the Web.com qualifying tournament. Four weeks of tournaments in Ohio, Idaho and Florida would identify 25 more golfers who would get tour cards. For Hank Lebioda, his place on the PGA Tour is set for the 2018-19 wrap-around season. For Kevin Dougherty, four great weeks of tournament play will also get him a PGA Tour card for the up and coming season. However, there are another 149 golfers trying to do the same thing as Dougherty, and only time will tell whether he’s teeing it up at Silverado in October or waiting around for the start of a new Web.com Tour season in January of 2019.
A similar scenario was playing out at Greensboro last Sunday as well. Brandt Snedeker would parlay an opening-round 59 to victory at Sedgefield Country Club. Yet while Snedeker’s final-round battle with C.T. Pan was all about winning the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, there was also the tournament within the tournament going on throughout the field. The top 125 on the PGA Tour’s Fed Ex Cup standings would not only advance to the beginning of the playoffs in New Jersey, but it would also guarantee another season of exempt status on the big circuit. Golfers such as Sam Saunders and Harris English played well enough at Greensboro to punch their ticket for next season. Irishman Seamus Power, who did himself no favor by missing the cut at Greensboro, had to spend the weekend watching his status change from moment to moment. In the end, Sergio Garcia’s even-par finish on Sunday was just enough for Power to finish his season in 125th place. Martin Piller ended up six Fed Ex Cup points behind Power and came in 126th place. Sure, a lot of this could have been avoided by playing better at some point earlier in the season, but Monday morning quarterbacking isn’t much help when you’re trying to remain a part of a most lucrative PGA Tour.
There were other numbers on the line last Sunday as well. As earlier mentioned, 150 golfers have four tournaments to try and get the final 25 PGA Tour cards for 2018-19. Those 150 golfers included those professionals who finished among the top 75 on the Web.com Tour this year joined by those PGA Tour members who finished from 126th place to 200th place on the Fed Ex Cup standings. For someone like Sergio Garcia, it really doesn’t matter to him that he finished this season in 128th place. After all, his 2017 Masters victory earned him a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour through 2022. However, to someone like former U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover, his 135th place finish on tour this year means he has to go through the Web.com Tour qualifying process to get fully exempt for 2018-19.
The stories on Sunday were endless. Erik Compton, the pro best known for his two heart transplants and runner-up finish in the 2014 U.S. Open, finished third in Portland. He jumped from 107th place to 57th place on the Web.com. Now he can go to the qualifying tournaments and hope to get back on the PGA Tour. Jim Knous jumped to 74th place to also get in. Roberto Castro eagled the final hole, finished in 23rd place, and returns to the PGA Tour.
Strange to say, but perhaps the pressures at Greensboro and Portland were just as great as those final-round Sundays at Augusta National, Shinnecock, Carnoustie and Bellerive. After all, the major champions of 2018 were playing for their legacy. Meanwhile, the bubble boys at Greensboro and Portland were playing for their careers and their livelihoods. Either way you look at it, there can be a lot of pressure, mostly self-imposed, while playing golf.
