10 big names who missed out on a PGA Tour card for 2025

“Holy s***!” Joel Dahmen’s reaction to his final-round 64 at the RSM Classic was typical of the man who became an overnight fan favourite thanks to Netflix.

That saw him leap 26 spots into a tie for 35th at Sea Island and – far more importantly – up to 124th in the FedEx Cup standings.

The top 125, remember, earn a PGA Tour card for the following season.

But what about those who missed out?

Those placed 126th to 150th have earned conditional PGA Tour status.

It was a horrible week for Zac Blair. Dahmen making the cut on the number at the RSM meant Blair slipped from 123rd to 126th – one spot out of earning a full card. The only other player who started the week inside the 125 and finished outside it was the PGA Tour’s biggest YouTube star, Wesley Bryan, whose missed cut in Georgia saw him drop from 125 to 128.

The other notable names in that leaderboard within a leaderboard are British pair Matt Wallace and Martin Laird, while Hayden Springer, who joined the 59 Club at the John Deere Classic in July, couldn’t quite reach golf’s other magic number.

• These two amateur stars just made an unusual piece of history

• PGA Tour’s newest winner having ‘hard time’ accepting changes

It’s the next group, though, who will be returning to Q School in a couple of weeks in a bid to earn more starts in 2025.

Spare a thought first, for Ryan Moore. The five-time PGA Tour champion went into last week’s FedEx Cup Fall Series finale placed 150th in the overall standings, but a missed cut saw him slip to 151st and lose that conditional status. Just to add salt into the wound, it’s the second year in a row Moore has finished 151st in the FedEx Cup standings.

Martin Trainer, along with teammate Chad Ramey, lost in a playoff against Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Frenchman-turned-American-turned-Frenchman would go on to finish 157th in the standings.

Aaron Baddeley – who, give or take a handful of seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour, has held a PGA Tour card since 2000 – will be heading back to the second tier after finishing 166th. The Australian finished 96th last year, but couldn’t add to any of his four previous victories.

• Lexi Thompson slams PGA Tour over ‘sad’ career ending

• TGL reveals radical golf hole designs

Cameron Champ is another player desperately in need of some form. The 29-year-old’s purple patch between 2018 and 2022, which saw him win four times on the Korn Ferry and PGA Tours, as well as top-tens at the Masters and PGA Championship, feels like a lifetime ago. Champ, who finished 143rd last year to earn conditional status, finished 175th after earning just $353,000 from 26 starts.

And Vincent Normann is one of the biggest fallers. The Swede won the Barbasol Championship and the Irish Open in 2023 to help him to 69th in the FedEx Cup, but just eight cuts made this year has seen him tumble to 203rd.

Meanwhile, Kevin Kisner – who blasted the PGA Tour for its “closed shop” nature during the RSM Classic – will have to rely on his top 50 career money exemption after finishing 196th, as will major champions Gary Woodland, Zach Johnson and Webb Simpson.

Tiger Woods, if you’re interested, finished 226th.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor