Justin Lower failed to get his first PGA Tour win Sunday, but he can still take a silver lining from his week in Mexico.
The 35-year-old, in his third full season on Tour, held the World Wide Technology Championship's 54-hole lead, but finished T-2, two strokes behind winner Austin Eckroat. Lower likely secured his card for next season, moving from No. 95 to 74 in the FedExCup standings, with the top 125 receiving full status for 2025. With two events left this season, Lower could move into the top 60 and get into the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational.
“It's such a hard game to be good at all the time,” Lower said after his final-round 65. “Something I admire, the top guys like Xander [Schauffele], Scottie [Scheffler], (Justin Thomas), just kind of seems like they have it every week and it's super impressive. So yeah, just trying to figure out how I can do that, how I can get into those elevated events and go from there.”
If this was a year from now, Lower's sigh of relief would be even greater. In 2026, the PGA Tour appears set to reduce the number of full-status cards from 125 to 100—and many events' field sizes will also shrink.
Lower has overcome many obstacles—personally and professionally—to get this far in his career. His father and younger brother died in a car accident when he was 15, and in 2018, he missed a promotion from the Korn Ferry Tour to PGA Tour by just $500.
Now that he's made it to the top level, he's frustrated that the path to obtain full status on Tour is narrowing.
“I hate all the changes they're making," he said after Round 3 in Mexico. “That's a whole 'nother subject I could rant about for like an hour. Seems like anytime I do something good they make a change.”
He's not alone. Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington criticized the changes on Golf Channel last week, saying in part: “I can’t think about how bad it is. At the end of the day, the people on the inside are voting to keep the thing tighter and more closed. The Tour was running just fine.”
Lower, however, should have plenty of opportunities to notch his coveted first victory on Tour in 2025, which would eliminate most stress about landing on the bubble for 2026.
“I work really hard in this game, I work really hard at it," he said after Round 3 fighting back tears. “Sometimes I think I never would have gotten this far, and I've been through a lot in my life and it's just, I don't know, it's just a lot of fun.”
But he knows how hard it is to get to this point as a rank-and-file Tour player. And soon, it'll be even harder.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as PGA Tour Pro 'Hates' Proposed Changes, Even As His Ranking Is Improving.
