Wilkinson misses out on card security

Palmerston North golfer Tim Wilkinson appears to have missed out on securing his PGA Tour card for next season after finishing the Wyndham Championship in a share of 22nd place.

The tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, was the final chance for players to guarantee their place on the tour next season, with the top 125 in the Fedex Cup points table earning their cards.

Wilkinson was 139th heading into the week and gave himself a sniff of breaking into the qualification places following a third round of six-under-par 64 at the Sedgefield Country Club.

However, he couldn’t carry that momentum into the final round, carding an even-par 70 to finish on 10-under for the tournament and is projected to finish 132nd in the Fedex Cup standings.

Wilkinson was 11 strokes behind South Korea’s Si Woo Kim, who finished five shots clear of England’s Luke Donald to claim his first tour victory.

Wilkinson was on the back foot early after bogeying the second hole before responding in spectacular fashion.

He eagled the par-five fifth on the back of an exquisite approach shot that landed just 16 inches from the cup.

But while he played solidly throughout the rest of the day, he failed to convert any other scoring opportunities and bogeyed the 10th to fall back to even-par.

Prior to the event, Wilkinson had won $US662,957 on the PGA Tour this season – more than three times than he did last year – and will undoubtedly be disappointed to miss automatic qualification.

The 38-year-old earned his card last year on web.com qualifying school, a route he likely will have to take again with the top 50 players going through to the PGA Tour.