Byrd wins Web.com, earns PGA Tour card
Power edges Svensson for last spot
ATLANTIC BEACH, Florida, Oct 3, (Agencies): Jonathan Byrd is heading back to the PGA Tour for the first time in three years after winning the weatherdelayed Web.com Tour Championship on Monday.
A five-time PGA Tour winner, Byrd closed with a 4-under 67 at Atlantic Beach Country Club for a four-shot victory. He was tied for 66th in the standings going into the last of four Web.com Tour Finals events that awarded tour cards to the top 25.
Byrd finished at 24-under 260. His last PGA Tour victory came in 2011
GOLF
at the Tournament of Champions.
Byrd had considered skipping the event after two straight missed cuts, but he made the drive from his home in Sea Island, Georgia, after a pep talk from his wife.
Sam Saunders, the grandson of Arnold Palmer who shot 59 in the first round, closed with a 69 and tied for second with Shawn Stefani (65). Both earned their way back to the PGA Tour, which starts its new season Thursday.
Byrd and Stefani were among five players who moved into the top 25 on the Finals money list in the last event. The others were Matt Jones, Cameron Tringale and Tom Hoge, who closed with a 65 and finished 23rd.
The top 25 players from the regular-season money list already were assured of PGA Tour cards. Chesson Hadley won the money lists for both the regular season and the Finals, earning fully exempt status and a
spot in The Players Championship.
Ben Crane, another five-time tour winner, came into the event ranked 24rd on the Finals money list but opted not to play. He fell out of the top 25, though he will have conditional status from finishing in the top 150 in the FedEx Cup.
Crane figured he would miss out on only two tournaments he otherwise would have played. He already was in Napa, California, for the start of the PGA Tour season at the Safeway Open by virtue of his position on the FedEx Cup from last year.
As usual, Crane found an upside to his misfortunes.
Hunter Mahan, who missed the cut, also failed to regain his card. He can take a one-time exemption for being in the top 50 in career earnings.
Chad Collins, Steve Wheatcroft and Seamus Power also locked up their tour cards in the final event.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Seamus Power edged Canada’s Adam Svensson by $2,888 for the last US PGA Tour spot in the upcoming 201718 season after the Web.com Tour Championship, tour officials announced Monday.
The full list of 50 newcomers for the campaign that begins Thursday with the PGA Safeway Open in Napa, California, included 25 players from the Web.com regular season and 25 more from the developmental tours season-ending final events.
In those finals events, Power won $40,625 to finish in 25th place and capture the last PGA berth available with Svensson next on $37,937.
The Canadian began the week 17th on the finals-only money list but missed the cut while Power shared 48th, a closing par-71 to finish on six-under 278 enough to see him through. Three other players from outside the United States made the PGA Tour from the finals — Australian Matt Jones, Germany’s Alex Cejka and Canadian Corey Conners, one of five players from the finals who will be new PGA rookies. Other players have been on tour before but lost playing rights.
Among the 25 players who booked their PGA spots in August from the regular season were China’s first two US PGA Tour players, Dou Zecheng and Zhang Xinjun. Neither is set to play this week.
Others from outside the United States included South Africa’s Aaron Wise, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger and Canada’s Ben Silverman. All three are also US PGA rookies.
All 50 players were ranked in order to determine entry priority into PGA events for the upcoming season, with Power at the bottom of the list.
Jaeger topped the internationals on the priority list at 12th with Silverman 18th, Cejka 33rd, Jones 35th and Wise 36th.
Dou was 38th with Conners on 41 just ahead of Zhang.