Web.com Tour Champion Jonathan Byrd & the FINALS 25 Heading to the PGA TOUR!

The next wave of Web.com Tour and Web.com FINALS have come ashore and are heading to the 2017-18 PGA TOUR. The Top 25 from the regular season, led by Brice Garnett, are now joined by another FINALS 25, led by Web.com TOUR Champion Jonathan Byrd and Peter Uihlein who earned $386 more than Byrd in the cumulative four-event playoffs.

Byrd, who won for the first time in 18 Web.com events this year, had missed the last two playoff cuts after finishing T31 in the first event. Playing in nine PGA TOUR events his only Top-10 finish came in July, a T5 at the John Deere Classic. His last of five PGA TOUR wins came at the January 2011 Tournament of Champions, his entry gained by his walk-off ace in the playoff in Las Vegas the Previous October.

Struggling the last two years, the 39-year old Byrd came into this week tied at No. 66 in the FINALS 25 Rank. Burnt out, his wife Amanda gave him permission to miss the tour championship. That support triggered a change in his mindset and after a Saturday practice round he felt the course matched his game. With his new “be athletic and be aggressive’ attitude he made eight birdies in his first round 7-under 64. He followed that with seven more in Round 2 (65) and eight more in Round 3 (64). All it took in the Monday final round was four in his bogey-free 67 to win by four strokes over Shawn Stefani and Sam Saunders.

Saunders had started the week with a record-setting 59. The Atlantic Beach CC resident and de facto player host followed that with a 66 to lead at the halfway point by two strokes over Julian Etulain (weekend 74-70 to finish T20 and rank 44 in the Finals 25) and four over Byrd. Saunders nemesis was the par-5 18^th hole which although he birdied on his way to the 59, he double-bogeyed in Round 2 and bogeyed in Round 3. A par on the last in the final round and a T2 finish will take him back to the PGA TOUR for the fourth year in a row.

There was excitement all week as to who would make it into the FINALS 25 and who would drop out with a 2017-2018 PGA TOUR card on the line. As many that come into glory the same number fall out. This year the number was five and here are the “5 IN & 5 OUT.”

5 IN:   Jonathan Byrd, from T66 to 2^nd,, with the win; Shawn Stefani, from T47 to 7^th, with a T2 finish; Matt Jones, from T47 to 17, with a T5 finish; Cameron Tringale, from 49 to 18, with a T5 finish; and Tom Hoge from 31 to 23 with a T12 finish.

5 OUT:   Adam Svensson, from 17 to 26, missing the cut; Ben Crane, from 18 to 27, did not play; Matthew Southgate, from 20 to 28, missing the cut; Cameron Percy, from 25 to 29, finished T20; and Ryo Ishikawa, from22 to 31, finishing T40.

Of course as the action of the tournament came to a climax during the final round there were some who were in, then out, and then back in. Likewise there were some who were out, then in, and then back out.

The Bubble Boy was Seamus Power who started at No. 19 on Thursday and finished at No. 25, just $2,688 ahead on No. 26 Adam Svensson. Starting on No. 10, he was near the end of his round playing the par-5 7^th where the scoreboard projected his rank as No. 26. Outside a tour card, he needed to get it up-and-down from a tight lie short left of the green. His 40-yard pitch landed a foot short in the front left bunker. After his sand wedge he just missed a 15-footer for par. The bogey seemingly putting his out of reach of a tour card.

Power’s par-par finish seemed to seal his destiny until Matt Harmon, in the 25^th slot, came along and three-putted the 18^th for a bogey. That knocked him out of the FINALS 25 (ended at No.32) and allowed Power to move into the FINALS 25.

Power dodged another bullet when Roberto Castro came along in second-to-the-last group and nearly drained a 30-foot eagle putt. Castro finished at No. 30.

Jonathon Byrd, by virtue of his Web.com Tour Championship win, and 49 other golfers based on their year-long and/or FINALS play are heading to the PGA TOUR! Congratulations, well done!

Here are the details of all fifty 2017-2018 PGA TOUR members:

The first twenty-five tour cards have already been awarded to the Top-25, the Golden Boys, of the 22-event regular season (in order of finish, then (country, age; Web.com career starts, wins, wins this Web.com season; PGA TOUR starts, wins): 1. Brice Garnett (USA, 34; 104, 2, 2; 75, 0), 2. Sam Ryder (USA, 27; 45, 1, 1; 1, 0), 3. Abraham Ancer (Mexico, 26; 60, 1, 0; 20, 0), 4. Andrew Landry (USA, 30; 53, 2, 1; 19, 0), 5. Stephan Jaegar (Germany, 28; 73, 3, 2; 4, 0), 6. Talor Gooch (USA, 25; 22, 1, 1; 2, 0), 7. Kyle Thompson (USA, 38: 292, 5, 1; 55, 0), 8. Andrew Putnam (USA, 28; 93, 2, 1; 25, 0), 9. Chesson Hadley (USA, 30; 44, 4, 2; 96, 1), 10. Ben Silverman (Canada, 29; 38, 1, 1; 1, 0), 11. Nate Lashley (USA, 34; 50, 1, 1; 1, 0), 12. Adam, Schenk (USA, 25; 48, 1, 1; 0, 0), 13. Andrew Yun (USA, 26; 70, 0, 0; 0, 0), 14. Ted Potter Jr. (USA, 33; 109, 2, 0; 75, 1), 15. Austin Cook (USA, 26; 51, 0, 0; 10, 0), 16. Zecheng ‘Marty’ Dou (China, 20; 24, 1, 1; 3, 0), 17. Conrad Shindler (USA, 29; 25, 1, 1; 2, 0), 18. Aaron Wise (USA, 21; 16, 1, 1; 8, 0), 19. Matt Atkins (USA, 26; 65, 1, 1; 2, 0), 20. Xinjun Zhang (China, 30; 23, 0, 0; 2, 0), 21. Brandon Harkins (USA, 31; 26, 0, 0; 1, 0), 22. Lanto Griffin (USA, 29; 24, 1, 1; 2, 0), 23. Beau Hossler (USA, 22; 14, 0, 0; 12, 0), 24. Ethan Tracy (25, 1, 1; 4, 0), 25. Roberto Diaz (Mexico, 30; 80, 0, 0; 5, 0).

The second twenty-five FINALS tour cards earned during the four-event playoff that cumulated this week at the Web.com Tour Championship (in order of finish, then (country, PGA TOUR or Web.com) age; Web.com career starts, wins, wins this Web.com season; PGA TOUR starts, wins): 1. Peter Uihlein (USA, PGA TOUR, 28; 5, 1, 1; 30, 0) 2. Jonathan Byrd (USA, Web.com, 39; 69, 2, 1; 366, 5) 3. Nicholas Lindheim (USA, PGA TOUR, 32; 59, 2, 1; 22, 0) 4. Bob Oppenheim (USA, Web.com, 37; 169, 1, 0; 28, 0) 5. Ryan Armour (USA, PGA TOUR, 41; 241, 1, 0; 103, 0) 6. Sam Saunders (USA, PGA TOUR, 30; 83, 0, 0; 98, 0) 7. Shawn Stefani (USA, PGA TOUR, 35; 34, 2, 0; 121, 0) 8. Jonathan Randolph (USA, PGA TOUR, 29; 56, 0, 0; 52, 0) 9. Bronson Burgoon (USA, PGA TOUR, 30; 61, 0, 0; 29, 0) 10. Keith Mitchell (USA, Web.com, 25; 43, 0, 0; 1, 0) 11. Tyler Duncan (USA, Web.com, 34; 30, 0, 0; 1, 0) 12. Denny McCarthy (USA, Web.com, 24; 44, 0, 0; 3, 0) 13. Troy Merritt (USA, PGA TOUR, 31; 71, 1, 0; 155, 1) 14. Tom Lovelady (USA, Web.com, 24; 25, 0, 0; 0, 0) 15. Martin Piller (USA, Web.com, 31; 151, 6, 1; 48, 0) 16. Alex Cejka (Germany, PGA TOUR, 46; 48, 1, 0; 355, 1) 17. Matt Jones (AUS, PGA TOUR, 37; 103, 0, 0; 241, 1) 18. Cameron Tringale (USA, PGA TOUR, 30; 8, 0, 0; 217, 0) 19. Brett Stegmaier (USA, PGA TOUR, 34; 76, 0, 0; 59, 0) 20. Corey Conners (Canada, Web.com, 25; 27, 0; 10, 0) 21. Steve Wheatcroft (USA, PGA TOUR, 39; 145, 2, 0; 150, 0) 22. Chad Collins (USA, PGA TOUR, 39; 150, 2, 0; 180, 0) 23. Tom Hoge (USA, PGA TOUR, 28; 82, 0; 70, 0) 24. Joel Dahmen (USA, PGA TOUR, 29; 53, 0, 0; 17, 0) 25. Seamus Power (Ireland, PGA TOUR, 30; 51, 1, 0; 25, 0).

By the way, the PGA TOUR players dominated in the FINALS 25 by a count of 17 to 8!