By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer
The Wyndham Championship is the last chance for players to qualify for the PGA Tour’s postseason. It’s also a reminder that so much in golf still must be earned.
Sahith Theegala and Max Homa are two examples, both of them part of the winning American team at the Presidents Cup last year in Montreal.
Theegala, who finished at No. 3 in the FedEx Cup last year and picked up a $7.5 million bonus, had not finished in the top 10 until running into neck trouble in May. He withdrew from three tournaments, including the PGA Championship, to rest it.
He returned at the British Open and missed two straight cuts. Now he is No. 144 and needs nothing short of a victory at the Wyndham Championship to qualifying for the postseason.
Homa has been in a slump for 15 months, and he started this year with a new coach and new equipment. He feels progress in his swing, but not his results. Now he’s at No. 106, and likely needs a runner-up finish to have any hope of extending his season.
Adding to the stress for Homa is his wife is due with their second child next week. He was not eligible for the U.S. Open or British Open. He is still grinding.
“My wife is very, very pregnant right now so really like to win one of the next two so I could skip an event coming up just so I could keep the stress level low in our household,” he said at the Barracuda Championship, held opposite the British Open.
He tied for 45th at the Barracuda, and he tied for 39th in Minnesota.
Three players from the International team in the Presidents Cup are outside the top 70 going into the final regular-season event — Adam Scott, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Tom Kim.
The FedEx Cup standings going into the Wyndham Championship show some 20 players who were in the playoffs a year ago now outside the top 70. That includes Billy Horschel and Will Zalatoris, both out with injuries.
Among the players in the top 70 who missed the postseason last year are U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, two-time winner Brian Campbell and Chris Gotterup. They are among nine players who have won on the PGA Tour this year and are inside the top 70. Winning always helps.
Scottie Scheffler, meanwhile, will pick up $18 million without playing this week.
The PGA Tour has redistributed the FedEx Cup bonus money so the leader of the FedEx Cup after the regular season gets $10 million, along with $8 million from the Comcast Business Top 10. He is assured of both.
LIV to South Africa
The Saudi-backed LIV Golf League is making it increasingly clear it is going to markets around the world. Its biggest draw is in Adelaide, Australia. Now it is adding South Africa.
LIV has announced LIV Golf South Africa has part of its 2026 schedule in a multi-year commitment. It will be the first time the fledgling league goes to South Africa, the fifth continent on which it has been played since LIV launched in 2022.
Steyn City in Johannesburg will host the new event on March 20-22, one week after The Players Championship. Steyn City most recently held the Jonsson Workwear Open in 2023, which was co-sanctioned by the European Tour and Sunshine Tour.
Meanwhile, Sports Business Journal reported this week the total prize fund for LIV events will be increasing by $5 million to $30 million, with $10 million devoted to team competition. There would still be a $20 million purse ($4 million to the winner) for the individuals.
Hall of Fame to St. Andrews
St. Andrews will be hosting the British Open for the 31st time in 2027, a week that will include another World Golf Hall of Fame induction.
The shrine is now located at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, where the USGA has a second headquarters. Padraig Harrington led the induction class at Pinehurst in 2024.
The next induction will be at St. Andrews, which previously held a Hall of Fame ceremony in 2015 when Mark O’Meara, Laura Davies and David Graham were among those inducted. Davies missed out when her flight from the U.S. Women’s Open was delayed. She at least arrived in time for the reception.
“There is no better connection to golf’s rich history and the origins of the game than at St. Andrews,” said Mike Trostel, director of the World Golf Hall of Fame. “We are thrilled to celebrate the next class of golf’s greatest figures at the home of golf and are grateful for the collaboration with our partners at The R&A.”
The Hall of Fame induction is now every two years. It will return to Pinehurst in 2029, when the USGA has the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in consecutive weeks.
Magic number
Golf’s magic number is starting to lose some of its magic.
Brett White became the latest player with to shoot 59, doing so in dramatic fashion by making a 50-foot eagle putt on the last hole. That got him into a three-way playoff that he won in the Commissionaires Ottawa Open on the PGA Tour Americas.
This was one day after Philip Barbaree Jr. shot 59 in Ottawa. It was the second time two players shot 59 or lower in the same tournament. Cristobal Del Solar (57) and Aldrich Potgieter (59) did it at the Astara Golf Championship in Colombia on the Korn Ferry Tour last year.
Yes, it’s still a big deal to have any sub-60 score in tournament golf. But it’s happening with greater frequency. White had the fifth sub-60 round this year on tours around the world. There were nine such scores a year ago.
The last time no score of 59 or lower was recorded on any tour was 2012.
On The Move
The Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament on the PGA Tour Champions was quickly established as a popular spot being held at Timuquana in Jacksonville, Florida, a Donald Ross design along the St. Johns River.
That ends this year, and the tournament is moving in 2026 some 60 miles south to Ocean Course at Hammock Beach in Palm Coast, a Jack Nicklaus signature design where Michelle Wie in 2003 won the Women’s Amateur Public Links at age 13. It also hosted PGA Tour Champions events in 2007 and 2008.
“We are incredibly grateful to Timuquana Country Club and the entire Jacksonville community for an unforgettable five years,” said Jim Furyk, host of a tournament that has raised more than $5 million for charity since 2021.
“We’re proud of what we’ve built and excited for the opportunity to continue growing at Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa.”
Divots
The Senior British Open will return to Gleneagles next year for the second time. Darren Clarke won in 2022 when it was last held at course that hosted the 2014 Ryder Cup. … Rio Takeda and Ayaka Furue have played 18 of the 19 tournaments on the LPGA schedule this year. Both missed only the LPGA Match Play at Shadow Creek. … Three players who won opposite-field events this year are not among the top 70 in the FedEx Cup — Karl Vilips, William Mouw and Garrick Higgo.
Stat of the week
Joaquin Niemann has five wins in the LIV Golf League this year. He has not finished in the top 10 in his other six LIV events.
Final word
“It’s the first time I think I’ve ever cried happy tears on the golf course.” — Mia Hammond, the 17-year-old from Ohio after winning the Greater Toledo Classic. She is the second-youngest winner on the Epson Tour.