By John Strege
Only in the Web.com Tour Championship can players finish second or third and still celebrate like winners, as a foursome that included PGA Tour veterans Lucas Glover and Cameron Tringale did on Sunday.

Denny McCarthy, 25, won the tournament at the Atlantic Beach (Fla.) Country Club by four strokes to earn a return to the PGA Tour for a second straight year.

“I just did what I’ve been doing the last three or four months now,” McCarthy, a former Walker Cup player, said. “I’ve been playing some really good golf. Just stuck to the process and I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better the last three or four months and I’ve been knocking on the door for quite some time now. And what better way to finish it off than with a win this week.”

Glover and Tringale, meanwhile, were coming off disappointing PGA Tour seasons, requiring that in the Web.com Tour finals they finish among the top 25 money winners (among those who had not finished in the top 25 in the regular season) to earn a PGA Tour card for 2018-’19.

A former U.S. Open champion, Glover, 38, came into the Tour Championship 40th in earnings in the three previous events, yet finished second to jump to seventh to regain his full PGA Tour exemption.

Glover entered the final round tied with McCarthy for the lead. The latter shot a six-under par 65 to complete 72 holes in 23-under 261. Glover finished with a two-under 69.

Tringale, 31 and a nine-year PGA Tour veteran, began the Tour Championship tied for 83rd in earnings and by finishing in a tie for third jumped all the way to 21st to return to the PGA Tour.

Two other lesser-known players made significant jumps to earn PGA Tour cards: Sepp Straka moved from a tie for 80th to 20th by tying for third and Ben Silverman moved from a T85 to 22nd by also tying for third.

They represent the ecstasy part of the tournament. Agony was represented by Chad Campbell, 44, a winner of four PGA Tour events. Campbell needed to hole a 10-foot birdie putt at 18 to get into the 25 and missed. He tied for eighth in the tournament, but finished 39th in earnings in the finals series.

He’ll still get an ample number of PGA Tour starts on his past champion status, but he won’t have the freedom to lay out his own schedule.

Australian Curtis Luck, 22, a former No. 1 in the World Amateur Ranking and a former U.S. Amateur champion, tied for eighth and earned a promotion to the PGA Tour.

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By John Strege
One of golf’s endearing traits is that it is equitable, that one succeeds or fails based on numbers on a scorecard. But that does not inoculate those who play it for a living from the cruelty the numbers can cause.

The Web.com Tour Championship begins Thursday, and as it does every year, painfully illustrates that point. Among those in the field at the Atlantic Beach Country Club in Atlantic Beach, Fla., is Lucas Glover, who won the U.S. Open in 2009 and once ranked as high as 15th in the world.

He is in the field in a bid to regain a full PGA Tour exemption. In 18 events on the PGA Tour this year, Glover, 38, finished 135th on the FedEx Cup points list to lose his full exemption.

So in an effort to improve his PGA Tour access he entered the Web.com Tour finals, where the top 25 money earners in the four-tournament series earn a PGA Tour card for the 2018-’19 season.

A U.S. Open Trophy looks great on a mantel, but it won’t help if the numbers don’t add. After the first three events in the finals, Glover’s number is an anemic $17,212, 46th on the money list.

This is not to pick on Glover, who is not alone. Hunter Mahan, who has played on three U.S. Ryder Cup teams and four Presidents Cup teams, also entered the final series. He is not in the Tour Championship field because he tied for second in the DAP Championship presented by NewBrick, the second of the four events, to earn enough to finish among the 25.

The field in Atlantic Beach is dotted with recognizable names, among them Australians Stuart Appleby and Aaron Baddeley. Appleby has nine PGA Tour victories and Baddeley has four.

Other PGA Tour winners playing in the Tour Championship include Ben Crane, defending champion Jonathan Byrd, Matt Every, David Lingmerth, Chad Campbell, Jim Herman, Andres Romero, J.J. Henry, John Senden and John Merrick.

Two former Nos. 1 in the World Amateur Ranking, Maverick McNealy and Curtis Luck, also are playing, attempting to jump-start their professional careers.

A strong resume is nice to have, but it promises nothing in a sport that continually asks what you have done lately.

The post A former U.S. Open champion, Lucas Glover, among those playing for a PGA Tour card in Web.com Tour Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall

The amount of heartbreaks suffered by minor leaguers in pursuit of their PGA Tour card are so plentiful that books have been dedicated to the subject. Add Matt Harmon’s tale to this mountain of misery.

Harmon entered the Web.com Tour Championship in 29th place in the circuit’s Finals standings, with the top 25 earning a PGA Tour card for the 2017-18 season (which, coincidentally, starts this week at the Safeway Open). He put himself in position to gain status through three days at Atlantic Beach C.C., in 16th place starting the final round. And through 16 holes, his ship was steady, two under on his round with just two holes to go.

However, Harmon missed a chance to get to three under on the 17th, missing a three-footer for bird. His putting woes continued on the 18th, as the Michigan State grad three-jacked for bogey. Harmon finished one under on the day, a score that moved him outside the Finals top 25.

3-foot miss on 17. 3-putt on 18.

No Tour card for Matt Harmon. pic.twitter.com/waF8O0Y8Er

— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) October 2, 2017

What the GIF stops short of showing is Harmon snapping the offending putter in half before walking to the scoring area. That Harmon is first on the Web.com Tour in driving distance sadistically harkens the sport’s biggest cliche: “Drive for show, putt for dough.”

Still, you have to feel for the 32-year-old, who’s played just four PGA Tour events in his career. Golf, she is a cruel mistress.

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