Seeking Status: New faces playing in New Places on the Ladder of Professional Golf

The professional life of the golfer competing at the game's highest levels is determined by his "status," and where that status allows that player to compete. That status is earned, and it determines where and for how much money he is has the opportunity to play for. 

Each entry into a professional event provides a player another opportunity to allow his play to determine the quality of future opportunities.

Every stroke played can make the difference between playing in future events or being pushed aside by players who played in fewer strokes. 

Points. Standings. Rankings. Categories. Reshuffles. Monday Qualifying. Sponsor Exemptions. 

Each week, the world of professional golf changes, a weekly re-ordering of itself based on the previous week's results. Each week, every player's place in the professional game changes, sometimes drastically, sometimes barely at all.

This is the life of a professional golfer at the game's highest level, showing up again and again, taking one beating after another, remaining confident that the next day could be the day that changes the arc of a career, and maybe even a life.  

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The headlines bursting out of professional golf this summer were dominated (and rightly so) by Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele. 

Both had exceptional 2024 seasons.

Even after notching six wins before the month of July, including his second Masters title, Scheffler still needed to erase any Player of the Year doubts, and, boy did he ever. Scottie added to his 2024 portfolio an Olympic golf medal and a PGA Tour Championship, which only bolstered the once-thought-impossible stratospheric comparisons with Tiger Woods' achievements some twenty years ago. 

"Still don't understand why the Olympics doesn't count," Scheffler said when asked about his seven PGA Tour wins this season. "That's a bit weird to me. 

"I think that's part of the greed that goes on in your brain is you say seven, I'm like, I won eight. I won the Olympics in the middle of the year, and for some reason it doesn't count as an official PGA TOUR win. ...

"But overall, it's been a great year. I'm proud of the results.  It's something I try not to focus too much on, but at the end of the day, being able to win tournaments is a great feeling, and it's what we work towards, and to be able to have as many wins as I have this year is really special."

Schauffele, meanwhile, finally broke through his major-championship contender ceiling by finally capturing not only his first major title - the 2024 PGA Championship - but making 2024 a two-fer with a win at The Open Championship at Royal Troon. Both titles came after final-round 65s that have been compared to some of the best major-championship closes of all-time. 

Yet, while the cameras and endless chatter on CBS, NBC and the Golf Channel endlessly exalted the accomplishments of the game's top two players, there were other players busy either re-establishing themselves at previous levels of success or breaking ground on new heights of achievement. 

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Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa may not be satisfied with a season in which he did not add another title to his accomplishments, but he did enough from the Masters through the Tour Championship to move from regain a top-5 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings, moving from No. 20 in April to No. 4.

Playing 14 individual events, not counting the Zurich two-man finish, Morikawa posted five top-5 finishes, including a T3 at the Masters, a T4 at the PGA Championship, on top of second-place finishes in the Memorial and Tour Championship, where he happened to post the lowest score only to be undone by the PGA Tour's staggered start format. 

Morikawa, in his fourth full year of PGA Tour competition since breaking into the major championship circles in the 2020 PGA, add five other finishes T16 or better, including a T14 at the U.S. Open and a T16 at The Open Championship. 

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Meanwhile, from the LIV Tour side of things, where OWGR rankings have no relevant meaning, Bryson DeChambeau managed to bounce back from No. 210 in the OWGR to number 10 after capturing his second U.S. Open with the shot of the year - a mind-boggling xx-yard sand save for par on the 72nd hole. The only other two times the golf world saw DeChambeau, he checked in with a 2nd-place finish at the PGA, finishing a shot back of Schauffele, and a T6 at the Masters, his best finish so far at Augusta National.

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The 44-year-old Adam Scott, who was the No. 1 player in the world for four months in 2014, went into the Masters ranked No. 53 in the OWGR, and fell to 64 a month later, his lowest world ranking since November, 2001.

Then, this summer, he found something. Scott finished second at the Genesis Scottish Open, then T10 at The Open Championship, before having one of the best PGA Tour's FEDEX playoff runs (of those who did not win an event) of 2024. 

Adam Scott's Major Championship Record

Scott entered the playoffs ranked 41st in the FedEx Cup standings, and finished T18 at the FedEx St. Judges, holding his place and securing entry into the tour's 2024 Signature events. A second-round, 9-under-par 63 thrust him into contention at the BMW, where he carried that momentum to a T2 finish that moved him up to 14th in the FEDEX Cup Standings. 

While Scheffler and Morikawa were making the most noise at the Tour Championship, Scott continued his run with a T4 finish that moved him up to fourth in the FEDEx Cup standings, and 18 in the OWGR, the first time Scott's been in the world's top-20 since December, 2020. 

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After a five-month rough patch for the ever-present Sungjae Im - a span of 12 events with only one top-5 finish - had him ranked No. 41 going into Augusta before rallying to his current No. 20 spot, despite missing the cut at the year's first three major championships. Im posted three top-5 finishes this summer, including a T3 at Travelers and a T4 at the Genesis Scottish Open.

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When the calendar turned to April this year, Billy Horschel had failed to earn an invitation to the 2024 Masters, and was sitting at No. 83 in the OWGR, this just two months removed from a 94th spot that threatened to end his streak as a top-100 player in the world dating back to April, 2013. 

A week later, the 37-year-old won his eighth PGA Tour title, capturing the opposite-field Corales Puntacana, in his next start. A T8 at the PGA in May turned out to be a stepping stone to the climax of his summer, a T2 at The Open Championship at Royal Troon. His 2024 summer run has moved him up to 25th in the OWGR, and fully qualified for the Tour's 2025 Signature event schedule, not to mention earning a place in the field at the 2025 Masters Tournament.

Billy Horschel's Major Championship Record

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Another name that bubbled to the surface of golf's headlines this summer was Davis Thompson, the 6-foot-4, 24-year-old University of Georgia grad who started a four-week run with his first top-10 finish in a major championship - a T9 at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. 

Two weeks later, Thompson finished second at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and a week after that he posted a 28-under-par score of 256 to win the John Deere Classic by four shots. 

In month, Thompson jumped from 76th to 22nd on the FedEx Cup points list, and by the time the season ended, he had catapulted from 120th in the OWGR to 43rd, finishing 34th in the FedExCup rankings to earn himself a spot in each of the 2025 PGA Tour Signature events. 

76th to 22nd on the FedExCup points list. 

Davis Thompson's Major Championship Record

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Over the last two months on the Korn Ferry Tour, Matt McCarty has won three KFT events, earning himself a PGA Tour card, and an automatic promotion to the circuit. Not only has McCarty jumped from No. 353 to 76th in the OWGR, he's eligible to play the PGA Tour's FedEx Fall schedule. 

“I haven’t really thought about it,” McCarty said. “The goal is to get the No. 1 spot. We’ll maybe play some (FedExCup) Fall events, have some fun out there and look forward to continuing to get better and compete out there next year.”

In the seven weeks on the Korn Ferry Tour the 26-year-old left-hander failed to win after holding a three-shot lead after 54 holes, he found himself holding a winner's trophy three times, the first time after posting 25-under, the second at 14-under, and the third after posting 21-under in the first KFT playoff event in Boise. The winner's check and trophy were bonuses.

“The card was the best part. I got handed my (PGA TOUR) badges walking out of scoring, so that was pretty cool, too. I knew I was going to get it, but it’s different having it.”

In the six KFT events he played during that span he was winning, McCarty was 112-under-par, adding a T2 and a T9 finish. Over his last eight KFT events, McCarty has signed scorecards totaling 145-under-par.

The last player to earn a three-victory promotion was Mito Pereira, who did it in the 2020-21 season, which spanned two years due to COVID-19. The last Korn Ferry Tour player to win three times in a single calendar year season was Wesley Bryan in 2016.

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Since April, 29-year-old Max McGreevy has won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour, adding a second and two thirds in 16 KFT starts, moving from No. 357 to 109 on the OWGR during that span. 

McGreevy returns to the PGA Tour, where he made just 10 cuts in 37 events in the 2022-23 season, with his lone top-10 finish a T8 in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in October, 2022.

McGreevy earned his first TOUR card via the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, an extended two-year season because of COVID-19.

“I've kind of been playing for seven years now, so I think I've figured out the ways to calm myself down, to take a second,” McGreevy said after his first 2024 KFT victory in May. “Maybe it took a couple of years for me to figure that out, but I've gotten to the point where I can actually relax a little bit more on the golf course rather than what I did in the past."