12 players with something (or everything) to play for as FedEx Fall nears finish

Professional golf’s offseason, especially post-Ryder Cup, is relatively quiet. 

The superstars are either at home or playing abroad. The FedEx Fall is a different kind of chase, with players either looking to play their way into Signature Events, find form that has eluded them or keep their card and full playing privileges for 2026. 

Three FedEx Fall events have come and gone. Scottie Scheffler won the Procore Championship, Steven Fisk won the Sanderson Farms and Xander Schauffele triumphed in Japan at the Baycurrent Classic. 

The fall season can be described as sleepy, for fans and media alike, but there are still noteworthy storylines to follow during the final month of the “extended season.”

The majority of the drama will center around guys fighting to keep their card and fully-exempt status in 2026. Joel Dahmen, who sits at No. 103, headlines a cast of bubble players who will need to grind out the next four events to get on the right side of the line and remain fully-exempt on the PGA Tour.

That’s where the intrigue for the Fall finale begins.

Fighting to keep their card

Joel Dahmen (No. 103): Dahmen retained his PGA Tour card on the final day of the season last year at the RSM Classic. That was when the cut-off was 125. Now, with the cut-off at 100, Dahmen is once again on the edge with just four tournaments left. 

Now 37 and ranked No. 187 in the world, these next four weeks could wind up being critical for the trajectory of his career. The top 100 players get guaranteed spots into next year’s full-field events and the Players Championship. With field sizes shrinking to 144 (the Players is going down to 120), the difference between finishing 100 and just outside will be monumental. 

Dahmen started the FedEx Fall at No.93, but he missed the cut at the Procore and the Sanderson Farms before finishing T69 in the 78-man, no-cut Baycurrent Classic. He has now missed nine cuts in his last 14 starts and will need to find something during the next month to keep his full playing privileges. 

Isaiah Salinda (No. 101): One of several PGA Tour rookies hoping to stay on the top circuit this fall, Salinda has a fascinating story and an engaging personality. 

The Stanford product is the son of immigrants from the Philippines. He has a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which forces him to watch his heart rate during workouts. Salinda also wants to be a new type of professional golfer — one who breaks the mold. 

“Too many guys out here are just kind of cookie-cutter, vanilla shortbread cookies, you know what I mean? I’m trying to be different,” Salinda said during the rookie breakfast at the Players.

“Buddy, I talk too much s—,” Salinda later said. “To the point where I think not too many people like me out here.”

Salinda wants to stand out. He finished third at the Mexico Open and T11 at the Houston Children’s Open. But a tough summer has him on the wrong side of the top-100 line with four events left. 

Harry Higgs (No. 118): One of pro golf’s characters, Higgs had just one top-10 finish this season which came at the Myrtle Beach Classic. He missed the cut at the Procore Championship and finished T55 at the Sanderson Farms, which has dropped him to 118 with four tournaments to go. 

Lanto Griffin (No. 108): Had it not been a Ryder Cup year or had the Ryder Cup not been in America, Lanto Griffin might have already locked up a two-year exemption this fall. 

He finished third at the Procore Championship, behind Scottie Scheffler and Ben Griffin, both of whom were only in the field as a tune-up for the Ryder Cup. That performance moved Lanto Griffin on the right side of the bubble, but a missed cut at the Sanderson dropped him back down to 108.

“Obviously, you want to win but keeping your job … I went to Q-School last year and somehow won and extended the life [of my career],” Lanto Griffin said at the Procore. “This week, somehow, it all came together. Going to come up a little bit short. Kind of wish Scottie wasn’t here but I know all the fans enjoyed it. Just proud of myself. … Playing good golf is so much fun and playing bad golf is pretty brutal on your psyche. I’ve put a lot of hard work in these last five weeks since Wyndham, so it’s kind of nice to see it come together.”

Griffin medaled at Q-School last fall to remain on the PGA Tour. He’ll need similar magic over the next month to get off the bubble. 

Sam Ryder (No. 106): The 35-year-old had a tough year on the course. Ryder finished T14 at the Players and T25 at the Farmers Insurance Open but has not cracked the top 10 in a tournament this year. His best post-Players finishes were at the Myrtle Beach Classic (T13) and Barracuda (T14). He missed the cut at the Procore but went T29-T20 in Mississippi and Japan to get himself close to the 100 cutoff. 

“I think the correct answer is let the chips fall where they may and focus on what you can control,” Ryder said at the Sanderson Farms about fighting to keep his card. “I can’t control how people play. Really I just know — it’s really more process-oriented stuff. I’m very aware where I’m at. You know it all year. You get a text every single week that tells you exactly where you are on FedEx. You can’t hide from it.”

Ryder has finished between Nos. 101 and 125 in six of his seven seasons on the PGA Tour. He’ll need to find a way to do better than average to stay on the big tour.

The Siggy Hunters (looking to finish in the top 60)

Garrick Higgo (current rank: 57): The left-handed South African is exempt on Tour for 2026 thanks to his win at the Corales Puntacana Championship. But a T7-2-T4 run through the first three FedEx Fall events has pushed Higgo inside the top 60 and has him on track to earn a ticket to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am and the Genesis Invitational via the AON Next 10. 

The 26-year-old Higgo already has two wins in his PGA Tour career, but he could parlay his fall success into a breakthrough 2026, as Ludvig Aberg and Maverick McNealy have in past years. 

Higgo is currently the only player who started the fall season outside the top 60 to move on the other side of the cutoff.

Wyndham Clark (No. 59): The 2023 U.S. Open champion had a 2025 to forget, which included destroying a locker at Oakmont Country Club during the U.S. Open and being suspended by the club for his actions. 

Clark showed signs of life late in the summer, going T11-T4 at the Scottish and Open Championships. He is already exempt into Pebble Beach by virtue of his 2024 win, but he’d like to ensure he stays inside the top 60 to get into Riviera. Clark finished T48 at the Baycurrent Classic and isn’t in the field this week in Utah. However, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him play in one of the final events to lock his spot up as he looks for a bounce-back 2026. 

Michael Thorbjornsen (No. 72): The former World No. 1 amateur has gone T13-T29-3 in three fall starts to jump to No. 72 and lock up his card for 2026. After a shaky start to 2025 that saw him miss five of his first seven cuts, Thorbjornsen has only missed one cut since mid-April and appears to be in line to make a leap. A strong finish to the fall should set him up to do just that in 2026. 

Rasmus Hojgaard (No. 74): The talented Dane has accomplished a lot in his young career. He is a multi-time DP World Tour winner, he finished runner-up in the Race To Dubai last season, earned his PGA Tour card and made his Ryder Cup debut this fall at Bethpage Black. 

Playing in the Ryder Cup has sparked many breakthroughs, and Hojgaard hopes his experience at Bethpage Black propels him to a better 2026 on the PGA Tour. 

So far, so good. 

Hojgaard left Bethpage and teed it up in the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he finished T3. He backed that up with a T14 at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan and has gone from 87 to 74 in the FedEx Fall standings. He said he would play as much as possible this fall to secure his card, but a couple more good finishes could propel him inside the top-60 mark. Either way, Hojgaard has virtually locked up his card for next season. 

Big names looking for form

Max Homa (No. 100): Homa is exempt through 2028, but the six-time PGA Tour winner is trying to find something during the fall that can propel him back to the heights he previously enjoyed during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. 

Homa’s only top-10 finish of the season came at the John Deere Classic. He has gone T19-T18-T40 in three fall starts, so perhaps the arrow is starting to trend up. He’ll tee it up this week in Utah as his search continues. 

Tom Kim (No. 94): Kim’s card is locked up through 2026, so he’s not in danger of losing his fully-exempt status. But the 23-year-old hoped to use the fall season to make a run at the top 60, but has stayed put at No. 94 after going 72-T11-T56 across Napa, Mississippi and Japan. Kim is not in this week’s field in Utah. 

Billy Horschel (No. 112): This is Horschel’s first start on U.S. soil since he underwent surgery on his right hip in May. Horschel missed the cut at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and then finished T54 at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan. His card is secure for 2026, but Horschel can still try to play his way into the top 60 or at least sharpen his form as the new year approaches.