Top-ranked Scot Robert MacIntyre has been handed a huge ‘carrot’ of ‘Special Temporary’ PGA Tour membership as he seeks his full 2021/22 season Tour card at this week’s Wyndham Championship in North Carolina.
MacIntyre was offered ‘temporary’ membership straight after sharing 15th place in Sunday’s concluding WGC – FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.
The WGC was MacIntyre’s 12th on the PGA Tour’s 2020/21 schedule.
The Tour’s guidelines,in general, state: “A player earns PGA Tour Special Temporary Membership by earning enough non-member FedEx Cup points in 12 Tour events to equal the player who finished 150th in FedEx Cup points in the prior season.
“When a player earns PGA Tour Special Temporary Membership, they are able to accept unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the season and with the ultimate goal to earn enough FedEx Cup points to finish in the top 125 at the end of the regular season”.
Robert MacIntyre handed a big PGA Tour carrot teeing-up at this week’s regular season-ending Wyndham Championship
MacIntyre’s Memphis finish lifted his Tour prize earnings in his dozen events to $US 641, 825 and just $US 5,912 inside the $US 635,883 American Scott Langley earned in finishing 150th on the 2018/19 money list. Last year’s 2019/20 money list standings did not count towards Special Temporary Membership due to two months being lost to a Covid-19 lockdown of competition.
However, there’s a big catch for MacIntyre teeing-up this week as the Wyndham Championship is the last of the ‘regular’ 2020/21 PGA Tour season.
In teeing-up on the Sedgefield Country Club course MacIntyre’s PGA Tour earnings this season would see him lying 152nd on the money list but only if he were a member, and it effectively means the Scot must finish top-4 to break inside the top-125 in the Wyndham to gain full Tour membership for next week’s start to the Play-Off series as well as the commencement early next month of the 2021/22 season.
Joining MacIntyre this week will be fellow Scots Martin Laird and Russell Knox and each assured of retaining their Tour card.
Meantime … MacIntyre was delighted for good friend Grant Forrest and looking forward to helping celebrate his Hero Open triumph at St. Andrews.
Forrest, and under the same management umbrella as MacIntyre, brilliantly birdied his closing two holes to come from one behind England’s James Morrison, to claim a maiden Tour title.
Forrest’s win was nine months to the day MacIntyre broke through for his first taste of success at the Cyprus showdown.
MacIntyre was into his final round at the WGC – FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis whne he learnt of Forrest’s victory.
MacIntyre said: “Brilliant. If I’m not winning, I hope another Scot wins.
“They were all jockeying for position on Saturday night so I didn’t message any of them and just left them to it.
“If it wasn’t Grant, it was looking like it was going to be Calum (Hill). If it wasn’t Calum, it was looking like it was going to be Davy (Law).
“Scottish golf is in a good place. It’s been getting bad press for the last couple of years, but just now it’s in as good a spot as it’s been in a long time.
“I’m sure Grant would have had a few drinks to celebrate and I sent him a message to congratulate him, and also now looking forward to catching-up with him”.
