Kuchar trying to decide if it's worth using a career money exemption for a full PGA Tour card

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Matt Kuchar finished his 19th consecutive season on the PGA Tour and ended it at No. 118 in the FedEx Cup, which would have been enough to keep his full card any year but this one, with the tour dropping the cutoff to the top 100 instead of the top 125. The next step for the 47-year-old Kuchar would seem to be taking one of his exemptions for career money, only it's not that simple. This is a different PGA Tour from when he first joined in 2002. There are eight signature events, four majors, The Players Championship and three FedEx Cup playoff events. Kuchar goes into 2026 not eligible for any of them. "I don't know how many starts I'll get," Kuchar said after he finished at the RSM Classic. "I don't know if using an exemption will get me any different starts. It's a tricky one. It's not going to get you into any elevated events." The question is whether his conditional status as No. 118 in the FedEx Cup will get him into roughly the same number of events as taking a career money exemption. "We're in somewhat unchartered territory," he said. "I'm guessing they've run the numbers, but I don't know how well their scenarios work out." PGA Tour officials estimate that players between No. 101 and No. 110 in the FedEx Cup — they keep that ranking all year — will get into about 16 of the 19 tournaments, and then have all of the FedEx Cup Fall except for Japan. Kuchar is eight spots below that group, and subject to drop if he doesn't play well out of the gates. He has time for his two exemptions. Even in this era of big purses, Kuchar has played so well for so long that he is No. 15 in career earnings at $61,538,738. That's just over $15.4 million ahead of the player at No. 25, so waiting another year to take the top 25 exemption won't cost him. That's what Kuchar will have to sort out in the next month before the Sony Open in Hawaii. Kuchar had only one top-10 finish this year, a tie for fifth in the John Deere Classic, but he missed only two cuts in 18 starts. "It's not the 2025 that I hoped for. It was a frustrating year," Kuchar said. "I think I missed only two cuts, but I didn't seem to put together the weeks where you hit it well and putt it well." Stricker returns Steve Stricker played only four times on the PGA Tour Champions this year before he had to shut down with an upper back injury that led to a disk replacement surgery the first week in August. Now he's ready to return at an event he had in his sights all along — the Skechers World Champions Cup, a three-way match among teams from the U.S., Europe and International (everywhere else) to be held Dec. 4-7 at Feather Sound in Clearwater, Florida. It's also a tuneup for the PNC Championship, which he again will play with daughter Izzi, a sophomore at Wisconsin and the Wisconsin State Golf Association women's player of the year. "I had this on my radar to see if I was going to get invited to play, and be able to play," Stricker said. "I thought I'd be able to play by this time." The surgery was the first week in August, and the recovery was supposed to be five weeks. Stricker said the doctor checked in on him a few weeks later. "I told him I feel like I could hit a driver and he said, 'Go ahead,'" Stricker said. "I said: 'Wait a minute. I thought it was supposed to be five weeks.' He told me I couldn't hurt anything." He still took it slow and is ready to get back to work. Jim Furyk is the U.S. captain of a five-man team. Mike Weir leads the International side and Darren Clarke is Europe's captain. They play a series of nine-hole medal play matches of various formats. Masters on the mind Sam Stevens played four times in the fall and only in his final event did he finish in the top 10, a tie for seventh among 11 players at Sea Island. That left him at No. 48 in the world ranking and waiting to see if it will hold up. The top 50 in the world at the end of the year get into the Masters. The world ranking published Monday had 13 players from the top 50 who are not already eligible. BMW PGA Championship winner Alex Noren (No. 17) and Abu Dhabi winner Aaron Rai (No. 23) are locks to finish in the top 50 and return to Augusta National. It would seem Utah winner Michael Brennan is safe at No. 36, particularly since he has only 31 tournaments on his two-year ledger. The others currently in the top 50 are Max Greyserman (32), Michael Kim (35), Rasmus Hojgaard (37), Sea Island winner Sami Valimaki (40), Billy Horschel (43), Taylor Pendrith (45), Min Woo Lee (46), Johnny Keefer (47) and Nico Echavarria (50). The European tour still has five tournaments on the schedule. Horschel is in the Hero World Challenge next week in the Bahamas. Augusta National also will take the top 50 a full week before the Masters. "I'm in a nice spot where like if I can just play well at some point in between now and next April, I'll get in," said Stevens, who is not playing the rest of the year. "But it would be nice to just know at the end of the year if I'm going to get in or not." Cashing in Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand didn't have her best year on the LPGA, at least until the end. A two-time winner on the LPGA, she registered only one top 10 — a tie for 10th in the Tournament of Champions to start the year. But she managed to finish 45th in the Race to CME Globe to get into the season finale at Tiburon Golf Club. And then she played her best golf, briefly challenging Jeeno Thitikul in the final round before finishing four shots behind. But that runner-up finish — her best result in 67 starts dating to her Match Play win in 2023 — came with a $1 million check. That not only is the largest payoff of her career, it nearly doubled her season earnings from the previous 25 starts of 2025. She came into the CME Group Tour Championship at $540,806. "Just been an awesome week. Just no complaints. I mean, gratitude," Anannarukarn said. "I'm just really happy with how I was able to perform well and to celebrate my friend for back-to-back wins, so that was pretty cool." Divots María José Marín of Colombia won the Women's Amateur Latin America and earned a spot in The Chevron Championship, the Women's British Open and the Evian Championship. ... Marcus Byrd is the Advocates Professional Golf Association player of the year for his two victories and four runner-up finishes. He received a $15,000 bonus. ... Lorena Ochoa won the Women's British Open in 2007 the first time it was held at St. Andrews. Now the Mexican star has become an honorary member of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club. Stat of the week The LPGA had 43 players earn at least $1 million in 2025. Ten years ago, the LPGA had only nine players make $1 million or more. Final word "The guys that come in here and kind of feel sorry for themselves, I have no pity for because you played it, you know what I mean? You played every shot this year. Same way as me. I'm where I am because of my golf, nobody anybody else's golf." — Lee Hodges, who finished at No. 101 in the FedEx Cup.