Sunday was Zac Blair’s 27th birthday, but the Ogden native and former BYU golfer didn’t receive the present he wished for most — continued exempt status on the PGA Tour.
Blair was right on the cut line for the 125th and final spot for status in next season’s PGA Tour going into the final round of the Wydham Championship Sunday. However he got passed up by several players and ended up in the dreaded 126th position.
Blair was edged out by one point by J.J. Henry, who moved up nine spots, thanks to a final-round 67, to finish with 365 FedEx points, just ahead of Blair’s 364. Henry birdied two of the final three holes to knock Blair out. Also passing Blair up were Harold Varner III, Rory Sabbatini and Martin Flores, who needing two birdies with three holes left, made a hole-in-one at the par-3 16th, then added a birdie at No. 18.
Also dropping out of the top 125 was Farmington native Daniel Summerhays, who missed Friday’s cut and fell from No. 124 to No. 131 in the final Fed-Ex standings for 2016-17.
All is not lost for the two Utah natives, however, who have a chance to gain status for next year in the upcoming Web.com Tour finals beginning Aug. 31 in Ohio. That series features the players ranked 125 to 200 in the FedEx standings and the top 75 on the Web.com Tour money list. The top 25 players, besides the top 25 from the Web.com Tour regular season, will gain status for next year’s PGA Tour after a four-tournament series.
The other Utah golfer on the PGA Tour, Salt Lake native Tony Finau, is solid for next year, standing in 28th place in the FedEx Cup standings. If he can stay in the top 30 over the next three weeks of the FedEx playoffs, he will earn a spot in the season-ending Tour Championship, which will earn him exemptions into the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open as well as a minimum of more than $300,000 additional earnings.