Simply Mav-elous finish to PGA season
McNealy wins, Clanton shines, Dahmen survives; Thitikul caps a lucrative LPGA finale
Maverick McNealy roars after finally breaking through at Sea Island (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
The final official PGA Tour event of 2024 offered plenty of drama and storylines, with Maverick McNealy getting his first victory by making a birdie on the 18th hole to emerge from a four-way tie and win the RSM Classic.
Among the players he beat was Florida State junior Luke Clanton, who amazingly now has four top-10 finishes this year as an amateur, including two runner-ups, and is well on his way to earning his PGA Tour status next year via PGA Tour University.
Clanton bogeyed the 18th to fall into a tie with McNealy, Daniel Berger (a four-time winner who is fighting his way back from injuries) and Nico Echavarria, who was bidding for his second victory in the last month in addition to the Zozo Championship.
“It’s going to be a tough one to definitely take, for sure, after bogeying the last, but I think it’s proven to me that out here I can win, so I’ll be training for that,” said Clanton.
McNealy, who starred at Stanford before turning pro, shot 68 to win in his 142nd PGA Tour start.
“It takes all year to have a bad year and it takes one week to have a great year,” said McNealy.
But as is typically the case at the season-ending tournament in Sea Island, Georgia, there was just as much tension around those players attempting to earn full status for 2025 via the top 125 on the final FedEx Cup points list.
That quest took on even more meaning through the FedEx Fall as it was disclosed that the PGA Tour would be shifting to fewer exempt spots in 2026. It means being part of the top 125 is imperative to have a fighting chance in a very competitive landscape to be fully exempt again in 2026.
Berger, who was 127th heading into the week, moved to 100th with his tie for second. Henrik Norlander jumped from 126 to 120 via a tie for 17th. The two who fell out were Zac Blair and Wesley Bryan, both of whom missed the cut.
Then there was the plight of Joel Dahmen and Hayden Springer, both of whom were battling to keep their cards.
Dahmen was projected outside on the number as the final round began, then shot 64 to secure his card.
Springer ended up on the outside looking in, unable to do enough to stay inside the top 125 where he was projected through three rounds. He was the only player among the five who advanced onto the PGA Tour this year via the PGA Tour’s Qualifying Tournament who had an opportunity to keep his card.
For Dahmen, it was particularly emotional and stressful. He felt he had perhaps blown his opportunity on Saturday when he made a double bogey during the third round. It necessitated what he did on Sunday by getting off to a fast start and never making a bogey — including a crucial 6-footer at the last hole for par.
Dahmen had made a 5-footer for par on Friday to make the 36-hole cut on the number and give himself a chance, one that he took.
“Makes you appreciate things a little more when times are tough,” Dahmen said. “I thought a lot about everything. It came down to the last putt this week. I hit thousands of golf shots this year, missed a lot of cuts, had a lot of opportunities to do everything, so I didn’t have to come to this. So I was thankful for the opportunity today, but I don’t want to go through this every again.
On Saturday, Dahmen, 37, a one-time PGA Tour winner but popular player due to his Netflix “Full Swing” appearance, said the mood was “somber, say funereal effect.”
“Lona, my wife, did an amazing job of letting me ... I’d say grieve,” he said. “Just like driving, going to pick up my kid thinking, man, it would be really cool if I could pick up my kid for five more years from this daycare thing and maybe not having that opportunity. And the kid’s amazing, he doesn’t care and he’s so much fun. But he was playing and Lona and I were just kind of sitting there and I was just staring off into the wall.
“She was like, ‘are you okay?’ I’m like, ‘no, I’m not okay, I want this to happen.’ She’s like, ‘well, you can still play golf tomorrow, right? It’s not over.’ And that was kind of one of those things, like the switch flipped. It was about two hours after the round probably when the switch flipped for me to be able to kind of pull myself back up for today.”
Norlander is an example of how not all is necessarily lost if not fully exempt. He was 126th in FedEx points in 2023, meaning he only had conditional status. That also means often being an alternate to get in tournaments. Norlander was left out at places like the American Express and the Farmers Insurance Open.
But he made the most of his 20 starts and a 63 on Saturday put him in position to be fully exempt — as well as in the Players Championship — next year.
Springer shot 63 on Saturday as well but couldn’t follow it up Sunday. He 70 left him in a tie for 30th, which meant 127th on the final list. He’ll get conditional spots the same way Norlander did this year, but they’ll likely be tougher to come by as players who have them are unlikely to skip.
“I’ve dreamed about being out here for a long time, so it’s really cool to be able to have a full season and to be able to do that,” Springer said of his 2024 campaign. “It’s been awesome and it’s a really great experience. It’s only going to make me better. I think I learned a lot and will come out the other side better no matter what. ... I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of the fight, but I think that there’s more in there.”
Springer could attempt to improve his position by heading to the final stage of the Q-School, where five cards will again be offered. And he has the ability to play a full schedule, if he desires, on the Korn Ferry Tour, where there will be 20 spots to earn for 2026.
When it was over Sunday, Springer said he was unsure what he would do.