What to look at at 2025 RSM Basic as gamers compete for PGA Tour playing cards

Ultimately 12 months’s RSM Basic, Joel Dahmen rolled in a 6-foot par putt on the 72nd gap to retain his full-time enjoying privileges on the PGA Tour. The one-time PGA Tour winner, who has develop into extra well-known for his function in Netflix’s “Full Swing” than his on-course enjoying, eked contained in the magic quantity amid an emotional week on St. Simons Island.

It was a feel-good story. Dahmen is a well-liked determine within the sport because of his outgoing character, and whereas his golf has maybe not but reached an analogous degree, it has usually saved him on or across the bubble of being a full-time PGA Tour member.

But it surely virtually didn’t occur.

Dahmen made one other 6-foot par putt earlier within the week, this time on Friday, to make the minimize. He began his ultimate spherical on the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Membership on the again 9 and turned in 30 thanks largely to a hole-out eagle. The one footage of the shot got here from a shot hyperlink tower, and the video was grainier than some Bermuda grass runoff areas which can be lethal sufficient to trigger golfers to get up in the midst of the night time in a chilly sweat.

All of this pushed Dahmen right into a share of thirty fifth place within the RSM Basic, 124th within the FedEx Cup standings — one slot inside the highest 125, all of whom earn full-time PGA Tour standing.

This 12 months, Dahmen arrives on the RSM Basic in a well-recognized place regardless of being inside that key quantity. The 37-year-old is No. 117 within the FedEx Cup standings — a spot that will have been protected three hundred and sixty five days in the past — in want of a large week to squeeze his manner contained in the magic quantity but once more. This time, nevertheless, that quantity has tightened and shifted to the highest 100.

With the PGA Tour making a concerted effort to trim the fats by way of fewer full-time PGA Tour playing cards, fewer Korn Ferry Tour graduates receiving PGA Tour playing cards, smaller fields and the elimination of Monday qualifiers, this week’s RSM Basic has develop into much more cutthroat.

Somebody like Dahmen wants 100 FedEx Cup factors, a shot and a prayer to climb inside the highest 100. On the similar time, he wants to take care of his place inside the highest 125 to safe conditional standing, though that’s not with out some caveats as nicely.

2026 PGA Tour Precedence Rating

How enjoying alternatives are divided amongst those that earn exempt standing. Those that meet classes in daring obtain PGA Tour playing cards in 2026, whereas these in italics have conditional standing.

Whereas discussions this time of 12 months are rightfully across the high 100 and people incomes full-time enjoying privileges, the secondary cut-off level past that quantity is simply as intriguing. Those that end Nos. 101-110 on the finish of the RSM Basic will discover themselves significantly better off than those that end Nos. 111-125, even when each tiers are solely acquiring conditional standing.

So for somebody like Dahmen, a transfer from No. 117 to, say, No. 109 holds weight. It is extra attainable. Much less outdoors assistance is required. Fewer begins than he made in 2025 will be the outcome, however an upward motion would give him extra begins in 2026 in comparison with if he stays in the identical place. 

With this in thoughts, let’s take a look at a few of the names in any respect of these cut-off factors — Nos. 100, 110 and 125 — on the onset of the ultimate PGA Tour occasion of the 2025 season.

Gamers on FedEx Cup bubbles