This article is part of our The Reshuffle List series.
Our latest Reshuffle List focuses on the Web.com Tour Finals, which are through two weeks of play. The top-25 money earners from the four-event Finals will earn Tour cards for 2014-15 if they have not already earned one.
The following are 2013-14 Reshuffle List members who would get Tour cards for 2014-15 if the Web.com Tour Finals ended today:
Bud Cauley -- $180,000
Jim Herman -- $42,225
Tyrone Van Aswegen -- $36,050
Will Wilcox -- $31,950
Hudson Swafford -- $26,000
Cauley has made the biggest splash as he won the first Web.com Tour Finals event, the Hotel Fitness Championship, and is tied with Adam Hadwin for first on the Finals money list. That list is significant because whoever tops it at the conclusion of the Web.com Tour Championship is fully exempt next season. He will not be on the Reshuffle List, can set his own schedule and will also get an exemption into The Players. Cauley won in impressive fashion, too, shooting a final-round 65 to get the much-needed victory.
On the Cusp
There are four Reshuffle List members within 10 spots of a card. For what it's worth, last year it took $34,750 to get a card. One spot out of a PGA Tour card is Scott Gardiner, who has $19,600. If the $34-35K number holds true, Gardiner is presumably only one solid finish away from locking that up.
Four spots out of a card is Kevin Tway, who has $18,240 to his name after T17-T52 finishes at
Our latest Reshuffle List focuses on the Web.com Tour Finals, which are through two weeks of play. The top-25 money earners from the four-event Finals will earn Tour cards for 2014-15 if they have not already earned one.
The following are 2013-14 Reshuffle List members who would get Tour cards for 2014-15 if the Web.com Tour Finals ended today:
Bud Cauley -- $180,000
Jim Herman -- $42,225
Tyrone Van Aswegen -- $36,050
Will Wilcox -- $31,950
Hudson Swafford -- $26,000
Cauley has made the biggest splash as he won the first Web.com Tour Finals event, the Hotel Fitness Championship, and is tied with Adam Hadwin for first on the Finals money list. That list is significant because whoever tops it at the conclusion of the Web.com Tour Championship is fully exempt next season. He will not be on the Reshuffle List, can set his own schedule and will also get an exemption into The Players. Cauley won in impressive fashion, too, shooting a final-round 65 to get the much-needed victory.
On the Cusp
There are four Reshuffle List members within 10 spots of a card. For what it's worth, last year it took $34,750 to get a card. One spot out of a PGA Tour card is Scott Gardiner, who has $19,600. If the $34-35K number holds true, Gardiner is presumably only one solid finish away from locking that up.
Four spots out of a card is Kevin Tway, who has $18,240 to his name after T17-T52 finishes at the first two Finals events. Jamie Lovemark is eight spots out with $13,832, and Heath Slocum sits nine spots out with $13,133 made in the two Finals events.
Work to Do
Wes Roach -- $5,107
Brad Fritsch -- $2,991
Bronson La'Cassie -- $2,850.00
Andrew Loupe -- $2,740
Chad Collins -- $2,630
Trevor Immelman -- $2,500
Jim Renner -- $0
Sean O'Hair -- $0
Troy Matteson -- $0
Joe Durant -- $0
Peter Malnati -- $0
Miguel Angel Carballo -- $0
If these players don't make a move and earn cards, they will need the Web.com Tour or any other status they may have – Immelman is a past Masters champion, which gives him past champion's status on the PGA Tour – to get starts either on the PGA or Web.com Tours.
Carlos Ortiz's Battlefield Promotion
Overshadowed by the simultaneous conclusion of The Barclays, the Web.com Tour regular season ended four weeks ago at the Portland Open. Carlos Ortiz won for his third victory of the season, which earned him an immediate promotion (commonly known as a "Battlefield Promotion") to the PGA Tour. He also finished the 2014 Web.com Tour regular season as the leading money earner. On the surface, it appeared to be meaningless, as he obviously couldn't participate in the ongoing FedEx Cup Playoffs and would have to wait, like everyone else, until the Frys.com Open in October to make his first PGA Tour start with his newly earned card.
But, in fact, the victory was far from meaningless. As a three-time Web.com Tour winner this season, Ortiz avoids the Reshuffle List next year, is fully exempt (meaning he can largely pick his own schedule sans limited-field, majors and World Golf Championship events) and will start 2014-15 in priority ranking category No. 22 for entering events. As a frame of reference, priority ranking No. 22 falls right behind major medical exemptions. Reshuffle List players are priority ranking category No. 25.
Another major byproduct of his win one month ago: under the new rules, if Ortiz had only won twice during the regular season and then been passed during the Web.com Tour Finals on the Regular Season-Finals money list (more on that below), he would have earned a Tour card but would have landed on the Reshuffle List, unable to dictate his own schedule. Now, third win in tow, he doesn't have to worry about that.
Ortiz's achievements don't carry all the rewards they used to, however, as some rule changes have altered the landscape and put more importance on the Web.com Tour Finals.
Previously, the regular-season Web.com Tour money leader earned full exempt status and a ticket to The Players. That award no longer exists.
Instead, two full exemptions will now go to 1) the leading money winner for the Web.com Tour regular season plus Finals (additionally, regular season earnings will carry over into the Finals in 2014 after not carrying over last year), and 2) the leading money winner in the four Web.com Tour Finals events. Those two players also get into The Players. They will play out of priority ranking category No. 22.
Ortiz, through the battlefield promotion, is fully exempt for the 2014-15 PGA Tour season, but does not have the ticket into The Players. That's why these four Web.com Tour Finals events are so vital for him. Ortiz missed the cut in the first Web.com Tour Finals event, the Hotel Fitness Championship, and did not play in last week's Chiquita Classic. He is in the field for this week's Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship and holds a $41,736 lead over Hadwin for first on the Regular Season-Finals money list.
So while the third win didn't do Ortiz any good in the short term in terms of getting in a PGA Tour event the very next week, it will pay big dividends down the road.
