As McGreevy stood over his 30-foot birdie putt on Sea Island’s par-4 finishing hole Sunday afternoon, within striking distance of leader Sami Valimaki, the tension had instead manifested itself in competitors Ricky Castillo and Lee Hodges. The former watched from the clubhouse, while the latter shared the green with McGreevy, staring at his own crucial birdie putt.
Castillo, the 24-year-old rookie from Florida, had just fired an 8-under 62, but if McGreevy made it, that wouldn’t be enough to crack the top 100 in points and retain full membership for 2026. Hodges had to break the deadlock for fourth place or he would join Castillo as a conditional member next year.
McGreevy prefers a single thought when he swings the putter back, and the focus this week has been on keeping his head still.
“When I get pressure, I feel like I’m going back a little bit as the putt continues,” explains McGreevy, who gained more than two strokes on the greens in his final round.
Even as the wind picked up late, McGreevy held his ground on that final green. He gave his ball a nice stroke and then watched it head towards the hole.
With McGreevy’s ball in motion, Castillo’s fate hung in the balance. It had been a year of minor disappointments for Castillo, who missed eight cuts by one shot, three of them during a streak of four MCs entering the RSM. Now he was possibly about to lose his card by the same small margin. And yet Castillo was surprisingly calm, as if he had been in a place all week where he had won an SEC championship in his final year with the Gators.
“To be honest, I didn’t really feel much pressure,” Castillo said. “It was kind of like I actually had nothing to lose.”
Florida head coach JC Deacon sent Castillo a text message Saturday evening telling his former player that there was no player he would rather have the ball in his hands. Derek Castillo, Ricky’s older brother and caddie, agreed after watching his little brother take his first few warm-up shots Sunday morning. The high winds in Bermuda had thrown Ricky’s swing off balance, but as Ricky turned to the first tee, he turned to Derek and said, “This is the best my swing has felt all week.”
Ricky Castillo didn’t say much on Sunday. Bryan Kopsick, looper for Castillo’s playing rival Jonathan Byrd, noted during the final round, “I’ve never seen a kid so engaged.”
“When he feels confident, he can get in the zone and he just goes,” Derek Castillo said.
And boy, did he go on Sunday, going out in a torrid 7-under 28. His only blemish was a tough one, a missed 7-footer for par on the par-3 12th, but he responded with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 15th and a 32-foot birdie make on the par-4 16th. He eventually gave himself 6 yards for 61, before settling for a 10-under 62.
“I just felt like I had a good idea of what I was going to do today and was just going to come out and play the best I could,” Castillo said.
But less than an hour later, McGreevy’s ball disappeared in the 18th hole – and with it Castillo’s hopes. As McGreevy celebrated with an emphatic fist pump, Castillo, whose golf bag was set up on the driving range in case he was needed for a playoff, simultaneously headed to the parking lot. He then spent several minutes unloading his belongings, including his fishing gear, from his complimentary SUV and into a much smaller car to make the drive home to Jacksonville, Florida.
He simply wouldn’t return with his PGA Tour card, as McGreevy’s birdie knocked him from a projected No. 95 in points to No. 102.
“It was just one of those years where it was really close,” Castillo said. “It could have been really good, but it didn’t really click. This week it finally clicked.”
Castillo will get one last chance to earn fully exempt status on the PGA Tour for 2026. In a few weeks, he will be eligible for the final leg of the PGA Tour Q-School. If not, he will likely still get plenty of starts in a conditional category, Nos. 101-110, which will not be reshuffled and is expected to warrant upwards of 20 starts.
The same goes for Hodges, who holed two birdie putts from outside twenty feet on the back nine but couldn’t capitalize from ten feet on the last. The 30-year-old Alabama player, who finished in the top 50 in points two seasons ago, finished tied for fourth, which gave him No. 101 in points — by about two points — after starting week No. 122. He will also have four starts via a medical extension after suffering a broken rib earlier this year. That comfort didn’t ease the immediate pain, however, as Hodges’ final miss caused him to double over and bury his head in his hands.
“My agents told me that if you finish in the top 111, you’re going to really like where you are,” Hodges said, already clutching an open can of Coors Light. “So, 101, I guess, is okay after the s— year – sorry, after the bad year I had this year.”
He was forgiven.
McGreevy’s late heroics meant no players made it into the top 100 this week. In fact, Nos. 95-100 remained unchanged. And when it comes to the top 125, the line between two contingent groups with drastically different prospects, only Seamus Power advanced, from No. 129 to No. 117, while Frankie Capan III, who missed the RSM cut, dropped out.
McGreevy, whose one-shot runner-up to Valimaki knocked Jordan Spieth out of the Aon Next 10 (and two signature events starting next year), was later told what his final putt meant for Castillo and his final 63 for Hodges, a close friend with whom he shared a rookie season a few years ago.
“I hate to hear that, that I was the one who did that,” McGreevy said. “I play with Lee… and I do as much for him to make that putt as I do for myself to make that putt. It’s little successes and defeats, whether it’s a loss to Ricky or Lee or something like that, they both still played great rounds, gave themselves that opportunity, and that’s all they can rely on, is that they gave themselves a chance, and they did.”
“Hopefully both boys, Ricky and Lee, can sort things out at Q-School or with some starts next year.”
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