Justin Lower’s eyes darted to his right, then shook his head. He looked away. His feet shuffled. His face contorted.
He had been asked what he was thinking, and his body reflected the thoughts that quickly followed.
Disappointment? There it was on Friday afternoon at the RSM Classic. Being the final event of the season for the PGA Tour, the tournament has a unique finality. The year is over and with it the chance to secure playing status is over. There is one last chance to win. There is one last chance to move up the Tour’s season points standings, with only those in the top 100 being awarded full playing privileges for next year.
Lower was above that figure on Friday. And after the rounds of 69 and 68 he also missed the cut and had no more chances to improve his position.
Lower knew. Thoughts of what-ifs started.
“Obviously I just had about 20 years,” he said. “I mean, I missed a lot of cuts, I missed a lot of cuts. I shot 27-over for two days at the US Open.”
“Have I had my best stuff this year? Absolutely not. But I worked hard this fall and to come up so short, it sucks. Did I need a great weekend, a great day, a great weekend to absolutely have a shot at the top 100? Yeah, I did. I think before anything else I had to finish solo seventh.”
‘To just get into the top 10? I mean, unless you’re Scottie.” [Scheffler] or Tiger [Woods] or one of the really good players, like it doesn’t just happen.
“I’ve been playing well the last few days. My putting has been bad all year.”
Lower was also angry.
A year ago he would probably have retained his Tour card via the points classification, but as part of a series changes for the 2026 seasonthe limit number has gone from 125 to 100. Lower was of course aware of this. He had talked about the moves before.
However, the feelings were the same.
“I’m just pretty pissed off, to be honest,” he said. “I don’t really have anything else to say. Whatever I seem to say or whenever I express my opinion, people usually don’t like it, so I’m just not going to say much.”
“I could say a lot about the changes and all that, but obviously in the situation I’m in, I feel threatened by that, which I completely understand.
“I completely understand the need for the changes. Do I agree? No. I don’t think our product is so bad that we need to blow everything up, and that’s what it seems like.”
About halfway through a four-minute interview, Lower also became emotional.
The rounds he had just played? He wanted them. And she will continue to want it. The routine. He will play sometime in 2026. He has also been traveling. Lower played his college golf at the NAIA level. When he was 15, his father and younger brother died in a car accident while picking him up from golf.
When he thought about all that, he started to choke.
“If I have to spend four years here,” Lower said, “I don’t really know what to say.
“I mean, I love it here. I love it here. I love everyone here, I love everyone involved in the Tour. Are there people who piss me off? Yes, absolutely, there are. Are there things that piss me off? There are.”
“I’m human, I don’t know what else to do, but God, I’m just so angry right now. If I could have somehow turned it around this year, but obviously I couldn’t. This game is just really hard. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to say. I have to figure out how to get better.”
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