Billy Horschel was optimistic as ever in January to start his 16th year on the PGA Tour. He chose not to add a few tournaments late in 2025 when returning from hip surgery, and that probably cost him a sure spot in the Masters because he fell out of the top 50 in the world.
There were no regrets.
“I'm betting on myself,” Horschel said at the Sony Open.
He has reached the end of the regular season at No. 176 in the world, which isn't nearly as troubling
as being No. 107 in the FedEx Cup in a year when his full exempt status is set to expire.
It's a reminder how golf offers no guarantees — meritocracy works both ways — and Horschel has plenty of company at the Wyndham Championship, the final regular-season event that determines the top 70 who advance to the postseason and are assured a full card for 2027.
Jason Day, who 10 years ago was No. 1 in the world and looked unbeatable at times, is at No. 75 in the FedEx Cup. He started the year with a runner-up finish behind Scottie Scheffler at The American Express but has had only one other top 10 this season.
Particularly glaring another 11 spots down the standings at No. 86 is five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, who was all the talk back in January when he became the first player who bolted from LIV Golf (at just the right time as it turns out) to rejoin the PGA Tour.
Koepka had been gone nearly four years, long enough to not fully understand how the points system worked. His immediate goal was to get into the $20 million signature events — one of the conditions of his return was being ineligible for sponsor exemptions to those tournaments. He didn't make it into any of them.
And right when he was in position to contend — two shots out of the lead going into the weekend of the Canadian Open — he had a freak injury in his hand that one round later forced him to withdraw.
Now he has one tournament left to reach the postseason. He needs at least a fourth-place finish at the Wyndham Championship, a tall task considering he has only one top 10 this year. At least he is secure for two more years from winning the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in 2023.
But it's been a strange year for so many players accustomed to smoother waters.
Who would have predicted before the first tee shot of 2026 that Chris Gotterup would have more wins than Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy combined?
No one will — or should — be concerned with Scheffler. He won his season opener in the California desert, and nothing else. He also has five runner-up finishes and five other finishes in the top 4. Four of those runner-up finishes paid out more than his lone victory.
The margins are thin in golf, even for the No. 1 player in the world.
McIlroy isn't the least bit stressed that his one title this year was a repeat at Augusta National. Yes, he would love to win another FedEx Cup title. Odds are it would be sweeter to get another Race to Dubai title in Europe, especially at the expense of Patrick Reed.
Cameron Young is the defending champion at the Wyndham Championship. And to think it was only a year ago when Young had never won on the PGA Tour. Since then, he was a lone bright spot for the Americans in his Ryder Cup debut, he won The Players Championship and a signature event at Doral, and he had at least a share of the Sunday lead at two majors without bagging one.
But there's something else about Young and this odd season.
He won the Cadillac Championship when he was No. 4 in the world. That was May 3, and no from the top 10 has won a PGA Tour event since then. It's not getting any easier out there, if it ever was.
Half of the PGA Tour members among the top 30 in the world ranking have yet to win this year.
The world ranking of the other three major champions sounds like numbers drawn in Bingo — 44 (Aaron Rai at the PGA Championship), 34 (Wyndham Clark at the U.S. Open) and 56 (Ryan Fox at the British Open).
It was the first time three major champions in one year were outside the top 30 since 2009 delivered Angel Cabrera (69), Lucas Glover (71), Stewart Cink (33) and Y.E. Yang (110).
Brian Rolapp mentioned three guiding principles when he was introduced as CEO at the Tour Championship last year. First on his list was parity, and he probably didn't know how right he was when he said, “The PGA Tour has incredible, competitive parity and balance among its players.”
“Everybody wants to go into an event not knowing who's going to win,” Rolapp said.
Show of hands who had Rai winning the PGA Championship against the strongest field in the majors. Or Gary Woodland winning the Houston Open just over two years after returning from brain surgery, one of the most emotional wins of this crazy season.
Four weeks remain before the FedEx Cup is decided, and perhaps it will all make sense in the end. It starts with the Wyndham Championship, the tournament most players would love to skip because it means they're locked into a good spot for the postseason.
Horschel would need at least a two-way tie for second to have a mathematical chance of making it to the FedEx Cup playoffs. The way this year has gone, don't bet against it.
Young might have summed it up best on Tuesday when he shared advice for himself and anyone else in this game: “Nothing is given and nothing is impossible.”
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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
