In the first event of the four-tournament Web.com Tour Finals, Knous shared the lead through three rounds at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio. And he was still in very good shape as he was even par for his Sunday round through 10 holes.

But that’s where he started a stretch of seven holes that he wishes he had back. Knous bogeyed the 11th, 12th and 15th holes and double bogeyed No. 7, going 5 over for that run.

He birdied the 18th hole to shoot a 4-over-par 75 and tie for 10th place, marking his second straight top-10 on the Web.com Tour.

Knous’ 8-under-par 276 total left him four strokes behind champion Robert Streb, with whom the Coloradan was tied after three rounds.

Should Knous (pictured) finish in the top 25 in cumulative money earnings for the four Web.com Tour Final events, he’ll earn a PGA Tour card for the coming season.

Another player who grew up in Colorado, Wyndham Clark, gained PGA Tour playing privileges by virtue of finishing in the top 25 on the regular-season Web.com Tour money list. Clark defeated Knous in a playoff to win the 2010 CGA Amateur at Boulder Country Club.

Players eligible to compete in the Web Finals include the top 75 money winners for the 2018 Web regular season and golfers who finished in the 126-200 range on the PGA Tour’s FedExCup points list at the end of the regular season.

Upcoming in the Web Finals are the DAP Championship in Beachwood, Ohio (Aug. 30-Sept. 2), the Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho (Sept. 13-16) and the Web.com Tour Championship in Atlantic Beach, Fla. (Sept. 20-23).

End of the Line for Laird, Saunders: The two players with strong Colorado connections who made the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs saw their postseason end on Sunday after one tournament.

Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird and former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders both finished in the top 125 on FedExCup regular-season points list to advance to the Northern Trust this week in Paramus, N.J.

But the top 100 was needed to move on to next week’s Dell Technologies Championship, and neither Laird nor Saunders made the grade. That means the season is over for both.

With a 60th-place finish on Sunday, Saunders remained 120th in FedExCup points. Laird placed 73rd in New Jersey and ended up 115th on the points list.
 

It isn’t even an every-year occurrence.

It’s fair to say it happens rarely, especially since Q-school is no longer is a direct route to the PGA Tour.

Prior to this year, the last Colorado golfer to land a PGA Tour card for the first time was Denver native Mark Hubbard, who made the grade in 2014 and played on the world’s top tour for three seasons before losing his card.

But on Sunday, another Denver native formally joined the elite group. Wyndham Clark, who grew up south of the Denver metro area and graduated from Valor Christian High School, landed his PGA Tour card by finishing in the top 25 on the Web.com Tour’s regular-season money list in 2018.

Clark — winner of the 2010 CGA Amateur and the 2017 Pac-12 individual title, both at Boulder Country Club — certainly didn’t finish the Web.com Tour season the way he wanted as he missed cuts in four of his last five events, including this weekend’s WinCo Foods Portland Open.

But the 24-year-old did the necessary work in the first six months (and one day) of the year. In his first 15 Web events of the season, Clark recorded four top-five finishes with a second, a third, a fourth and a fifth. With $187,817 for the year, he finished 16th on the Web’s regular-season money list.

“It was a tough week but an awesome year and I’m so happy to be getting my card,” Clark said to ColoradoGolf.org via text this weekend.

Clark, the 2017 Pac-12 Player of the Year at Oregon and the 2014 Big 12 Player of the Year at Oklahoma State before transferring, turned pro just 14 months ago. In addition to his Web.com Tour starts, he’s played in eight PGA Tour events in 2017 and early ’18, making two cuts and finishing as high as 17th.

“I knew and believed I could do it (earn a PGA Tour card) in one short season,” Clark texted. “I just had to stay focused and play my game and let the results take care of themselves — and they did. It’s an awesome feeling and I can’t wait to be on the Tour.”

But Clark’s Web.com Tour season isn’t quite over — just his regular season. The Web.com Tour Finals begin on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, and Clark is in the field there. He’ll try to improve his 2018-19 PGA Tour status with his performances throughout the four-event Finals, which culminate with the Web.com Tour Championship Sept. 20-23 in Atlantic Beach, Fla.

The 2018-19 wraparound season for the PGA Tour begins with the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif., Oct. 4-7.

Joining Clark in the Web.com Tour Finals — thanks to finishing in the top 75 on the regular-season money list — will be Jim Knous of Littleton and Hubbard. That will also guarantee Knous and Hubbard full Web.com Tour status in 2019 if they don’t get PGA Tour cards through the Web Finals.

Knous, a former Colorado School of Mines golfer, finished a Web-career-best-tying fourth on Sunday at the Portland Open and 52nd on the Web regular-season money list. He shot rounds of 70-67-68-67 for a 12-under-par 272 total, which left him six strokes behind winner Sunjae Im.

It was Knous second top-four finish on the Web.com Tour since July 1.

Meanwhile, Hubbard placed 40th on Sunday in Portland, leaving him in the 72nd position on the final Web regular-season money list. Hubbard went 66-70-70-73 for a 5-under 279 total.

A local player who like Clark missed the cut at the Portland Open was at the center of an unfortunate incident during Friday’s round. ESPN reported that part-time Denver resident Kevin Stadler accidentally injured a fan when he slammed an iron on the ground and against his foot and the head came loose and hit a spectator in the head. ESPN indicated that Web.com Tour rules official Orlando Pope said the fan required six stitches, being treated on site then at a hospital before being released.

“It was a very freakish accident,” Pope told ESPN. “Kevin is devastated. He had trouble trying to finish the round. He was quite worried and felt so bad.”

Saunders, Laird Advance to PGA Tour Playoffs: A year after narrowly missing qualifying for the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs, former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders made the “postseason” for the first time on Sunday.

Saunders, a grandson of Arnold Palmer. finished 45th at the regular-season-ending Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., which left him at 120th in the FedExCup standings. The top 125 are fully exempt on the PGA Tour next season and advance to the playoffs.

Also tying for 45th place at the Wyndham and making the playoffs was former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird. He’s 113th in the FedExCup standings.

The opening playoff event is The Northern Trust in Paramus, N.J., starting Thursday. The top 100 in the FedExCup standings after that will advance to the Dell Technologies Championship.

Notable on Tour This Week: Three players with strong Colorado connections finished in the top 11 Sunday in the PGA Tour Canada’s Players Cup in Winnipeg. James Love of Denver tied for fifth, while fellow Coloradan Michael Schoolcraft and former Louisville resident George Cunningham shared 11th place. For Love, it was his best PGA Tour Canada showing in more than two years. He went 66-67-70-69 for a 16-under-par 272 total, which left him six behind champion Tyler McCumber. Schoolcraft, with his second top-11 showing of the month, and Cunningham checked in at 274. … Former University of Colorado golfer Steve Jones, who has been sidelined by knee surgery, according to the USGA, played in his first PGA Tour Champions event since mid-April, finishing 70th at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open (68-80-76). Jones is best known for winning the 1996 U.S. Open.
 

Laird finished 40th on Monday in the Dell Technologies Championship, which left him in 49th place in the playoff standings. The top 70 advance to the BMW Championship, which means that Laird easily landed a spot in the third stop for the playoffs, set for Sept. 14-17 in Lake Forest, Ill.

But Laird will have to move into the top 30 in the standings to make it to the Tour Championship, scheduled for Sept. 21-24 in Atlanta. The former Ram is aiming to qualifying for that season-ending tournament for the first time since 2010.

At the Dell Technologies Championship, Laird carded rounds of 74-70-70-69 for a 1-under-par 283 total. He made five birdies in Monday’s final 18.
 

But the former Colorado State University golfer hasn’t made it to the final event of the playoffs — the Tour Championship — since 2010.

The 34-year-old from Scotland would like to end that drought this year, and he took a small step in the right direction in The Northern Trust postseason opener that concluded on Sunday n Westbury, N.Y.

Laird finished 20th at The Northern Trust, moving the former Ram up 12 spots in the FedExCup standings. He’ll be ranked 45th in those standings going into the Dell Technologies Championship, where the 100 players left in the playoffs will tee it up beginning on Friday in Norton Mass.

From there, the top 70 players will make it to the BMW Championship in Lake Forest, Ill., Sept. 14-17, and the top 30 will advance to the Tour Championship, set for Sept. 21-24 in Atlanta.

At The Northern Trust, Laird shot rounds of 69-69-69-71 for a 2-under-par 278 total, ending up 11 strokes behind champion Dustin Johnson. Laird played his final 10 holes in 3 under par on Sunday.

Laird’s best finish ever in the FedExCup Playoffs was 2010, when he placed 11th in the season-long competition.

For the FedExCup standings, CLICK HERE.
 

But it was not to be for Arnold Palmer’s grandson.

The top 125 players in the FedExCup points standings after the Wyndham Championship earned spots in the playoffs. And though Saunders was in good shape to advance going into the weekend in Greensboro, N.C., he fell narrowly short on Sunday.

After going 63-68 his first round rounds at the Wyndham, Saunders (pictured) carded scores of 72-69 on the weekend, falling two strokes shy of what he needed to jump into the top 125 following the Tour’s regular-season finale. He ended up in the 129th spot in the standings.

“It was the least-enjoyable round of golf I’ve ever played in my life,” Saunders told pgatour.com on Sunday. “You don’t know if you’re going to throw up or have a heart attack. It’s worse than trying to win a tournament, tenfold. “¦ I’ve never had to birdie one hole to change my life for the entire year. And that just kills me.”

By finishing between 126 and 150 in points, Saunders will at least have conditional status on the PGA Tour next season. But he could become fully exempt by finishing in the top 25 on the money list for the upcoming four-tournament Web.com Tour Finals.

The players who finish 126-200 on the FedExCup points list will compete in the Web.com Finals, along with 75 players from the Web money list. Also figuring to play in the Web Finals are Denver native Mark Hubbard (184th in FedExCup points) and former CoBank Colorado Open low amateur Zac Blair, who finished 126th in the FedExCup points list.

One player with strong Colorado ties who will be in the FedExCup Playoffs is former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird, who finished 57th in the regular season.

For the FedExCup points list, CLICK HERE.
 

With the top 125 finishers on the regular-season FedExCup points list making the playoffs, Laird ended up 89th and Hubbard 113th.

The first of the four playoff events will be contested Thursday through Sunday at The Barclays, which this year will be played at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y. The top 100 on the FedExCup points list after The Barclays will advance to the Deutsche Bank Championship, then 70 will make the BMW Championship and 30 the Tour Championship.

Each playoff event has an $8.5 million purse. There’s also a $35 million FedExCup bonus pool at stake.

Hubbard, who swept both of the CGA’s major junior championships in 2007, is hitting the home stretch of his second season on the PGA Tour. So far in the 2015-16 wraparound season, he’s made 21 cuts in 29 events and earned $642,942. He’s posted four top-20 finishes this season — with a best of 15th at the Puerto Rico Open — but has missed the cut in his last two starts.

Meanwhile, this will be Laird’s seventh FedExCup Playoffs, with 2010 his most successful year as he made it to the Tour Championship. Twice he’s recorded top-10 finishes at The Barclays, including losing in a playoff there six years ago. During the 2015-16 season, he’s had four top-11 finishes, including a tie for second at the Canadian Open last month, and has earned more than $1.1 million. Laird has three PGA Tour victories to his credit overall.