It came by the slimmest of margins, but a second player who grew up in Colorado will be a rookie on the PGA Tour in the 2018-19 wraparound season.

Wyndham Clark earned his card by finishing in the top 25 — 18th in his case — on the regular-season Web.com Tour money list.

Then on Sunday, Jim Knous of Littleton also landed a promotion by placing in the top 25 on the cumulative money list for the four-event Web.com Tour Finals.

How did Knous do it? By earning the 25th — and last — card available through the Web Finals. In fact, just $490 in Finals earnings separated Knous from player No. 26, Justin Lower, who will have to make do with a return to the Web.com circuit in 2019.

Talk about being on the bubble.

“It was a brutal day emotionally,” said Knous, who made a key 5-foot save for par on his final hole Sunday. “I wasn’t quite sure how much my performance would affect the overall outcome. It kind of just depended on what everybody else did. That’s pretty terrifying. So I really just kind of did my best to stay calm and inside I was really freaking out and just super psyched that at the end of the day finished right there on No. 25.”

Knous is one of five Web Finals graduates who will be PGA Tour rookies.

Knous (pictured) was inside the Finals top 25 after each Finals event as he set himself up nicely with a 10th-place showing in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship late last month.

But throughout the season-ending Web.com Tour Championship that ended on Sunday in Atlantic Beach, Fla., Knous was right around the Finals bubble — meaning the 25th spot.

But despite finishing 57th in the Tour Championship, Knous withstood the challenges to end up 25th on the Finals money list. The former Colorado School of Mines golfer carded rounds of 67-69-70-71 for a 7-under-par 277 total in Atlantic Beach.

Not surprisingly, when Knous walked up to be presented his PGA Tour card on Sunday afternoon, he pumped his fist in the air.

Knous will go into the upcoming PGA Tour season with the lowest priority of the 50 Web players who earned cards. But that’s certainly eminently better than being on the outside looking in. The 2018-19 PGA Tour season begins Oct. 4-7 with the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif.

Knous, an NCAA Division II individual runner-up as a senior at Mines in 2012, has spent the last two years on the Web.com Tour, recording four top-10 finishes — three of them coming since mid-July. The 28-year-old Basalt native tied for fourth in both the Utah Championship and the WinCo Foods Portland Open.

Coincidentally, Clark and Knous played off for the title at the 2010 CGA Amateur at Boulder Country Club, with Clark prevailing on the second extra hole after Knous had shot a course-record 60 in the final round.
 

Second Straight Champions Top-5 for Jobe: The final round certainly wasn’t what Brandt Jobe was looking for, but for the second straight week, the Colorado Golf Hall of Famer recorded a top-five finish on PGA Tour Champions.

Jobe shared the lead going into the final round of the Sanford International in Sioux Falls, S.D., but a 2-over-par 72 on Sunday dropped him back to a tie for fourth place.

That showing comes after finishing a season-best second last weekend at The Ally Challenge following a six-week layoff due to a hurt left shoulder.

In South Dakota, Jobe went 63-67-72 for an 8-under-par 202 total, which left him five shots behind champion Steve Stricker.
 

It’s gut-check time for players on the bubble on many of the world’s top golf tours.

That comes with the territory this time of year as tours wind down their season schedules. And plenty of those doing some figurative nail-biting are golfers with strong Colorado connections.

Some of those players are looking to get “promotions” to higher-profile tours next season. Others are mainly aiming to keep similar tour cards for next year, given their current situation.

We’ll take a look at some of the local players on the bubble, but first we’ll mention one who is virtually guaranteed to earn a promotion. That would be Wyndham Clark, a Denver native and former Highlands Ranch resident, who, barring some wild happenings in the final two tournaments of the Web.com Tour season should secure a PGA Tour card for the 2018-19 wraparound season.

“It’s pretty awesome, a dream come true,” the current Las Vegas resident recently told the Portland Tribune. “I’ve always wanted to be on the PGA Tour. It is amazing it has only taken one year (playing as a pro) to do it. It’s surreal.” 

Clark (pictured), the 2010 CGA Amateur champion, hasn’t played his best golf in the last month, but his strong play in the first six months of the season has put him in 13th place on the 2018 regular-season Web money list with $187,817. The top 25 at the end of the regular season — on Aug. 19 — will earn PGA Tour cards.

Clark, the 2017 Pac-12 Conference individual champion, has posted four top-five finishes this Web.com season, with a best showing of second place at the United Leasing & Finance Championship in April. He’s a Web.com rookie in 2018.

Clark is no stranger to PGA Tour events, having competed in eight of them since June 2017, many via sponsor exemptions. His best PGA Tour finish was 17th place at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October 2017. All told, he’s made two cuts in those eight PGA Tour starts.

Speaking of the PGA Tour, the top 125 finishers in the FedExCup point standings after the PGA Championship (Thursday through Sunday) and the Wyndham Championship (Aug. 16-19) will keep their fully-exempt status for next season. And two “local” players who are not in the PGA Championship field are currently sitting in the 110-125 range.

Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird is 113th in the standings and former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders is 120th. Should either fall out of the top 125 — and if they didn’t place highly enough in the Web.com Tour Finals — they would still have conditional status on the PGA Tour, but that would mean far fewer starts next season.

Back on the Web.com Tour, the top 75 threshold on the regular-season money list is an important one as those who make that grade guarantee themselves at least full Web exemptions in 2019, along with spots in the Web.com Finals, where another 25 PGA Tour cards will be up for grabs.

With two Web events left, former Denver resident Mark Hubbard is 63rd on the season-long money list, while Englewood resident Jim Knous is 69th.

On the Symetra Tour, the top 10 players on the money list after the final eight events of the 2018 season will land LPGA Tour cards for 2019.

Three golfers with strong local ties have outside shots at making the top 10.

Former University of Colorado golfer Jenny Coleman (left), who held an LPGA card in 2017, sits in 23rd place on the Symetra money list. Becca Huffer of Denver is 28th, and former CU golfer Esther Lee is 33rd.

Meanwhile, the top five finishers on the PGA Tour Canada money list will earn Web.com Tour cards for 2019. And with four tournaments left in the season, former Louisville resident George Cunningham sits in third place with $66,167.

Cunningham — grandson of the late Chuck Melvin, who played in six Colorado Cup matches — won the GolfBC Championship in June and finished 29th in the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open last month.

For weekly updates on all tour players with strong Colorado ties, CLICK HERE.

The 29-year-old German (pictured) posted rounds of 66-68-68-69 for a 13-under-par 271 total. That left him two strokes behind champion Romain Wattel of France.

Heisele’s previous best finish on the European Tour was a fourth in the Open de Portugal in May. He was also seventh in last week’s Bridgestone Challenge on the European Challenge Tour.

With Sunday’s showing, Heisele jumped to 131st on the European Tour money list with 195,732 euros. He earned 73,500 euros on Sunday alone.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in major professional tour golf for players with strong Colorado connections:

— End of the Road for Laird: Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird finished out his 2016-17 PGA Tour season in fine fashion on Sunday, but he had been hoping to play one more week.

Laird needed a high finish at the BMW Championship in Lake Forest, Ill., to advance to the Tour Championship, but it wasn’t to be. Laird placed 44th in the third event of the FedExCup Playoffs. He needed to be in the top 30 in FedExCup points after the BMW to make the Tour Championship, but ended up 56th in the points standings, thereby ending his season.

Laird shot rounds of 73-69-70-66 for a 6-under-par 278 total in the BMW Championship.

— Saunders in Good Position in Web.com Tour Finals: The Web.com Tour Finals, where 25 PGA Tour cards are at stake, reached their halfway point on Sunday, and former Fort Collins resident Sam Saunders remained in position to regain full PGA Tour playing privileges.

After an 11th-place finish in the first event of the Web Finals, Saunders ended up 40th on Sunday in the Albertsons Boise (Idaho) Open. That leaves him at 13th place in the Finals, where the top 25 after the Web.com Tour Championship will earn full PGA Tour status for next season.

Meanwhile, Denver native Mark Hubbard, who like Saunders competed on the PGA Tour most of this season, finished 46th on Sunday in Boise, which leaves him 49th in the Finals points standings.

— Toledo Fifth in Champions Tourney: Former Castle Pines resident Esteban Toledo recorded his best PGA Tour Champions finish in 19 months by placing fifth on Sunday in the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship in Victoria, B.C. in Canada.

Toledo went 66-69-66 for an 11-under-par 202 total, which left him three strokes behind champion Jerry Kelly. Toledo made seven birdies in the final round.

It was just Toledo’s second top-10 showing of the year — and first since placing sixth in the Alliance Championship in February. The last time he had a higher finish on the Champions circuit was February of 2016, when he won the Alliance tournament.
 

“Locals” have won events on the PGA, Champions and European Tours, and even several of those players who haven’t claimed a championship trophy have accomplished some notable feats.

So as we head into fall, it’s worth taking a look at what’s happened so far in 2011, and at some of the reasons the coming months are pivotal to several local players.

Victories (So Far) — Former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird (pictured), whose first notable professional win came at the 2004 Denver Open, posted the most impressive victory of 2011 by a player with strong Colorado ties. Laird’s second PGA Tour title came in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in late March. The $1.08 million payday is one of the key reasons Laird sits 21st on the 2011 PGA Tour money list and has won $4.8 million on Tour since the beginning of 2010. Alas, he missed qualifying for this week’s Tour Championship by finishing one spot out of the top 30 in the FedEx Cup playoff standings.

Mark Wiebe of Aurora won the Champions Tour’s Greater Hickory Classic in a playoff the same June day that he was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. It was the third Champions Tour victory of Wiebe’s career, and it’s helped him currently stand 13th on the 2011 Champions Tour money list.

Matt Zions of Denver, a former University of Colorado golfer, won a tournament in his second full season on the European Tour, capturing the Saint Omer Open in France in June and winning 100,000 Euros in the process.

Defying Their Age — Former CU golfer Hale Irwin and fellow Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Brandt Jobe haven’t been acting their ages this year.

Irwin, now 66, owns a record 45 Champions Tour victories and he’s threatened on several occasions to add to that total. Considering no one older than 63 has ever won a Champions event, it’s been a sight to behold. In arguably the two biggest tournaments on the circuit — the U.S. Senior Open and the Senior PGA Championship — Irwin placed fourth, his best showings on the tour since September 2007. The U.S. Senior Open performance came at the same site (Inverness in Ohio) where Irwin won the 1979 U.S. Open. Overall, Irwin owns seven top-10 performances in 2011 — which gives him a record 205 for his Champions career — and he sits 20th on the 2011 money list, which isn’t bad for a senior citizen.

Jobe, 46, has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence on the PGA Tour. After losing his Tour card, he played primarily on the Nationwide circuit in 2010, but with a sixth-place showing in the final stage of Q-school he regained a spot on the top tour in the world. And Jobe hasn’t wasted the opportunity, posting his second-best money total ever ($1.58 million so far, good for 48th on the 2011 list). That total is more than his previous five years combined. Early in June, he matched his career best by finishing second in the Memorial. It’s hard to believe that going into the year, Jobe had to be concerned about earning “veteran membership” on Tour by surpassing 150 made cuts for his career. He came into 2011 three shy of the mark, but has long since blasted through that barrier.

600 And Counting — Dale Douglass of Castle Rock hasn’t been a full-time Champions Tour player for about five years, but he still regularly plays the U.S. Senior Open, a tournament he won 25 years ago. The 2011 Senior Open marked Douglass’ 600th Champions Tour event. Only Miller Barber (603) has competed in more.

One of the Futures Tour’s Best — Coloradan Dawn Shockley had a very good season on the LPGA Futures Tour in 2011, posting three top-five finishes, including second place in the Santorini Riviera Nayarit Classic in April. The former University of Denver player was in position much of the year to finish in the top 10 on the year-long money list, which would have earned her a 2012 LPGA Tour card, but she dropped to 13th place in the final standings. That means she’ll need a good showing in the final stage of LPGA Tour qualifying this fall to punch her ticket to the big leagues.

Looking Ahead — The last months of the tour schedules will be pivotal for several local players, including former DU golfer Stephanie Sherlock, David Duval of Cherry Hills Village, Parker resident Shane Bertsch, Kent Denver High School graduate Kevin Stadler and former CU golfer Steve Jones.

Sherlock stands 101st on this year’s LPGA Tour money list, but at least needs to finish in the top 125 to keep some status on the Tour, and needs to move into the top 80 to have priority status.

Duval would have no problem getting sponsor exemptions on the PGA Tour, but in order to remain fully exempt, he’ll need to finish in the top 125 on the money list. Placing 126-150 would give him lesser status. The former No. 1 player in the world will go into the fall 152nd on the 2011 money list.

Stadler faces the same parameters, but he’s in much better shape entering the fall, sitting 106th in the 2011 money standings.

Bertsch faces a much tougher road to keep his full Tour card. His medical extension (after suffering a broken hand in 2010) calls for him to earn $729,869 in 21 tournaments to remain fully exempt, which means he’s now down to five events in which he must earn $471,338 to retain his full status.

As for Jones, the 1996 U.S. Open champion is trying to move into the top 30 on the Champions Tour money list — or win an event — to be exempt in 2012. Jones turned 50 in late 2008, but didn’t make his Champions Tour debut until this year due to a severe case of tennis elbow. He currently stands 80th on the 2011 Champions money list.