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.
 

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.
 

But Denver native Mark Hubbard, who like Saunders has played full-time in the PGA Tour the last three seasons, came up short in his bid to get back his PGA Tour card.

Thanks to a second-place finish on Monday in the season-ending Web.com Tour Championhsip at his new home club in Atlantic Beach, Fla., Saunders ended up sixth on the Finals 25 money list. With the top 25 on that list earning PGA Tour cards, he easily made the grade.

Saunders (pictured) used a first-round 59 — just the seventh sub-60 round in the history of the Web.com Tour — to post a 20-under 264 total in the Web.com Tour Championship, finishing four shots behind winner Jonathan Byrd. The final round of the tournament was postponed by a day due to heavy rains.

Though Saunders, the grandson of the late Arnold Palmer, has yet to win on the PGA Tour, he has posted five top-10 finishes over the last three years. He lived in Fort Collins from 2012 to ’16 before moving back to Florida.

Meanwhile, Hubbard missed the cut in the Web.com Tour Championship, which left him in 66th place on the Web Finals 25 money list. The former CJGA Male Player of the Year posted his two best finishes at the end of the 2016-17 PGA Tour wraparound season, going 18th at the Barracuda Championship and 24th in the Wyndham Championship. But he finished 185th on the Tour money list with $267,968, making 14 cuts in 27 starts on the big tour.

Hubbard has competed in a total of 84 PGA Tour events, with all but two of those coming in the past three seasons.
 

With the top 25 money winners in the four-tournament Web Finals earning PGA Tour cards for the 2017-18 season, the former Fort Collins resident finished 11th on Sunday in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio, the first event of the Finals.

Saunders shot rounds of 67-71-73-67 for a 6-under-par 278 total. That left him eight strokes behind champion Peter Uihlein, a former U.S. Amateur champion who earned his PGA Tour card with the victory. Saunders went bogey-free on Sunday.

Meanwhile, another player with strong Colorado ties, Denver native Mark Hubbard, tied for 55th in Columbus. He went 69-75-70-73 for a 3-over 287 total.

Both Hubbard and Saunders were regulars on the PGA Tour in the 2016-17 season, but lost their fully-exempt status.

— Elsewhere in tour golf on Sunday, former University of Colorado golfer Emily Childs tied for eighth in the Symetra Tour’s Sioux Falls (S.D.) Greatlife Challenge.

Childs carded scores of 68-67-69-77 for a 3-under-par 281 total. She ended up eight strokes behind winner Celine Boutier.