Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: A Fine Finish for the Finns

There were a lot of moving pieces at The RSM Classic on Sunday -- the final day of the 2025 PGA Tour season.

There were the golfers trying to win the tournament, of course. There were golfers trying to finish inside the top 100 of the FedExCup Standings to keep full playing privileges for next year. And there were some golfers who couldn't quite figure out what all the new eligibility categories for 2026 really mean.

First things first: Sami Valimaki became the first golfer from Finland to win on the PGA Tour. We're also pretty sure he's the first PGA Tour winner to have a cousin in the National Hockey League, that being the Utah Mammoth's Juuso Valimaki.

Valimaki shot 23-under to win by a single stroke over Max McGreevy, whose 30-footer for birdie on the final hole broke hearts and altered the futures of multiple golfers, pushing some outside the top 100. We'll get to them in a minute.

For Valimaki, his win shows the power and importance of the relationship between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. The 27-year-old was one of 10 players whose successful season in Europe resulted in a 2025 playing card on the PGA Tour. Valimaki is a two-time winner on the DP World Tour.

He had already locked up his PGA Tour card for next season before The RSM, but the win provides him a two-year exemption -- plus, by finishing 51st in the standings, berths in the first two 2026 Signature Events. He will also get into THE PLAYERS and the PGA Championship.

"I would say my main goal is still kind of get those Signature tournaments, play over there (Europe) and get the four major kind of really on my calendar," Valimaki said, "because I mean, of course you can say my target's winning the majors, but still I need to get them kind of every year in my calendar. Now it's just kind of exemption for the PGA or Masters. I never played even Masters so it's hard to say that that's my goal to win. So I feel like next step is try to make the top 50 and get in all the bigger tournaments in my calendar.

Well, Valimaki is now up to 40th in the OWGR, so, barring the unexpected, he will be in the top 50 at year's end and thus be in the 2026 Masters, too.

Valimaki played quite well this season, so he should be on your radar heading into next year. It couldn't be easy for him to come over to a new Tour in a largely foreign place while speaking a foreign language, but he notched nine top-25s and four top-10s in 26 starts. He finished fourth in Houston and was runner-up a few weeks back in Mexico.

And get this: He also was the only player on the PGA Tour to finish top-20 in Strokes Gained: Approach and top-10 in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Impressive stuff. How impressive? Well, Scottie Scheffler didn't do. Rory McIlroy didn't do it.

So, yeah, Valimaki is worth your attention in 2026.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Max McGreevy
McGreevy notched a runner-up for the second time on Tour, and this one moved him from 89th in points to 60th -- just inside the threshold to qualify for the first two 2026  Signature Events. That one 30-foot birdie putt on 18 on Sunday crushed the souls of Lee Hodges and Ricky Castillo, who finished 101st and 102nd, respectively, in the standings.

Ricky Castillo
Castillo, a 24-year-old rookie, shot a scintillating 62 on Sunday to soar up both the leaderboard and the standings after beginning the week in 135th position. He finished solo third, but because of McGreevy's make, Castillo's surge stalled at No. 102. He will have conditional status in the No. 101-110 category. That's not optimal, but it shouldn't be too bad for him.

Lee Hodges.
Hodges tied for fourth, climbing from 122nd in points to 101st. So close! How close? He left his birdie try on 18 just inches short.

Hodges thus finished 101st in points and, since 2026 is the first year under the new eligibility guidelines, he didn't know what being in the No. 101-110 category meant. He's not alone.

"I have no idea, I have no idea," Hodges said after this round. "I mean, my agents have been telling me if you finish inside the top 111, you're going to really like where you are. So 101 I guess is all right after the bad year I had this year. So yeah, it is what it is."

Hodges missed almost two months early in the season with a rib injury but was still able to make 25 starts. While he does have a medical extension covering four tournaments in 2026, the 101-110 category is far better. He should be able to make 20-plus starts again.

Nico Echavarria
Echavarria also tied for fourth to move from 62nd in points to 55th. As such, he will be in the first two Signature Events. Echavarria finished fifth on Tour in SG: Putting. He is one of the shorter drivers on Tour, making him a real threat on shorter tracks.

Patrick Rodgers
Rodgers had a very good week (T7) and a very good season (62nd in points). But he went into Sunday with a chance to win for the first time. The 33-year-old has now made 312 starts on Tour. On Sunday, while so many guys were going super low, he was able to shoot only a 1-under 69, and he finished five back of Valimaki in a whopping 11-way tie for seventh. That was Rodgers' 30th career-top-10, which -- according to the PGA Tour -- ties him with Byeong Hun An for most top-10s on Tour without a win among active players (since 1983).

Trey Mullinax
Mullinax tied for 25th. We highlighted him because he moved from 158th in points to 150th. That may not sound like much, but getting conditional status by being top-150 is at least something.

Takumi Kanaya
The former world No. 1 amateur and eight-time winner in Japan locked up a Tour card for the first time. Despite missing the cut at Sea Island, Kanaya squeaked in at No. 99 in points.

FEDEXCUP STANDINGS

With Valimaki, McGreevy and Echavarria all moving into the top 60 -- and thus qualifying for the first two 2026 Signature Event at Pebble Beach and Riviera -- three guys had to fall out.

Those three are Jordan Spieth, Jake Knapp and Kevin Yu. Spieth should be fine, and maybe the other two will be, too. The event at Pebble Beach takes a field of 80, and as we saw last year Spieth received a sponsor's invite into almost every Signature Event.

FEDEXCUP STANDINGS

Here are some other players who lost their full playing privileges for 2026: Seamus Power (despite a T7 at the RSM), Andrew Putnam (T25), Sam Ryder (T47), Matt Wallace (T51), Beau Hossler (T64), Matt Kuchar (T67), Adam Hadwin (70) and the following players who all missed the cut at The RSM: Justin Lower, Joel Dahmen, Cameron Champ, Taylor Moore and Luke List. There were many others, too, but these were some of the bigger names. Lower may not be a big name, but we wanted to show his interview that went viral on Friday. It's a tough watch. 

Lower ended up 120th in points. The word among golf guys on social media who track this stuff is that he should still get plenty of starts in 2026, though mostly in the smaller events purse-wise. The No. 101-110 and No. 111-125 categories are far better than 126-150, even though all are considered conditional status.

Q School is also an opportunity for these golfers. In the second week of December, five more fully exempt cards will be handed out at the final stage of Q School.

Kuchar will likely skip it. The 47-year-old has options most guys don't: career money exemptions. There are two, one for being in the top 25 in all-time PGA Tour earnings and one for being in the top 50. Since Kuchar is 15th in career earnings, he will get to use both, one for 2026 and another for 2027, which would take him within about six months of turning 50 years old.

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