PGA Tour winner responds to Justin Lower’s comments on losing his card, ‘I’m going to ruffle some feathers’

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The final round of the RSM Classic begins on Sunday, with numerous players fighting to keep their PGA Tour cards for 2026.

It’s much harder for players to retain their PGA Tour cards now than it was last year, with only 100 fully exempt cards available for 2026.

This year, 125 players had fully exempt status on the PGA Tour.

However, Brian Rolapp – the new PGA Tour CEO – clearly has big ideas for a more streamlined product.

However, certain players aren’t happy with the number of changes that Rolapp is implementing.

Justin Lower slammed the PGA Tour on Friday after missing the cut at the RSM Classic and subsequently losing full playing privileges for the 2026 season.

“I don’t know. I’m just pretty pissed off, to be honest. I don’t really have anything else to say. Anything I seem to say or anytime I speak my mind, people tend to not like it, so I’m just not going to say a whole lot.

“There’s a whole lot I could say about the changes and everything, but obviously in the situation I’m in, I feel threatened by that, which I totally get.

“I totally get the need for the changes. Do I agree with them? No. I don’t think our product is that bad to where we have to blow everything up, which is what it seems like.

“But obviously I had a s––––y year. I mean, I missed a lot of cuts, I missed a lot of cuts by a shot. I shot 27 over at the U.S. Open for two days.

“Like, did I have my best stuff this year? Absolutely not. But I worked my ass off this fall and to come up this short, it sucks. Like, did I need like an awesome weekend, like an awesome day, an awesome weekend to absolutely have a chance at the top-100? Yeah, I did. I think I needed to finish solo seventh for everything.

“To get a top-10 just like that? I mean, unless you’re Scottie or Tiger or one of the really, really good players, like it just doesn’t happen just like that. I played OK for the past couple days. My putting’s been s––––y all year.

“But it just really sucks, the situation that I’m in and the situation other guys are in. I just, I don’t like the direction the Tour’s going.“

While Lower received plenty of sympathy for those remarks, one PGA Tour winner clearly has a very different opinion on the matter.

PGA Tour winner responds to Justin Lower’s comments on losing his card

Lee Hodges – the winner of the 3M Open in 2023 – is currently sitting in a tie for seventh at the RSM Classic with one round remaining.

He is projected to jump up to 104th from 122nd in the FedEx Cup points list.

So he will need to climb inside the top five on Sunday if he is to retain full exempt status for 2026.

Hodges was asked after his round on Saturday about the PGA Tour’s change down to 100 cards, and he responded with a fairly surprising answer.

He said: “I mean, yeah, it is what it is. Like the guys that — I don’t know if I’m going to ruffle some feathers, but the guys that come in here and kind of feel sorry for themselves, I have no pity for because you played it, you know what I mean? You played every shot this year.

“Same way as me, like I’m where I am because of my golf, not anybody else’s golf.

“Nobody put me there, I put myself there.

“Yeah, you just are where you are, but we all have avenues out so just go do that, you know what I mean. Go take the road that gets you where you want to go.“

Lee Hodges and Justin Lower will still play on the PGA Tour in 2026 regardless

The key thing to note here is that just because Lower has finished outside the top 100, it doesn’t mean he won’t get any PGA Tour starts next season.

If he remains in 118th spot after Sunday’s final round at the RSM, he will be in the second category of players who receive conditional status.

He may well get 10 starts on the PGA Tour next season or he could get 15, depending on how lucky he is regarding withdrawals.

Hodges will still have hopes of shooting a round in the mid-low 60s on Sunday, and earning fully exempt status on the PGA Tour for the 2026 season.

There is plenty of jeopardy involved at the RSM Classic, but finishing outside the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings isn’t as disastrous as some people are making out. It’s not like these guys will be jobless, is it?