Martin Kaymer lost his PGA Tour card for 2015-16
Martin Kaymer won’t be a PGA Tour member next season.
How does a major champion lose his Tour card? Well, it’s a pretty open-and-shut case.
PGA Tour members must play a minimum of 15 events each season to maintain their membership status. Kaymer, who has been trying to balance a schedule straddling the PGA and European Tours, only made 12 starts this season leading into the Wyndham Championship. In his 13th start, Kaymer had to find a way to crack the top 125 in FedEx Cup points to make it into the four-event playoff series and then make it through the first two legs of the playoffs to get to the minimum number of events. Since he finished at 139th in the standings, Kaymer didn’t qualify and loses his membership status for next season.
That means a few things for Kaymer. First, any money or FedEx Cup points that he earns next year on the PGA Tour don’t count toward the official lists, meaning he can’t qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs for the 2015-16 season either. Second, he’ll be limited to no more than 12 PGA Tour starts.
However, and here’s the strange part, Kaymer can resume his membership in the 2016-17 season that he has earned as the 2014 U.S. Open champion.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
