AP photo Justin Lower tees off of the second hole during the third round of the AT&T Byron Nelson golf tournament in McKinney, Texas, on May 14.

ATLANTA (AP) — Justin Lower lost his PGA Tour card in brutal fashion in the final tournament of the regular season. Needing a par on the final hole to finish among the top 125, Lower ran his 60-footer some 6 feet by and missed for a three-putt bogey.

He finished at No. 127 and was in tears when he said, “It sucks to come up this short.”

Thanks to Saudi-funded LIV Golf, Lower is among players who might get a reprieve.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan notified players in an Aug. 12 memo that the policy board decided eligibility for the next season (which starts Sept. 12) would not be finalized until after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

“Accordingly, the FedEx Cup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List will continue to update,” he said.

The Daily Telegraph reported that British Open champion Cameron Smith will join LIV Golf after the Tour Championship, and it is believed as many as six others could join him, all of whom finished in the top 125 of the FedEx Cup standings.

The next LIV Golf event starts Sept. 2 — two days before the Korn Ferry Tour ends — and the PGA Tour has suspended players as soon as they hit a tee shot for the rival series.

Depending on how many players sign with LIV Golf, that will move up the players who are outside the top 125. If three were to sign, that would mean Matt Wallace, Austin Smotherman (who had his own mishap on his last hole at the Wyndham Championship) and Lower would retain a full card and be exempt for The Players Championship.

They still would have gotten into tournaments, but top 125 means they keep their priority all year without going through a reshuffle.

It also would have an effect further up the eligibility list. The top 70 get into the invitational events like the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial, which offer $15 million purses.

This wouldn’t be the first time Smotherman was helped by LIV Golf. He is listed at No. 137 in the official standings, but he is 10 spots higher because of the LIV players ahead of him who are suspended. And odds are there’s more to come.

PARADISE EXTENDED

Cameron Young and Sahith Theegala are among eight players who can make plans for Kapalua even if they don’t win this year.

Kapalua has been the winners-only start to the year on the PGA Tour since 1999, and Wisconsin-based Sentry Insurance has made sure it will stay that way for another decade. In the process, the field is expanding.

The PGA Tour announced Tuesday a contract extension with the Sentry Tournament of Champions that runs through 2035. It extends a 10-year partnership announced in 2020.

Sentry’s first year as title sponsor was 2018, its first major sports marketing agreement.

Starting in January, the field will include all PGA Tour winners from the previous calendar year along with the 30 players who qualify for the Tour Championship. That was the same format used in 2021 because the previous year was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The change means a trip to paradise to start the year for Young, Theegala, Scott Stallings, Collin Morikawa, Corey Conners, Brian Harman, Adam Scott and Aaron Wise. All are at East Lake without having won this year.

Sentry already agreed to bump its purse to $15 million, nearly double from last year, as it becomes one of the elevated prize funds in the tour’s new schedule.

Sentry already has a big year in golf in 2023. Its course, SentryWorld, is hosting the U.S. Senior Open.

TIGER GAMES

Tiger Woods is the star attraction for the PGA Tour 2K23 video game coming out in October.

So is a guy who actually plays more golf than Woods — Michael Jordan.

See LOWER on Page 2B