The $10 million FedEx Cup bonus will get most of the attention this week, but there’s actually more at stake at the Web.com Tour Championship. Certainly, not monetarily – the winner of the event will earn slightly more than last place in East Lake and that’s not factoring in the playoff bonus – but in career prospects. The majority of golfers at Atlantic Beach Country Club are playing for their jobs next season. And one of them still has a chance of earning a PGA Tour card despite a disastrous start on Thursday.
German-born Arizona State product Max Rottluff opened his first round with a par, but recorded a 10(!) on the par-4 second. That quickly put him at six over, but the 25-year-old rallied with two birdies on the front nine before adding five more on the back to shoot a one-under-par 70. Yep, he still shot under par with a 10. Incredible.
Here’s a look at his front nine scorecard with that gruesome double-digit score:
And here’s Rottluff’s brilliant back nine rally:
What an absolutely ridiculous – and wonderful – scorecard.
Entering the Web.com Tour season finale at No.82 in the standings, Rottluff still needs a lot more birdies to move into the top 25 and earn a PGA Tour card this week. But the good news is that by virtue of finishing 64th on the regular season money list, he’s at least guaranteed being fully exempt on the Web.com Tour again. And at least he still has a chance at locking up more thanks to arguably the bounceback of the year on either tour.
