Justin Lower\u2019s eyes darted right, then he shook his head. He looked away. His feet shuffled. His face grimaced.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d been asked what he was thinking, and his body mirrored the thoughts that soon followed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Disappointment? There was that Friday afternoon at the RSM Classic<\/a>. As the PGA Tour\u2019s last event of the season, there\u2019s a unique finality to the tournament. The year is done, and with that, the chance to secure playing status is over. There\u2019s one last shot to win. There\u2019s one last opportunity to move up the Tour\u2019s season-long points standings, which award full playing privileges for next year to only those in the top 100.<\/p>\n Lower was above that mark on Friday. And after rounds of 69 and 68, he also missed the cut and was out of chances to better his standing.<\/p>\n Lower knew it. Thoughts of what-if started.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cObviously I had a s**tty year,\u201d he said. \u201cI 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLike, did I have my best stuff this year? Absolutely not. But I worked my a*s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo get a top-10 just like that? I mean, unless you\u2019re Scottie [Scheffler]<\/a> or Tiger [Woods]<\/a> or one of the really, really good players, like it just doesn\u2019t happen just like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI played OK for the past couple days. My putting\u2019s been s**tty all year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Lower was also angered.\u00a0<\/p>\n A year ago, he likely would have kept his Tour card via the points standings, but, as part of a series of changes for the 2026 season<\/a>, the cut-off number moved to 100, from 125. Lower, of course, was aware. He\u2019d even talked about the moves previously.<\/p>\n The feelings were the same, though.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just pretty p**sed off, to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t 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\u2019m just not going to say a whole lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a whole lot I could say about the changes and everything, but obviously in the situation I\u2019m in, I feel threatened by that, which I totally get.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI totally get the need for the changes. Do I agree with them? No. I don\u2019t think our product is that bad to where we have to blow everything up, which is what it seems like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n About halfway through a four-minute interview, Lower also became emotional<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n