When Mike Weir shot 77-85—162, 22 over par, in brutally windy conditions and missed the cut by 16 strokes last week in the Honda Classic, he lost his PGA Tour card.
The greatest Canadian golfer in history, the only major champion from north of the border, had been playing on a major medical extension, and this was the last of his five events this year in which he had to earn $228,000.
Weir made $559,000 last season and needed to make up the difference to reach the equivalent of 125th on the PGA Tour money list. Instead, he made only $10,778 in his five events, missing the cut four times and tying for 77th in the Farmers Insurance Open.
"I'm not really worried about that," Weir wrote on his blog at mikeweir.com recently. "Of course I'm hoping to take care of things ... but if it doesn't happen, I'll deal with it then. Either way, I know I will still play this year beyond those five events, so I'm not really worried about that. Right now, I'm just trying to get back into the routine. I know it will take time, but I'm also confident I'll be back playing great golf soon.
"I truly feel that I'm getting closer to playing some good, consistent golf. ... First and foremost, my elbow is feeling great right now. I have absolutely no pain in it, and there was only a tiny bit of soreness on a couple of days when I put in a little extra work on the range.
"However, I feel as if I still have some tournament rust clinging to me. The events I've played so far are really the first ones I've played healthy in about seven months."
The 40-year-old Weir's 85 on Friday on the Champion Course at PGA National was the worst score of his career, and he finished last among the 140 players who finished 36 holes.
His previous high was 84 at the Players Championship 10 years ago.
Weir, who had elbow surgery last fall after struggling for much of 2010, left the course quickly without speaking with reporters.
The 2003 Masters champion, an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour, did achieve conditional status on the circuit with $6,151 to spare and is a popular player who is expected to receive most of the sponsors' exemptions he might seek.
As a past champion at Augusta, he has a lifetime exemption in the first major of the year, but he has not qualified for the other three majors, the Players Championship or the World Golf Championship events.
Since he cannot play in the WGC-Cadillac Championship this week at Doral, he is entered in the opposite-field event, the Puerto Rico Classic.
