[Photo: Eurasia Sport Images]
Late-season golf always has a few tricks up its sleeve, and while the headlines this year might not focus on the PGA Tour itself – Rory McIlroy’s quest to win another Race to Dubai, the return of TGL and the Australian Open come instantly to mind – there’s more than a little intrigue left in the place. With five tournaments remaining on the PGA Tour schedule and a few bonus events afterwards, here are the seven things we’re looking forward to the most as 2026 winds down.
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The Spiether-coaster continues?
You knew it was coming. By virtue of barely missing the top 50 at the first FedEc Cup Playoffs event in Memphis, Spieth now has incentive to play a couple of “Fall” events. His main goal will be maintaining his place inside the top 60 (he’s 54th now) in order to qualify for the first two signature events next season at Pebble Beach and Riviera. We’ve seen him once already at the Baycurrent Classic, and while he sadly won’t be making the trip to the Bermuda Championship this week, it’s possible-to-likely that we’ll get at least one more look. In a perfect world, he’d win the new Austin Championship in his home state and give us something to get excited about heading into 2027.
The ongoing ascent of Jackson Koivun 
Photo: Ben Jared
The swaggering hero of the Presidents Cup, singles slayer of Si Woo Kim, has even more incentive than Spieth to play this northern autumn. He’s 67th in the standings, and despite his win at the 3M Open shortly after turning pro this year, he hasn’t locked up any signature berths yet. He too will not be at Bermuda, but we’ll see him multiple times in the coming weeks as he tries to use the Aon Next 10 to get inside the top 60 and make those first signature events. (It should go without saying that if Spieth or Koivun fail to reach this mark, they’re both extremely good candidates for sponsor exemptions.)
The Top 100 full status fight
The “Will he get this tour card?” drama used to be contested in Greensboro, North Carolina, and I won’t pretend I don’t miss the all-encompassing chaos of those days. But the fact that we have an entire tournament where full status is the most important storyline isn’t so bad either. Plus, it’s in Sea Island in coastal Georgia, which is pound-for-pound one of the most beautiful places the tour visits each year. With five tournaments left before the finale, there are some interesting names near the top-100 cut-off, chief among them Brooks Koepka, who sits now 102nd. Is Koepka playing this week in Bermuda? In keeping with the theme in items one and two, he is not.
Seriously, what’s exciting about Bermuda? 
Photo: James Gilbert
I got you – it’s Joel Dahmen. Dahmen is 128th in the standings right now, just outside the top 125 who earn conditional status, and he’s looking for his first top-10 since the Cognizant Classic way back in early March. He’s been struggling for a couple of seasons now, but remains one of the easiest guys to cheer for on tour, and it feels like these next few weeks are vital for his career. He’ll be 39 by the time the year’s done and not even having conditional status at that point feels a bit brutal, so get the vibes out to the universe: give him some love, Bermuda.
A Tiger appearance?
The Hero World Challenge is slated for early December as usual (again set flush against the Australian Open), which means we’ll at least get to see Tiger Woods. Will we see him play? Almost definitely not. And yet, the prospect of him holding his first press conference since the car crash – well, the first one where he has to face actual questions – is enticing enough that it’s pretty much my most anticipated event of this entire stretch.
The brutality of Q-School
This event, held in mid-December, is better than anybody gives it credit for because the rewards are so sparse. After four stages of play (some of which are skippable by the top players), do you know how many tour cards they give out? Five. Not even five and ties – if you finish in a tie for fifth, you’ll soon find yourself in a playoff for your career. The next 40 get Korn Ferry Tour membership, but for so many golfers this is true last-chance-saloon type stuff.
Miles Russell in Austin 
Photo: James Gilbert
As I’ve written before, it’s cool to have golf back in Austin, Texas, but it would be cooler if it was matchplay again, and it would also be cooler if the course wasn’t called “Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa”. But you know what is cool? The fact that Miles Russell, aka “Lil’ Koivun”, is getting an exemption. He’s 17, he’s already a budding star, and any chance we get to see him go against the best in the world is appointment viewing. And he hasn’t even graduated from high school!
