Justin Lower has days like Saturday on the golf course, and they steel his belief that he belongs on the PGA Tour. The 35-year-old poured in seven birdies and made a spectacular eagle on the 18th hole to shoot a career-best 63 and vault into a tie for the lead heading into the final round of the World Wide Technology Championship in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
A victory on Sunday would drastically change Lower’s professional life, moving him off the hamster wheel his career has been, and afford him security in the game he’s never really had. That’s why he got a bit choked up in front the media following his Saturday round, saying, “I told myself I’m going to stop doing this in interviews. I work really hard in this game. … Sometimes I think I never would have gotten this far, and I’ve been through a lot in my life, and I don’t know, it’s just a lot of fun. It’s nothing sad that I’m crying. It’s just joyful. I love being out here.”
Lower, however, cannot help but worry about his future. He eyes the proposed changes that likely will arrive on the PGA Tour for 2026—smaller fields, fewer cards awarded—and he’s feeling liked he snatched the carrot dangled in front of him, only to see it replaced by a turnip.
“I hate all the changes they’re making, that’s a whole ‘nother subject I could rant about for like an hour,” Lower said. “Seems like anytime I do something good they make a change.”
Lower is representative of the tour rank-and-file who are justifiably concerned about their livelihoods. Since he reached the PGA Tour in 2022 after a few years toiling on the Korn Ferry Tour, Lower has finished 138th, 103rd and 91st on the FedEx Cup points list. He’s progressed each season, and that’s reason to be proud. But, say, in 2026, if he doesn’t improve further, then he’s battling to be among the 100 who retain their cards, down from the current 125.
Already, Lower and his journeyman brethren, or those young players trying to rise up the ranks, are mostly shut out of the big-money signature events and have to play a bunch more weeks to keep the pace. Lower is making his 29th start of the season this week (Scottie Scheffler played 19), having made 21 cuts—a stat he believes had shown his maturing skills. But he’s also notched only three top-10 finishes, and the response to his concerns from the upper echelon would be, “Play better.”
As he said, Lower is diligently working hard on that, and being the 54-hole co-leader in Mexico, with Nico Echavarria and Carson Young, tells him he may have another gear that will dull his worries.
“I just want to see how good I can do,” he said, “and prove to myself that I can actually do something in this game.”
The tour’s Policy Board is expected to vote on the proposed changes at a meeting on Nov. 18.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
