Pádraig Harrington loses PGA Tour card

Pádraig Harrington has lost his PGA Tour card for next year after missing the cut at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in North Carolina on Friday evening.

The three-time Major winner finished on four over par, a long way short of what was necessary on a weekend that began with the distant hope of victory and an unlikely place in the Fed-Ex Cup play-offs.

At the very least, Harrington needed to finish inside the top 25 to retain his card and he is now faced with the prospect of using a one-off career earnings exemption to reclaim it ahead of next season.

That’s an option he appeared reluctant to consider earlier this week and Harrington reportedly indicated after his round on Friday that he will hold on to the exemption for another time and rely on invites if he is to play in America next year.

He can use the exemption any year as long as he remains in the top 50 career earners.

The Stackstown golfer has honorary life membership of the European Tour, in any case, and looks set to return to this side of the Atlantic to compete in the Italian Open in a fortnight’s time and perhaps the €2.3m Omega European Masters in Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland, a week later.

Perhaps the only silver lining of a forgettable season may come if he is one of the two additional Ryder Cup vice-captains that Paul McGinley recently suggested could be selected from the current playing crop, to complement Des Smyth and Sam Torrance who are already in place.

Harrington opened with a two-over-par 72 in Greensboro on Thursday and carded the same score today with another mixed carded, the low-point of which was a double-bogey seven at the 15th.

Having started at the 10th he played the inward nine in level par 35, with two birdies and two bogeys, but his 144 total left him five short of the projected cut, well adrift of the weekend’s action.

American Heath Slocum was leading the event on 10 under after a second 65, with compatriot Brian Stuard a shot behind him after a 65. Bo van Pelt (65) and DA Points (65) were alongside Colombian Camilo Villegas (69) on eight under.

England's Paul Casey, right on the bubble for the Fed-EX Cup play-offs in 125th position before this weekend, remains in contention to tee it up at in The Barclays in New Jersey next weekend, thanks to a 69 that left him in a tied for 14th on six under.

In the LPGA, Stephanie Meadow also missed the cut when she finished four over at the Wegmans Championship in Pittsford, New York.

The projected cut was at one over this evening, with New Zealand's Lydia Ko the clubhouse leader on five under.