Justin Lower’s eyes darted right, then he shook his head. He looked away. His feet shuffled. His face grimaced.
He’d been asked what he was thinking, and his body mirrored the thoughts that soon followed.
Disappointment? There was that Friday afternoon at the RSM Classic. As the PGA Tour’s last event of the season, there’s a unique finality to the tournament. The year is done, and with that, the chance to secure playing status is over. There’s one last shot to win. There’s one last opportunity to move up the Tour’s season-long points standings, which award full playing privileges for next year to only those in the top 100.
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.
Lower knew it. Thoughts of what-if started.
“Obviously I had a s**tty year,” he said. “I 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.
“Like, 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.
“To get a top-10 just like that? I mean, unless you’re Scottie [Scheffler] or Tiger [Woods] or one of the really, really good players, like it just doesn’t happen just like that.
“I played OK for the past couple days. My putting’s been s**tty all year.”
Lower was also angered.
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, the cut-off number moved to 100, from 125. Lower, of course, was aware. He’d even talked about the moves previously.
The feelings were the same, though.
“I’m just pretty p**sed off, to be honest,” he said. “I don’t 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’m just not going to say a whole lot.
“There’s a whole lot I could say about the changes and everything, but obviously in the situation I’m in, I feel threatened by that, which I totally get.
“I totally get the need for the changes. Do I agree with them? No. I don’t think our product is that bad to where we have to blow everything up, which is what it seems like.”
The rounds he’d just played? He wanted them. And will continue to want them. The grind. He’ll play somewhere in 2026. He’s also been on a journey. Lower played his college golf at the NAIA level. When he was 15, his dad and younger brother died in a car crash on their way to picking him up from golf.
Thinking of all that, he started to choke up.
“For me to get four years out here,” Lower said, “I don’t know what to say really.
“I mean, I love it out here. I love it here. I love everyone out here, I love everyone involved with the Tour. Are there some people who p**s me off? Yes, absolutely, there are. Are there some things that p**s me off? There are.
“I’m human, I don’t know what else to do, but God, I am just so mad right now. Like, if I could just have somehow turned it around this year, but I obviously couldn’t. This game is just really hard. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to say. I need to figure out how to get better.”
