Rory Sabbatini to keep full PGA Tour card after reworked rankings following LIV Golf fallout

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Rory Sabbatini can earn a full PGA Tour card for next season thanks to players who signed up at Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf and were suspended.

The circumstances stem from the PGA Tour’s decision to ensure that suspended players do not affect the eligibility criteria of players in good standing.

The tour now has two lists – the official FedEx Cup leaderboard and an “Eligibility Points List” from which banned players have been removed. That’s how Rickie Fowler finished 125th in the FedEx Cup Playoffs that begin this week.

The Tour Policy Board decided on Friday to keep separate lists of career money leaders as well.

Players are entitled to a one-time waiver from being in the top 50 for career money and a one-time waiver from being in the top 25 for career money. Typically, a player uses the top 25 exception first and then the top 50.

Sabbatini, who won the Olympic silver medal for Slovakia last summer, failed to keep his full card last year. He was No. 29 in career money and had to use his one-time top-50 exemption for that season. But he only made $628,043 that year and finished in the top 125 in the FedEx Cup.

Sabbatini would have dropped to 31st place. But five LIV Golf players have resigned and are no longer listed on the career money list. Four others were suspended and do not count.

That will put Sabbatini in 22nd place, meaning he can capitalize on his top-25 exemption and have a full card going into next season.

Born in South Africa, Sabbatini is a six-time PGA Tour winner whose most recent win was at the 2011 Honda Classic.

The math gets even more complicated on other matters, but Bubba Watson’s retirement from the PGA Tour — effective Sunday — changes the point threshold players need to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. That makes room for Anthony Quayle, Chris Naegel, Rick Lamb and Matthias Schmid to try and earn cards later this month.