Billy Horschel has been the top American supporter of the European tour flagship event, having played the BMW PGA Championship every year since 2019 except for 2020 during travel restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Horschel wasn't expecting to be in Asheville, North Carolina, this week, but he had no choice.
Horschel, who missed five months in 2025 recovering from hip surgery, has failed to register a top 10 on the PGA Tour this year and is No. 100 in the FedEx Cup going into the fall. If he doesn't finish in the top 100, he loses his full card for the first time in more than a decade.
Horschel is playing the inaugural Biltmore Championship Asheville, the first of eight tournaments in the FedEx Cup Fall that for many can seem like two months of Q-school.
Horschel posted to his social media account a message to the BMW PGA Championship, where he has won twice and won't be able to return this year.
"Unfortunately, due to my not-so-stellar play on the PGA Tour this year, I'm going to have to skip," he said. "I'm devastated. I'm upset. It's a decision that was really tough to make."
There are seven other tournaments after Asheville. Then again, Horschel started the year the year at No. 53 in the world with plans of trying to get into the Players Championship and the Masters. His world ranking now is at No. 162.
Horschel, whose exemption from winning in 2024 in the Dominican Republic runs out this year, is not the only player with a lot at stake this fall.
Lucas Glover, who goes onto the PGA Tour policy board next year, is at No. 101. His three-year exemption from winning back-to-back weeks in 2023 is expiring. Christiaan Bezuidenhout is in Asheville at No. 97 in the FedEx Cup. He'll be playing in the Presidents Cup next week.
Also at stake is finishing among the top 60 -- the top 50 are set from the BMW Championship -- to get into a pair of $20 million signature events at Pebble Beach and Riviera in 2027. Jordan Spieth is at No. 52 and plans to play in Japan next month.
European tour's top 10 for PGA Tour cards
The European tour is down to its final eight events, with Patrick Reed in front on the Race to Dubai. His tie for second in the Irish Open expanded his lead over Rory McIlroy to 840 points.
Reed also is a lock to get a PGA Tour card offered to the leading 10 players in the Race to Dubai not already exempt. Only three of the top 13 players on the current points list -- McIlroy, British Open champion Ryan Fox and PGA champion Aaron Rai -- already have PGA Tour membership.
Eugenio Chacarra, at No. 3 and 84 points behind McIlroy in the Race to Dubai, is virtually a lock. He left Oklahoma State for LIV Golf, got out when it wasn't all he thought it would be, and became the first ex-LIV player to get a PGA Tour sponsor exemption (Puerto Rico) earlier this year.
He is followed by South Africans Casey Jarvis and Jayden Schaper, onetime Ryder Cup player Andy Sullivan, Jacob Skov Olesen, Bernd Wiesberger, Oliver Lindell, Daniel Hillier and Nacho Elvira.
Wiesberger also had a PGA Tour card before defecting to LIV. But he lasted only two years before finishing out of the top 40. The Austrian has been back on the European tour the last three years.
Missing from the Race to Dubai ranking is Joaquín Niemann, who won the Australian Open as part of the 2023-24 season for a two-year exemption on the European tour. Niemann, however, lost his European membership when he failed to meet the minimum required tournaments last year, playing only three times outside of the majors.