There are countless words written over these last few weeks of the PGA Tour season about The Bubble. The bubble to keep a card. The bubble to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs. The bubble to reach the BMW Championship. The bubble to get the big prize of a pass into the Tour Championship.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s our fascination now, but the way Brian Harman tells it, tour players can sometimes feel like they\u2019re playing for their lives every week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s hard not to think about that stuff, but at the same time, you think about it all the time anyways, so you kind of get used to it,\u201d Harman said on Saturday in Memphis, where he shot 69 in the third round to be tied for sixth in the FedEx St. Jude Championship<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s really hard. Kind of wherever you are on tour, you’re on some kind of bubble. You’re either trying to make the Tour Championship or you’re trying to make the Presidents Cup or you’re trying to make the top 50 or you’re trying to keep your card or trying to win for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Champion Golfer of the Year in 2023 after winning the Open Championship at Hoylake, Harman, 39, hasn\u2019t had to worry much about his next paycheck or where he\u2019s placed in the FedEx Cup standings. Indeed, he won his fourth tour title just last year in the Valero Texas Open.<\/p>\n
But this hasn\u2019t been the best year for him. Harman has made 21 starts but hadn\u2019t posted a top-10 finish until he tied for third in last month\u2019s 3M Open. He\u2019s made a lot of cuts, though, at 16, and Harman entered the week at 65th and precariously outside the bubble of the top 50 who make the BMW at Bellerive in St. Louis next week.<\/p>\n
With his strong play at TPC Southwind, Harman is projected to be the first to miss the BMW at No. 51, but that could change with strong play in Sunday\u2019s final round.<\/p>\n
Harman admitted that he may be less on edge than others because he\u2019s guaranteed to be in all four majors next year. But there\u2019s also the carrot of reaching the top 50, which automatically gets players into the signature events the following year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that’s what makes our game so great,\u201d Harman said. \u201cI think that’s what’s super interesting about golf is there’s 15 different golf tournaments going on out here, not just the guy trying to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
That might be one of the best descriptions ever of each week on tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that’s what we’re trying to do going forward because we all care a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, I care a lot. I care a lot about making the top 50. I care a lot about making the top 30. I care a lot about winning. I care a lot about making teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
The battle continues on Sunday, with everyone chasing World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. He shot 68 in the third round to hold a two-stroke lead over Sungjae Im and his good friend Sam Burns, who charged with a 62. Not that it\u2019s a huge concern for him, but Scheffler\u2019s bubble is trying to separate himself from four other players in the Player of the Year race. The immediate motivation is trying to win his second title of the season in which Scheffler has finished second five times.<\/p>\n
As for the top-50 bubble, the current last five out, in order, are Harman, Matt McCarty, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa and Harris English. The last five in, from 46th, are Sahith Theegala, Michael Brennan, Eric Cole and No. 50 Maverick McNealy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are countless words written over these last few weeks of the PGA Tour season about The Bubble.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1443,1955,19785,17511,9898,82],"class_list":["post-51264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw-championship","tag-bmw-championship","tag-brian-harman","tag-brian-harman-shared-this-brilliant-though-about-tour-life-on-the-bubble","tag-fedexcup2026","tag-playoffs","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}