Tom McKibbin earned the 10th and final PGA Tour card from the Race to Dubai standings on the European tour last year. He joined Saudi-backed LIV Golf in late January, too late for the player who was 11th on the list — Jordan Smith — to take his place and get a PGA Tour card.
Maybe it was just as well.
Of the nine players (minus McKibbin) who took PGA Tour cards this year, only Rasmus Hojgaard of Denmark has secured his U.S. card for 2026.
Hojgaard, the top qualifier among last year's class, also is the only one so far to keep cards on both tours. He is No. 34 in Europe and playing the DP World Tour Championship this week. He also played in his first Ryder Cup.
Two tournaments remain for the other eight to finish in the top 100 of the FedEx Cup (or win) to keep full status. Thorbjorn Olesen is looking good at No. 95 in the FedEx Cup (he also kept his European tour status at No. 98).
Jesper Svensson of Sweden is at No. 121. No one else from that group is in the top 50. Paul Waring of England had to effectively shut down his year in July with a shoulder injury.
Getting starts was not the problem. Except for Waring, who played 12 times before his injury, the average number of PGA Tour starts for the European tour graduates was about 20. The bigger issue was no access to the $20 million signature events with elevated FedEx Cup points.
Hojgaard played three of them — two as the top qualifier from Europe, and the Truist Championship as one of the top five players not already eligible in events leading up to it.
As for Smith?
He was annoyed by the circumstances of last year. Everyone knew McKibbin was contemplating a jump to LIV Golf. But the PGA Tour season had already started and the 10 players were locked in. Smith has said getting to the PGA Tour “is a big goal of mine.”
“It’s just one of those things you have to take on the chin and use it as fuel to get one of those cards the next time,” Smith told the Daily Mail in June.
Smith currently is No. 15 in the Race to Dubai and holding down what would be the 10th spot to earn a PGA Tour card going into the season finale this week. Smith has a 135-point lead over Martin Couvra of France and a 174-point lead over Daniel Hillier.
LPGA Commissioner Craig Kessler made his first big hire as he builds an executive team, bringing in Monica Fee from LIV Golf to be the chief sales and partnerships officer. Fee will oversee the tour’s global sales and partnership strategy, which includes title sponsorships and commercial assets.
“Monica brings incredible energy, a ton of passion for golf and leading teams, and a reputation for delivering results,” Kessler said.
Fee was part of the executive team that helped launch the Saudi-funded league. She joined LIV Golf in December 2021 as senior vice president and head of global partnerships to oversee sales, partner management and brand development.
Previously, she had spent 15 years at CAA Sports in a key sales role.
“The LPGA is at an extraordinary moment in its history, one defined by momentum, purpose and global opportunity,” Fee said. “I’m excited to help shape its next chapter by building partnerships that elevate women’s golf and connect the LPGA’s values with leading brands around the world.”
Sahith Theegala came into the season at No. 13 in the world. With two tournaments remaining, he is on the verge of falling out of the top 100.
Theegala had a neck injury in May that cost him about two months and forced him to withdraw from two majors, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open. He returned at the British Open and missed his next three cuts.
Theegala is exempt for 2026 as a tournament winner, but he is not in the majors next year. His last top-10 finish on the PGA Tour was a tie for seventh in Napa, California, in September 2024.
Longtime Acushnet Company executive Peter Broome is the latest to be conferred an honorary member of the PGA of America, the 13th person to receive the honor dating to 1962. Broome was senior vice president of the Acushnet Company.
“To join former U.S. Presidents and other golf luminaries on this short list of PGA Honorary Members is humbling and overwhelming,” Broome said. “It has been both a personal and professional honor and privilege to support and promote PGA members who are at the epicenter of the game. My career led me to Acushnet, which shared the same belief in the important role of the PGA Member.”
Broome, a Montreal native, was an assistant pro at Canadian clubs while at McGill University. He became a key figure in the golf industry worldwide during his 30 years at Acushnet.
He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in August 2024, which led to starting the Bridge Foundation for research and treatment of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Ben Griffin became the third straight World Wide Technology Championship winner with a 63 in the final round. ... The LPGA Tour has granted a waiver for 17-year-old Gianna Clemente to compete in the Q-Series next month as she tries to earn a card. Clemente first gained a measure of fame when she made it through Monday qualifying for three straight LPGA events at age 14. ... This was the second straight year the Toto Japan Classic was shortened to 54 holes because of weather. ... The Tommy Fleetwood Academy is expanding in the United Arab Emirates. Fleetwood already has one in Dubai. Now he is opening another one at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi, where he was runner-up last week. ... Commercial property insurance company FM, already an LPGA title sponsor with one of the largest non-major prize funds, signed Lottie Woad to a corporate deal. Woad won in her pro debut this summer and already is No. 10 in the women's world ranking.
Three of the five winners in the FedEx Cup Fall played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team — Scottie Scheffler (Procore Championship), Xander Schauffele (Baycurrent Classic) and Ben Griffin (World Wide Technology Championship).
“I’m not going to sit here and just try to admire it. I’m going to keep using each event as fuel for the next one and continue to work really hard. That’s what Tiger Woods always did, what Scottie Scheffler’s doing. I’ve got to continue doing all the right things to be great.” — Ben Griffin after winning in Mexico for his third title this year.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland watches after playing second shot on the 7th hole during the final round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Rasmus Hojgaard of Denmark plays his second shot on the 17th hole during the first round of Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran hit a tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait International Airport early Wednesday as Tehran remained unrelenting in its attacks on its Gulf Arab neighbors, while acknowledging for the first time that Washington had been in direct contact about a possible ceasefire.
Israel sounded warnings of incoming fire from both Yemen and Iran, while launching its own attacks in Lebanon that killed at least five people.
An airstrike on Tehran appeared to have hit the former U.S. Embassy compound, which has been controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard since the 1979 hostage crisis. Witnesses said buildings outside the massive compound had their windows blown out and that it appears the strike happened inside the walled facility.
With no sign of the war abating and more than 3,000 lives already lost, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested it could be over within two weeks even as he moved to bring thousands more troops to the region.
Trump has been under growing pressure to end the war as Iran’s grip on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and its attacks on regional energy infrastructure have sent gas prices skyrocketing to their highest level since 2022 and caused broad stock market fluctuations.
Iran throttled ship traffic through the strait, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, after it was attacked by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. In peacetime, a fifth of the world’s oil transits the strait and the spot price of Brent crude, the international standard, is up more than 40% since the start of the war, trading at more than $104 a barrel.
The U.S. has presented Iran with a 15-point plan aimed at bringing about a ceasefire, which includes a demand for the strait to be reopened. Iran’s own five-point response includes it retaining sovereignty over the waterway, and Trump on Tuesday suggested that the war could be brought to an end even with Iran still controlling the strait.
The U.S. “will not have anything to do with” what happens in the Strait of Hormuz, instead telling reporters that the responsibility for keeping the vital waterway open would belong with countries that rely on it.
“That’s not for us. That’ll be for France. That’ll be for whoever’s using the strait,” Trump said.
It was not clear why Trump brought up France, since Europe receives very little oil shipped through the strait, with most going to Asian countries. The president plans a prime-time address on Wednesday.
Trump, who has vacillated between insisting there is progress in diplomatic talks with Iran and threatening to widen the war, added that the U.S. is “finishing the job” in Iran and predicted it will be “maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer to do the job.”
Trump has warned that if a ceasefire is not reached “shortly,” and if the strait is not reopened, the U.S. would broaden its offensive, including by attacking the Kharg Island oil export hub and possibly desalination plants.
Thousands of Marines and paratroopers have been ordered to the region in possible preparation for an assault in Kharg, though to reach the island by ship would mean transiting the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, which Iran has threatened to mine.
In an interview with pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged receiving direct messages from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. He insisted, however, that there were no direct negotiations and said Iran has no faith that talks with the U.S. could yield any results, saying “the trust level is at zero.”
He warned against any attempt to launch a ground offensive, saying “we are waiting for them.”
“We know very well how to defend ourselves,” Araghchi said.
Early Wednesday a tanker off the coast of Qatar was hit with a projectile, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. The crew was reportedly unharmed. A fully-loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker came under attack off Dubai the day before, one of more than 20 ships attacked by Iran during the war.
Bahrain sounded two alerts for incoming missiles, and said an Iranian attack had caused a fire at a business facility.
In Kuwait, the state-run KUNA news agency said a drone had hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a “large fire” that crews were working to control.
Two drones were also intercepted in Saudi Arabia, which has come under repeated Iranian attack, and air raid sirens sounded in Israel though there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
In Iran, Israel said it had hit a plant producing fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, to allegedly be used in a chemical weapons program. Iran acknowledged the strike on Tofigh Daru factory, but insisted it only supplied “hospital drugs” used for medical purposes.
The strike happened Tuesday, both the Israelis and the Iranians said.
Hospitals extensively use fentanyl to treat severe pain. But a small amount of the drug can be fatal.
Both Israel and the United States have alleged in recent years that Iran was experimenting with fentanyl in munitions.
In Beirut, at least five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a Beirut neighborhood. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said another 21 people were wounded.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon after the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group began launching missiles into northern Israel days after the outbreak of the wider war. Many Lebanese fear another prolonged military occupation.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million displaced, according to authorities. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.
In Iran, authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.
Since the Iran war began, 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 348 wounded, six seriously, according to U.S. Central Command.
More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank.
Rising reported from Bangkok. AP writer Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Florida contributed to this report.
Firefighters and rescue workers work at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A firefighter extinguishes a car at the site of Israeli airstrikes, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Israel's rescue teams and residents take shelter as sirens sounds next to a site struck by an Iranian missile in Bnei Brak, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A police vehicle is seen through a shattered windshield at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Two men ride scooters past charred debris at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
