The Reshuffle List: Fallout from the Third Reshuffle

Jim Herman's unlikely victory at the Houston Open punched a ticket into last week's Masters and also ended the third reshuffle period of the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. Here's how the Reshuffle List looks:

Top 5

1. Jamie Lovemark - 580.057 FedEx Cup Points
2. Si Woo Kim - 504.810
3. Andrew Loupe - 373.321
4. Brett Stegmaier - 348.712
5. Tyrone Van Aswegen - 345.873

Lovemark and Kim are way above the threshold that clinched a PGA Tour card for the 2015-16 season, 459 points. This is big news for them, especially Lovemark who has been injury ridden in recent years. They can now focus on wins and getting into more prominent events -- i.e. majors and World Golf Championships -- instead of solid finishes to ensure they keep their cards.

Bottom 5 (non-medical)

Darron Stiles - 18.880
Lucas Lee - 16.500
Dicky Pride - 16.000
Andrew Landry - 9.650
Abraham Ancer - 0.000

Biggest Gainers

Sam Saunders, +13 spots - Saunders, Arnie's grandson who is still looking for his first PGA Tour victory, moved up 13 spots to 22nd on the back of three in-the-money finishes during the reshuffle period. He tied for 14th at Honda, 22nd in Tampa and 39th in Puerto Rico, good enough to get him over the 150 FedEx Cup point threshold for the season. He still needs to turn it on, though, and needs more consistent week-to-week play to help his cause (he's missed eight cuts in 12 starts overall). His rankings of 146th for strokes gained-tee to green and 70th in strokes gained-putting aren't helping matters. Hopefully for him, this recent momentum carries over as the next stretch nears.

Steve Marino, +10 spots - Marino's playoff loss at the Puerto Rico Open propelled him to 16th after this reshuffle, a welcome sight for those who have missed a likeable player who has struggled with a litany of injury issues in recent years. There was no ShotLink in Puerto Rico, but he walked away from that playoff ranked T19 in greens in regulation and T23 in putts per green in regulation for the week. For someone like him on the comeback trail it comes down to consistency and at 248 FedEx Cup points, he'll need to string together a consistent set of finishes to secure playing privileges for next season.

Luke List, +6 spots - Side note: you think Bubba and Jason and Justin and Rory are long? Many tour pros actually think Luke List is the longest of all. Now if he can only contend a couple more times, we'll see it on the biggest of stages. List is quietly up to 10th in the Reshuffle List, gaining six spots last period due to his T10 finish at Honda, T15 in Puerto Rico and T27 in Houston. What's going well for him? At Honda, for example, he ranked second in driving distance at 312.7 yards, 15th in strokes gained-tee to green and 35th in strokes gained-putting. At more than 300 FedEx Cup points, he's just a couple good finishes away from having his card for next season.

Brett Stegmaier, +4 spots - Stegmaier is another player who has quietly worked his way up the Reshuffle List rankings this season, now fourth at nearly 349 FedEx Cup points and little more than 100 away from the magic number. His good vibes are courtesy of going T21-T18 at Honda and Tampa. That was very useful because he was coming off two missed cuts and followed it up with another missed cut and a withdrawal from Houston. Buoyed by those finishes and a strong start to the 2015-16 PGA Tour season that included a second in Vegas, he now ranks 27th in total driving and 37th in ball striking.

Derek Fathauer, +4 spots - A 12th at Bay Hill coupled with a T26 at Honda, a T21 in Puerto Rico and T72 in Houston gave Fathauer a mini-bump to seventh on the Reshuffle List. At 341 FedEx Cup points he's also right around 100 points below the amount that'll get him a Tour card for next season. At Arnie's event he was aided by a hot putter that had him ranked eighth in strokes gained-putting for the week. Keep that up and he could be a sleeper fantasy pick.

Biggest Losers

Harold Varner III, -8 spots - Varner's plight is interesting. He's 13th in the standings, has 269 FedEx Cup points -- in other words not horrible -- yet isn't trending in the right direction after missing all four cuts during the last reshuffle period with a total of zero rounds in the 60s. What could be the cause? He's basically had no stretch of multiple weeks off for all 2016, with only Pebble, Doral and the Match Play/Puerto Rico week ones he missed. It's obviously paid off in the sense that he's 13th on the list, but that can tire you out and lead to faults in your game from fatigue. It'll be interesting to see how Varner recovers with some more natural breaks (beginning with last week at Augusta and extending into a busy summer with a lot of events he won't get into at his current pace) coming up.

Ricky Barnes, -5 spots - Barnes, 15th on the list, made one cut, a T39 in Puerto Rico, and that was it. He either missed the cut or withdrew from his other three starts during the period. And that Puerto Rico appearance wasn't very impressive as he also had zero rounds in the 60s. Although Barnes has 248.5 FedEx Cup points, he ranks 200th in driving accuracy, 105th in greens in regulation and 178th in strokes gained-tee to green. Although he's 39th in strokes gained-putting, that just won't get it done.

Hiroshi Iwata, -5 spots - Iwata went from 12th to 17th, missing two cuts and going T33-T60 over the course of his reshuffle period. For the season he ranks 205th in greens in regulation and 185th in strokes gained-tee to green, signs of inconsistency that will rear their ugly heads over the course of a long PGA Tour season.

Robert Garrigus, -5 spots - Garrigus is 32nd on the Reshuffle List having just 71.980 FedEx Cup points this season. The reason for this slip was pretty simple: he only made one start during this reshuffle period: a missed cut in Puerto Rico. While it's uncertain if that was because of playing opportunities or injury, the bottom line is the same: at this point in the Reshuffle List, you must take advantage of every playing opportunity you get. That's the plight Garrigus is now in. He has the talent to do it, but now all the pressure is on him.

Bud Cauley (medical), -4 spots - We've covered Cauley before -- he has a set number of starts to get his card back via his major medical exemption. He fell in this ranking because he hasn't played on the PGA Tour since Pebble Beach, where he missed the cut, though it doesn't matter as much as others because he still has the set number of starts. He had to withdraw from Bay Hill with a foot injury, and because he's a Reshuffle List member (that's where he was when the shoulder injury happened) he's feeling the effects of being low on that list (27th). Bottom line: it's going to be a long road back for Cauley.

Nothing Man Update:

Abraham Ancer continues to be the last Nothing Man, with zero dollars or FedEx Cup points to his name this season. He made only one start during this reshuffle period, a missed cut in Puerto Rico, a byproduct of being 46th on the Reshuffle List. He has made two Web.com Tour starts in the meantime, with finishes of T14 and T30. So the game is there, but the opportunities to translate that onto the PGA Tour are not. Needless to say he'll need to take advantage of the few starts he gets (New Orleans maybe?) during this period and the remainder of the season to help his cause.