The Reshuffle List: Looking Ahead to the Third Reshuffle

Time flies when you're having fun, and while a lot of the golf world has been focused on when Tiger Woods will next play and the sensational finishes we've seen on Sundays, Reshuffle List players have been grinding away, knowing that the third reshuffle of the 2014-15 PGA Tour season is just three weeks away. With that in mind, here's our status update for this period.

Graduated

Alex Cejka - The feel-good story of March on the PGA Tour has to be Cejka, who finally broke through to win his first PGA Tour event in a five-man playoff at the Puerto Rico Open. Already a winner internationally, Cejka sank a clutch, left-to-right sliding birdie putt on the first playoff hole to not only nab his first victory but also get himself off the Reshuffle List and claim the two-year exemption and the resulting job security that comes with a win. The Puerto Rico Open is an opposite-field event, however, so this doesn't get him to the Masters. But for someone with uncertain status on the Reshuffle List, that fact won't take away from the impact of the win.

Card Clinched

Daniel Berger, 603.400 FedEx Cup points -- Losing a playoff can be a brutal defeat and a seemingly lost opportunity for a victory (especially your first), but in certain situations, it can be a major achievement and a huge launching point. That is the case for Berger. Already on the radar after a weekend run at the Phoenix Open and other strong play during the first part of the PGA Tour season, Berger burst onto the scene at the Honda Classic where he shot a final-round 64 and wound up in a playoff with Padraig Harrington before eventually losing on the second playoff hole. However, that finish, coupled with his two other top-10s and five other top-25s, has gotten him to more than 600 FedEx Cup points (he's 19th in the standings), clinching his card for the 2015-16 season and allowing him to start thinking victories and playoffs.

Biggest Gainers (if the reshuffle happened today)

Sean O'Hair, +20 spots - O'Hair lost in the playoff last week at the Valspar Championship but did a lot of good for his chances of clinching a card for the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. First, if the reshuffle happened today, he'd be third in the standings. But more important, he now has nearly 422 points. Last season, 438 points clinched a card. So with even a decent finish, O'Hair can lock up a place to play next season. As for fantasy implications, while it was his first top-10 finish of the year, he did have two other top-25 finishes, and if he can continue the form that saw him rank second in strokes gained-putting for the week, he could be a nice sleeper pick.

Sam Saunders, +18 spots - The aforementioned playoff that graduated Cejka was a lost opportunity for Saunders, who was one of the five participants. He made a clutch up and down on the 72nd hole to get into the playoff and had a birdie chance to continue it on the first playoff hole just slide by. But like Berger, all is not lost, as Saunders would jump 18 spots from 40th to 22nd if the reshuffle happened today. He has more than 180 FedEx Cup points to his name, a marked improvement considering it was his first top-10 and just his second top-25 of the PGA Tour season. In fact he had missed the cut or withdrew from his last seven starts before the playoff loss in Puerto Rico. Now Saunders needs to focus on consistency, as a lack of it is demonstrated in his rankings of 141st in greens in regulation and 105th in the all-around Ranking.

Benjamin Alvarado, +13 spots - We wrote a lot about Alvarado last year after much-maligned changes to the Reshuffle List left some players with fewer starts than they imagined (the system was changed for this season). However, it turns out there was more than met the eye when it came to Alvarado. According to the PGA Tour media guide, Alvarado suffered from a knee injury sustained during the 2013 Web.com Tour season that delayed his start on the PGA Tour last season and then had his plight further exacerbated by a wrist injury that occurred near the John Deere Classic. To make a long and slightly complicated story short, he's made three starts this year, with a T22 in Puerto Rico his only cut made and the first signs of positive movement. He has a long way to go to earn enough points and/or money to regain his previous status, but this is a start, and in a three-week stretch of fairly small changes on the Reshuffle List, why he stands out.

Jon Curran, +9 spots - Curran's rise is also the result of the playoff loss in Puerto Rico. Prior to nearly having a shot at victory, Curran was inconsistent, with two top-10s alongside seven missed cuts. He'd be up to 10th if the reshuffle happened today, with an increased number of starts in his future and a new wave of confidence courtesy of a near-win in the Caribbean. He's 23rd in driving accuracy.

Dropping Spots (if the reshuffle happened today)

No one would drop more than five spots if the reshuffle happened today -- Hudson Swafford and Cameron Percy would hold that honor -- with several players dropping a couple of spots.

Of note, however, has been the plateauing of Tony Finau since the calendar changed to 2015. Fall 2014's bright star with two top-10 and two other finishes within the top-15, Finau has no finish better than T22 in 2015, has missed his last two cuts and has shot only one round of better than 67 in the calendar year. With nearly 404 FedEx Cup Points, he's still one solid finish away from clinching his card for 2015-16, but the man who some thought was a sure-thing to win in 2015 has not been the consistent force that had people talking about his booming drives and strong overall game last year. Side note: All that notwithstanding, he still ranks fourth in driving distance at nearly 308 yards.

The Nothing Men Update

The only non-medical players who have not earned money nor FedEx Cup Points for the 2014-15 season continue to be Bud Cauley, who is still out with a torn labrum and will probably have to take some sort of medical extension when he does re-appear, and Richard Sterne.