With his status for 2026 on the line, American Jordan Gumberg holed out a wedge shot for eagle from 58 yards on the final hole at the DP World Tour’s Genesis Championship to miraculously secure exempt status for next year.
The 30-year-old American started the week at No. 127 in the tour’s rankings and needed to find a way into the top 115 at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club in South Korea. On the 72nd and final hole, he was 58 yards from the hole and hit a wedge that landed softly into the fringe and trickled down and into the cup to the eagle-3. Gumberg and his caddie went nuts in celebration, knowing it was likely enough. In the end, Gumberg finished at No. 110 and was safely inside the magic number.
Advertisement
Gumberg shot 70-69-71-68 for a six-under 278 total to tie for seventh place. Korea’s Junghwan Lee won the event, shooting a final-round 64 to end at 11 under.
“I’m at a loss for words,” Gumberg said. “I saw the ball land on the green and trickle over the hill, you couldn’t see anything, and the crowd went nuts, we went nuts. It was the best shot I’ve hit in my career so far.
“I didn’t think we needed to hole it, but we were looking to get one more and obviously it’s an added plus when it went in so I’m ecstatic.”
Gumberg is from Florida and played college golf at Arizona. He finished second behind Jon Rahm in the 2016 Pac-12 Championship. He’s now found success in Europe, having won the SDC Championship in a playoff last year in South Africa in just his fifth DP World Tour start.
Advertisement
This season, however, Gumberg has played in more events than anyone else (34), playing in all but one event for which he was eligible. Still, he hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish all season and knew that he needed to finish 14th or better this week in Korea.
Gumberg was in decent position after two days but still had work to do. A third-round even-par 71 still left him with some consternation. Sunday’s final round only included one birdie and 16 pars until the eagle on the last hole. He was 256 yards from the pin after his drive on the 18th and with water guarding the front of the dogleg left hole he opted to lay up to what proved to be a magic number.
“We just stuck within ourselves,” Gumberg said. “My caddie did a great job of keeping me in it, he said ‘just keep plugging away, plugging away, you’ve got this’ … I’m getting a little choked up right now. He was right I guess.”
