BC's Stuart Macdonald Back In The Hunt For PGA TOUR Card After Playoff Loss In Mexico
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
(May 6, 2025) - Golf has a way of testing a player’s resolve and Stuart Macdonald is proud of the way he handled a stretch where he had been playing well but not seeing much in the way of tangible results.
Heading into last week’s Tulum Championship in Mexico on the Korn Ferry Tour, Macdonald had made six of his previous seven cuts but had finished no better than a tie for 56th.
Macdonald stayed patient and positive, feeling he was close to breaking through. Turns out he was right.
The 30-year-old Vancouver native turned his season around with a solo second-place finish after losing a playoff on the second extra hole to Bryson Nimmer. Macdonald came oh-so-close to scripting a storybook ending as he got himself into the playoff in dramatic fashion by holing a shot from 103 yards for a birdie on the 72nd hole.
Macdonald had pulled his drive left into a native area on his final hole and was forced to chip out. At that point, he was thinking about trying to save par and earn a share of second place. “It’s a really hard approach shot even from 100 yards, so I wasn’t really thinking about holing it,” Macdonald said in an interview from his Phoenix-area home. “I just wanted to give myself a decent look at par. It was incredible.”
The fact that he wasn’t expecting to be in a playoff may have helped ease the sting of not winning it. Macdonald said it did not take him long to move past the disappointment of not winning the tournament and appreciate the significance of his solo second-place finish.
“It didn’t take too long for me to realize that was a great week and that was an incredible moment to even have a chance at winning the golf tournament,” Macdonald said. “So yeah, I was disappointed and would have liked to have made a better chip on that second playoff hole, but I am not upset. It was a great week, I played great and I would say there was a little bit of relief to have a good finish under the belt just because I had felt I had been playing well and had got nothing out of my game.”
Macdonald had entered the week 138th on the Korn Ferry Tour points list and he acknowledged that as the season progresses it becomes increasingly difficult not to think about your position on that list. After all, your future depends on it. Only the top 75 players at season’s end retain their Korn Ferry Tour exempt status, with the top 20 players earning promotion to the PGA TOUR.
“I’m not like super-refreshing the points list and living or dying by every result each week,” he said. “You just have to be present to play well in this sport. But it’s always in the back of your mind. And obviously as the season goes on, it feels like there is more pressure to perform because you need the points.”
Macdonald doesn’t have much to worry about now. His Mexico finish moved him all the way up to 28th on the points list. That virtually guarantees him a spot inside the top 75 and now he can take a run at moving inside the top 20 and earning a 2026 PGA TOUR card. Macdonald earned $90,000 for his second-place finish, which will come in handy as he and his wife Carly are expecting their second child in late May.
“I’m just happy to be in a good spot and looking forward to what’s ahead,” he said. “It’s a bit freeing just being in a better spot. I will be able to play a little freer and hopefully I can get a couple more good results.”
Macdonald has been pleased with his ball-striking this season. He also credited an improved mental game. Macdonald has learned to better handle adversity and he is especially proud of the way he stayed positive during that recent stretch where he felt he wasn’t capitalizing on his good play.
“I did a great job of just keeping the faith in my game and knowing that eventually I am going to have a good week sooner or later if I am playing the way I am. I did a good job of staying positive and patient and just letting that good result happen.
“It's so easy to just kind of get really short and lose your patience and get upset and angry and that just shows itself when you make a dumb bogey or make a dumb double and then you kind of mentally check-out sometimes. I did not do that. I am proud of the way I have hung in there and kept on going and kept the faith up. That is definitely something I have had to work on. The mental part of the game is alway a work in progress for professional golfers.”
This is an off week for the Korn Ferry Tour. Macdonald’s next event will be the AdventHealth Challenge, which goes May 15-18 in Kansas City, Mo.
Click HERE to see final scoring from the Tulum Championship.