He’s finished 2nd more than anyone this year. It might happen again

There is very little for Max Greyserman to really play for this week (and the rest of this fall season), except for the only thing that has evaded him all year: a win. 

Greyserman has crept into PGA Tour relevance all season, but in the last few months in particular. The reason why is simple: he keeps finishing in second. He landed on a lot of golf fans’ radar when he finished solo second behind Jhonattan Vegas at the 3M Open in July. Two weeks later, it was the same result — a solo second — but in much different fashion. Greyserman finished runner-up at the Wyndham Championship after making a quadruple bogey and a double bogey in the final five holes. 

He had built a 4-shot lead that day and let it slip. “Obviously stuff happens in golf that sometimes it’s not meant to be sometimes,” he said that day, ready to move on but not afraid to poke a little fun at himself, calling the collapse “my own Phil Mickelson in 2006 moment,” alluding to Mickelson’s infamous loss at the Winged Foot U.S. Open.

The silver lining to finishing second is a bunch of FedEx Cup points, and Greyserman ultimately finished the season in 48th, which means he’ll start his 2025 season at Kapalua in early January and have entry to every Signature Event next year. He can’t do much this week to improve upon that standing for next year. Unless he were to break through this runner-up streak and actually win. 

Greyseman finished runner-up twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2023 before graduating to the PGA Tour. He even finished runner-up the last time he played, at the Zozo Championship in Japan last month. 

“I probably would have taken [three runner-ups at the beginning of the season,]” Greyserman said that day, “but I also would have said how could I have three runner-ups at the same time.”

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At the Zozo, Greyserman finished just one shot behind Nico Echavarria, a good friend of his whom he teamed up with at the Zurich Classic in April. He was happy for Echavarria that day, happy for Echavarria’s family, too. But ask him this week and he’s particularly ready to see a change atop the leaderboard, because Echavarria is ahead of him once again, and Greyserman is on the cusp of another runner-up. 

“I thought that here we go again,” Greyserman said Friday when he realized he’d be in the final weekend pairing with Echavarria Saturday. “Let’s go, this is going to be fun. Same thing two weeks ago, you know?”

That Zozo runner-up tied Greyserman with Xander Schauffele and Ludvig Aberg for the most second-place finishes in 2024. That’s particularly good company for Greyserman, who has slowly nudged his way into the top 40 in the World Golf Ranking, a career high. DataGolf is even kinder to him, rating Greyserman 32nd in the world, more than 60 spots ahead of Echavarria, the guy who won’t stop getting in his way. 

Unlike his rollercoaster victory in Japan two weeks ago, Echavarria has played mostly mistake-free golf this week. The El Cardonal at Diamante course in Los Cabos, Mexico is by no means a brutish test for Tour players, but Echavarria has yet to make a single bogey. Meanwhile, Greyserman had played his way into first place early Saturday but dropped back with a crippling double bogey on the 5th.

Now through 54 holes at the World Wide Technology Championship, Echavarria sits at 16 under. He’s not alone — Justin Lower rode a nine-under 63 to the same score and a spot in the final pairing. Behind them sits Greyserman — 15 under after a third-round 69 — and a slew of other hungry lads. The guys not totally content with their 2024, trying to squeeze one last bit out of their game before there are no more tournaments left.

For Greyserman, with how solid his winless season was, there are no more tournaments after this one. His wife is arriving and they’ll be spending most of the next week enjoying vacation and celebrating the season that was. All that sits in his way is 18 Sunday holes and one final glance at the leaderboard. It’ll feel good but still imperfect if he sees T2 next to his name.