Two years ago, Adam Hadwin finished 47th in the FedEx Cup standings, had five top-10 finishes and earned just over $4 million. He was one of the country’s – and the PGA Tour’s -- top golfers.
Much has changed in 24 months.
This week, he finds himself in Bermuda, playing one of the final five stops on the PGA Tour’s season, sitting in 184th spot in the FedEx Cup ranking. He’s hoping he can put together a Hail Mary week, win or finish high and retain some sort of status for next year.
“The year really hasn’t gone how I wanted it to, or how I thought it would go,” summed up Hadwin. “A couple of decent results in there, but just a lot of lacklustre play. I felt like there were a few opportunities to do some really good things. The RBC Canadian Open was one of those. I had a nice 66 on Saturday and had an opportunity to do something really nice on Sunday. All I needed was to put together a solid round and I wasn’t able to do it. It’s been a struggle. A lot of missed cuts. A lot of just very, very average, average play.”
It’s been a long, yet somewhat fast, slide down the points list that has frustrated and mystified him. This year, he played more events on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he was fully exempt, than on the PGA Tour. Two years ago, he played all four major championships.
What’s worse, is that there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution to his woes. There isn’t an on-off switch that will restore his swing as he’s learned. He’s worked with noted coach Mark Blackburn for the last four years and has tried to get his groove back. While he remains optimistic about the work he’s put in, Hadwin is still trying to find a way to take what works on at the range and bring it onto the course.
“You’d like to think, having spent 11 years on tour, that this was just going to be a blip in the career trajectory,” said the native of Abbotsford, B.C. “You go down for a year, play well enough and pop right back up and you get back to where you feel you belong.”
But that’s not where he is as the 2026 season winds down. The top 100 will retain playing privileges for 2027. Players who end up further down the list will still get into some events, most of them opposite field tournaments where there’s a need to fill up spots. Hadwin was 139th on the FedEx Cup standings last year and made 12 starts.
To make the task even more difficult, Hadwin figures he’ll only get in two of the remaining tournaments on the fall schedule, including this week. That means he may have to rely to the Qualifying School in December, where the top five finishers will earn PGA Tour status for 2027.
“I think at this point, Q-School is probably going to be my last bet to try and get back to the PGA Tour,” he said. “There’s not a lot of wiggle room with two events to go and where I am on the FedEx Cup. But we’ll play. We have an opportunity. You never know what will happen in a week. Stranger things have happened and guys have won from further positions away from where I am. So we’ll be good and go out and try to do it.”
Hadwin has always been a realist. A conversation with the golfer, who will turn 39 on Nov. 2, can be open and straight to the point. He doesn’t sugarcoat the road that lies ahead, and he is also confident enough in his game to realize he can still put some low scores together.
But as he matures, there are also other parts of life that come into perspective, ones that a golfer never considers when he is just starting out.
“I think I’ve still got a lot of good golf in me, and I’m still pushing, but the idea of being away from family and a growing child and all of that, and then not getting out if it what you want makes you wonder whether it’s worth it anymore,” admitted Hadwin. “I would say the difficulties have been more on that side. Obviously, there’s the frustration of the ball not going in the hole as quick as you want, but we learn to deal with that, push through and continue to wake up the next morning and try just as hard.
“But being away as much as I have over the last two years, having a six-year-old at home and all that is when you start to wonder whether it’s worth it or not to continue traveling and being away. It may be just a little bit mentally harder than before.”
This week, Hadwin will be fully focused on his game as he tackles the Port Royal Golf Course for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. He is too good and too talented not to. Will that reward him for the hard work he’s put in and start a return to the form he’s known? Or will he still be battling to climb out of the slump and thinking about home?