In July 2021, Cameron Champ won the third PGA Tour event of his career, taking the 3M Open to vault into the top 65 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time.
Since then, however, the California native has struggled, so much so that he lost his PGA Tour card last year after finishing 175th in the FedEx Cup standings.
Now the 431st-ranked player in the world, Champ is looking to get his card back and can do so in a number of ways.
For starters, as he's now spending the majority of his time on the Korn Ferry Tour, the 29-year-old just needs to finish in the top 20 in the season-long standings to get back to the PGA Tour.
But he's got plenty of work to do there, as he currently sits in 84th, earning just one top-20 in five starts thus far on the second-tier tour while missing two cuts.
Another option is to somehow get into the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings, which will be difficult as he's obviously not getting the same number of opportunities on the PGA Tour as he once did. So, when Champ does receive an invitation or an exemption, it's absolutely critical that he performs well, which he did in Puerto Rico earlier this month.
With the tour's top players at Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which is a Signature Event, Champ was able to get into the alternate-event field in Puerto Rico thanks to his priority ranking. And with a final-round 64, he tied for 16th, marking his best finish in any tournament in eight months.
There are a few more of these alternate events on the schedule, the next being the Corales Puntacana Championship (April 17-20). So, if Champ can notch a few more top-15s or top-10s in these events, he could earn some valuable FedEx Cup points. He could also attempt to get a few more starts by hitting up the PGA Tour events that still feature Monday qualifiers.
Again, though, it will take a lot of work to get into the top 100, as he's currently tied for 173rd in the FedEx Cup standings.
Then, of course, if Champ fails to get into the top 20 on the Korn Ferry Tour or into the top 100 in the FedEx Cup, he can take a run at qualifying school, which grants PGA Tour cards to the top five plus ties in the final stage.
It's been quite a surprising fall for Champ, given the talent he displayed early in his career. And it's not as if all of that talent is gone, as he's still one of the longest hitters in the game and showcased plenty of skill in other areas in Puerto Rico.
But he'll need to be much more consistent as the year rolls along and make the most of his opportunities to make it back to the PGA Tour.