He has finished second more than anyone this year. It could happen again

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

Greyserman has come into the limelight on the PGA Tour all season, but especially in recent months. The reason why is simple: he keeps finishing second. It fell off the radar of many golf fans when it was over second only to Jhonattan Vegas at the 3M Open in July. Two weeks later, it was the same result – a solo second – but in a very different way. Greyserman concluded runner-up in the Wyndham Championship after making a quadruple bogey and a double bogey in the last five holes.

He had built a 4 shot lead that day and let it slip away. “Obviously things happen in golf that sometimes are never meant to happen,” he said that day, ready to move on but unafraid to poke a little fun at himself, calling the collapse “My Phil Mickelson in 2006 moment.” . alluding to Mickelson’s infamous loss at the Winged Foot US Open.

The silver lining to finishing second is a bunch of FedEx Cup points, and Grayserman ultimately finished the season in 48th place, meaning he will begin his 2025 season at Kapalua in early January and get entry to every Signature Event next year. He can’t do much this week to improve that position for next year. Unless he gets through this runner-up streak and actually wins.

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-up finishes early in the season),” Greyserman said that day, “but I also would have said how could I have three runners-up at the same time.”

In Zozo, Greyserman finished just one shot back Nico Echavarriaa 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 especially willing to see a change at the top of the leaderboard, with Echavarria again ahead of him and Grayserman atop another runner-up.

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

Zozo’s runner-up finish tied Greyserman with Xander Schauffele and Ludvig Aberg for the most second-place finishes in 2024. That’s especially good company for Greyserman, who has slowly crept into the top 40 of the World Golf Rankings, 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 tripping.

Unlike his win in Japan two weeks ago, Echavarria has played mostly error-free golf this week. The El Cardonal course at Diamante in Los Cabos, Mexico is by no means a rough test for Tour players, but Echavarria has yet to make a single bogey. Meanwhile, Greyserman got to the top early on Saturday, but came back with a crippling double on the 5th.

Now through 54 holes at the Tech World Championship, Echavarria sits at 16 under. He’s not alone – Justin Lower carded a nine-under 63 for the same score and a place in the final pair. Behind them is Grayserman – 15 up after a third-round 69 – and a host of other hungry guys. The boys aren’t entirely happy with their 2024, trying to squeeze one last bit out of their game before they run out of tournaments.

For Greyserman, as solid as his winless season was, there are no more tournaments after this one. His wife is coming and they will spend most of the next week enjoying the holidays and celebrating the season that was. All that stands in their way is Sunday’s 18 holes and one last look at the leaderboard. It will feel good but still imperfect if you see T2 next to its name.