What was even par worth on the PGA Tour in the 2016-17 regular season?

At the end of last season, PGA.com contributor Brian Mull put together a piece on a fictional golfer named, "Tom Par."

The concept of the story was to discover what a score of "even par" in every eligible event on the PGA Tour would have been worth.

How would a player -- in this case "Tom Par" -- fare in money, FedExCup points and more?

Mull based the schedule for Tom Par with realistic criteria:

Tom Par finished in the top 125 in the FedExCup in 2014-15 and played in all the "regular" PGA Tour events last season. He wasn't eligible for the World Golf Championships or majors, though he did attempt to qualify for both Opens. Based on data supplied by the Tour, Tom Par cracked the field at the smaller field invitationals RBC Heritage and Dean & Deluca but not Memorial.

In Mull's scenario, Tom Par made 13 cuts in 31 starts during the 2015-16 season, banking $438,481 and missed out on the FedExCup Playoffs with 329.98 points.

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Unfortunately, Tom Par lost his Tour card as a result.

So, for the 2016-17 season, we turned to Tom's little brother, Joe Par, to get to the bottom of what "par" in every pertinent PGA Tour event would be worth.

Joe finished inside the top-125 in FedExCup points for 2015-16, securing a Tour card for 2016-17. From there, we used the same formula Mull used for older brother, Tom.

It was a rough start to the season for Joe. In his first seven starts, Joe missed the cut four times, made the cut but did not finish at the RSM Classic and collected his biggest payday in the stretch -- $14,420 -- in the no-cut CIMB Classic.

In his next eight starts, Joe was able to bank some cash, collecting a check with cuts made at each of those events. After snagging just $33,578 in his first seven events, Joe bagged $156,257.36. His best finish in those eight events was a T34 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which led to his biggest payday to that point -- $43,002.86.

After a couple of missed cuts and a few so-so results, Joe ripped off another great run beginning at the Wells Fargo Championship. His T42 there marked the start of another eight-tournament run without missing a single cut.

It's also where he collected the bulk of his money for the 2016-17 season.

That stretch included his best finish of the season -- a T22 at the Players Championship which came with a handsome payday of $92,137.50. In all, those eight events earned Joe $282,456.16.

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After that hot run of play, Joe would miss the cut in three of his last five events... and did it ever prove costly.

Joe finished the regular season 153rd on the money list with $552,315.52, sandwiched between No. 152 Jim Furyk and No. 154 Rick Lamb. Joe also would have finished at 153rd in FedExCup points -- 241.02 points -- just behind No. 152 Matt Jones and just ahead of No. 154 Sebastian Munoz.

With that 153 rank in the FedExCup points standings, Joe just missed out on the Tour's FedExCup Points List 126-150 category, which would have given him conditional status for the 2017-18 season.

So what would Joe Par's options be for 2017-18? Outside of trying to Monday qualify for PGA Tour events and hope for sponsor exemptions, he would be granted a spot on the Web.com Tour having finished between 151-200 in the prior season FedExCup points.

Here's a look at how Joe Par fared in each of the tournaments he played.

 

Tournament	Result	Earnings	FedEx points
Safeway Open	MC	$0	0
CIMB Classic (no cut)	T66	$14,420.00	4
Sanderson Farms Classic	T70	$8,358.00	1.83
Shriners Hospitals for Children Open	MC	$0	0
OHL Classic at Mayakoba	MC	$0	0
The RSM Classic	MDF	$10,800.00	2
Sony Open in Hawaii	MC	$0	0
CareerBuilder Challenge	77	$10,788.00	2.30
Farmers Insurance Open	T54	$15,008.00	5.43
Waste Management Phoenix Open	T66	$13,869.00	3.70
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am	T62	$15,408.00	4.40
Genesis Open	T59	$15,610.00	5.10
The Honda Classic	T43	$21,120.00	11.30
Valspar Championship	T41	$21,451.50	11.87
Arnold Palmer Invitational	T34	$43,002.86	19.00
Puerto Rico Open	MC	$0	0
Shell Houston Open	T55	$15,750.00	5.50
RBC Heritage	T59	$14,170.00	4.80
Valero Texas Open	T34	$33,480.00	21.00
Zurich Classic of New Orleans (team event in 2017)	MC	$0	0
Wells Fargo Championship	T42	$24,792.86	11.42
The Players Championship	T22	$92,137.50	39.59
AT&T Byron Nelson	T50	$18,090.00	7.50
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational	T29	$44,850.00	26.50
FedEx St. Jude Classic	T47	$17,740.80	9.00
Travelers Championship	T62	$14,484.00	4.30
Quicken Loans National	T26	$54,670.00	32.50
The Greenbrier Classic	T58	$15,691.00	4.90
John Deere Classic	MC	$0	0
Barbasol Championship	MDF	$6,300.00	1.18
RBC Canadian Open	MC	$0	0
Barracuda Championship	MC	$0	0
Wyndham Championship	MDF	$10,324.00	1.90
TOTALS	24/32	$552,315.52	241.02