Myrtle Beach resident Diaz preparing for Web.com Tour Finals

For the first time, Roberto Diaz of Myrtle Beach qualified for the four-event Web.com Tour Finals.

After narrowly missing being inside the top 75 on the money list in each of the past two years – finishing 78th and 82nd on the money list following late-season swoons – Diaz was well within the cut line this season and ended the regular season Sunday 51st on the money list.

The four finals events each have $1 million purses, beginning next week with the DAP Championship at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, Ohio, and concluding with the Web.com Tour Championship from Oct. 6-9 at Atlantic Beach Country Club in Atlantic Beach, Fla.

By being inside the top 75, Diaz is guaranteed full status on the Web.com Tour in 2017.

But he now has the opportunity to earn 2017 PGA Tour status.

“I’m very excited,” Diaz said. “It’s the first year I’m inside the top 75 and have a chance to have at least full status on the Web.com. I’m improving every year, every year has been better and better. I think I’m pretty ready for the playoffs. It’s going to be a good chance and a shootout to try to get the tour card. That’s what we work for.”

The top 25 players on the Web.com Tour money list through Sunday have already earned PGA Tour status. Another 25 players will earn PGA Tour playing privileges through the playoffs, which include fields consisting of the top 75 on the Web.com money list as well as players who finished 126-200 on the FedExCup points list at the conclusion of the PGA Tour’s regular season.

A separate money list for the Web.com Tour Finals determines the final 25 PGA Tour cards, and the player who earns the most money during the four finals events (excluding the top 25 from the regular season) will earn fully exempt status on the PGA Tour and an invitation to The Players Championship.

Diaz again faded late in the Web.com season.

He missed just four cuts in his first 13 events, and vaulted into the top 20 on the money list with a tie for second in early June in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, that was his second top-10 of the season and worth more than $46,000. Diaz finished the season with $96,968 in 18 events.

Diaz snapped a string of four consecutive missed cuts this past week with a tie for 38th at 6-under 278 in the WinCo Foods Portland (Ore.) Open with rounds of 68, 69, 71 and 70.

His four missed cuts came after he missed two events over about a month in July with an injury/illness that he did not want to disclose. In those four events, Diaz shot seven rounds between 70 and 76 with a 67 in the Digital Ally Open in early August, where he missed the cut despite a 4-under 138 through 36 holes.

“Right now I’m fully recovered and those weeks were a good test to see what I needed to work on getting ready for the playoffs,” Diaz said.

Diaz, a Mexico native who has lived in Myrtle Beach and trained at the Greg Norman Champions Academy at Barefoot Resort since 2010 after graduating from USC Aiken in '09, now hopes to get hot again for the playoffs. He flew back to Myrtle Beach on Monday for a week of preparation.

Among those who finished in the top 25 on the money list to earn their 2017 PGA Tour cards were Bluffton resident Richy Werenski, Beaufort resident and South Carolina alum Mark Anderson, J.T. Poston, a 2016 member of the Grand Strand-based Swing Thought Tour, and Swing Thought alums Trey Mullinax, Rick Lamb and Mackenzie Hughes of Charlotte, N.C.

Werenski, a 24-year-old Springfield, Mass., native and Georgia Tech alum, won the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greenville and had three runner-up finishes this year to finish second on the money list in his second season on the Web.com Tour.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach resident Diaz preparing for Web.com Tour Finals."