Ryan Moore

Moore then turned professional and played the next tournament, at Westchester Classic, on a sponsor's exemption, where he finished in a tie for 51st.

He finished the year with $1,544,901 in winnings, ranking him 59th on the PGA Tour money list and 51st in the FedEx Cup standings.

He climbed as high as 68th in early September, and finished the year at 79th in the world.

The lead changed hands multiple times before Scott forced the playoff with a birdie on the 72nd hole.

Moore finished the year at 74th in the world rankings.

The only other players to do that since 1980 were Gary Hallberg, Phil Mickelson, and Justin Leonard.

Ryan David Moore (born December 5, 1982) is an American professional golfer, currently playing on the PGA Tour.

Following this runner-up finish, his third as a professional, he climbed from 87th to 33rd on the PGA Tour money list, and his world ranking improved from 110th to 59th.

This placed him the equivalent of 113th on the money list, making him the first player since Tiger Woods in 1996 to go from college to the PGA Tour in the same season without going to Q School.

Moore competed for Class 4A Puyallup High School, where he lettered all four years (1998–2001).

He was the runner-up in the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2000, and won the high school individual state championship in 2001 over Andres Gonzales, a future UNLV teammate, then of Capital High School of Olympia.

He graduated in 2001 from Cascade Christian High School, a small Class 1A school which did not then have a golf team.

He captured multiple titles, including the U.S. Amateur, the Western Amateur, the U.S. Amateur Public Links (also won in 2002) and the NCAA individual championship.

(In 2003, he also made the cut at the Masters, finishing 45th at age 20.)

He had a highly successful amateur career, winning the NCAA Individual Championship, the U.S. Amateur Public Links, and the U.S. Amateur in 2004.

During 2004 prior to his senior year of college, Moore had one of the most impressive seasons in the modern era of amateur golf.

Moore is one of only five golfers in history to win both the NCAA Individual Championship and the U.S. Amateur in the same year (2004) along with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, and Bryson DeChambeau.

Since turning professional in 2005 he has won five titles on the PGA Tour as of the 2016 season and earned rankings inside the top thirty in the world.

Moore was born in Tacoma, Washington, and grew up in nearby Puyallup.

Moore accepted a scholarship to UNLV, where he lettered for four seasons for the Rebels and graduated in 2005 with a degree in communications and public relations.

In 2005 he was given The Ben Hogan Award as the top college player.

Moore won the Haskins Award in 2005 as the outstanding collegiate golfer in the nation.

He placed 13th at the 2005 Masters, winning low amateur and a spot in the 2006 field.

This is still the lowest amateur score in Masters history.

Moore's final tournament as an amateur was the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst #2; where he made the cut and finished tied for 57th.

Turning professional meant that he had to forfeit his slot (as reigning U.S. Amateur champion) in the 2005 Open Championship, played at the home of golf, St Andrews.

In August, Moore earned a special temporary exemption to the PGA Tour with a tie for second at the 2005 Canadian Open in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In 2005, Moore played on sponsors' exemptions and earned a total of $686,250 in just 14 official PGA Tour events.

As a non-member, Moore needed to collect more than the 125th-place finisher on the 2005 money list in order to earn his card for the 2006 season.

During 2005, Moore's world ranking improved from 718 to 142.

In 2006, Moore played on the PGA Tour as a regular member, and his best outing was a tie for second at the Buick Championship in Connecticut.

He was sidelined for two months in the spring following surgery on his left wrist, which kept him from competing in the 2006 Masters.

He returned to the tour in late May and finished 81st on the 2006 money list with $1,222,118.

With a top ten finish (tied for ninth) at the 2006 PGA Championship at Medinah on August 20, he broke into the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time, vaulting from 110th to 79th.

In 2007, Moore finished solo second place at the Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus in early June.

He entered the event as an alternate and earned $648,000, the largest paycheck of his young pro career.

Two days later, he qualified to play in the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he shot 8-over in the first round and 3-over in the second and missed the cut by one stroke.

Moore reached the first playoff of his career in the 2008 EDS Byron Nelson Championship, which he lost to Adam Scott on the third playoff hole.

Moore began the day three shots behind Scott in a four-way tie for second place, but took the lead as Scott dropped three strokes on the front nine.

With six holes to play, he birdied five consecutive holes (13-17), but scored a par on the 72nd hole to finish one stroke back.