Adam Hadwin takes a pause and admits with a sigh that he hasn’t had a favorite moment on the golf course so far in 2025.

He notes with less pause the time he says he was happiest this year – the very beginning of the year in Hawaii, when his daughter Maddox was playing in the sand and having the kind of fun only kids can have.

The slate was clean then. No FedExCup points or hearty concerns about what’s next or what could be. Now, almost eight months later, Hadwin knows he’s got some serious work to do. It’s been a struggle on a variety of fronts – swing changes that aren’t clicking, mostly – but there’s hope this week at the Wyndham Championship.

“My approach this week,” Hadwin says, “is really that I have nothing to lose.”

Hadwin, the 2017 Valspar Championship winner who shot a 59 that same season, finds himself in extremely new territory at the last event of the Regular Season in North Carolina, sitting 134th in the FedExCup standings. The Canadian finished No. 37 a year ago and has been a staple in the top 60 for the last three years. By making the BMW Championship last year, he gained entry into all of the Signature Events in 2025.

Alas, Hadwin began working with noted swing coach Mark Blackburn last year, and while he saw some immediate clicks, things haven’t quite worked in his favor yet. He sits 155th in Strokes Gained: Total this year, a drastic dip from 39th in the same stat two years ago. He has one top-10 finish, at the WM Phoenix Open in February.

With a small, knowing laugh Hadwin admits “every week” he thinks about blowing it all up and going back to what he was doing before.

“Whether I did the right stuff. Whether I’ve screwed my swing up. Whether Mark is the right coach for me. I’ve questioned everything,” Hadwin says. “But it’s very normal in this situation. You go from being on TOUR for 10 years and seeing results through changes … the first change I made with Mark, I was able to see some results and get through the year. It wasn’t my best year, but it certainly wasn’t this.

“You question things and I’ve been dealing with that for most of the year.”

Hadwin has been able to notch a decent amount of FedExCup points thanks to his spots in the Signature Events throughout the year. He just hasn’t been able to make any meaningful climbs through July. He finished tied for 78th at the Rocket Classic but missed the cut at three straight starts: the John Deere Classic, the ISCO Championship and the Barracuda Championship, with the latter two coming by one shot and one point, respectively.

“Unfortunately, if I was going to make a run to get into the Playoffs it would have started four or five weeks ago, and it didn’t,” Hadwin says. “Much of the year has been kind of the same stuff. Things feel good. Don’t get a lot out of it. Get discouraged. The entire year hasn’t really gone as planned, obviously.

“It’s been more golf than I would have normally played, but I’ve been in a position where I’ve had to play. I’ve had to fight through it.”

Hadwin is not alone this week in needing a big finish at the regular-season finale. Players beyond No. 81 in the current standings are projected to need at least a top-five finish to have a shot at the FedExCup Playoffs, while those beyond No. 95 will need at least a top-two finish.

The precedent has been set that there is an opportunity for something big to happen this week at the Wyndham Championship, and Hadwin has to look no further than a pair of his countrymen. Nick Taylor was outside the top 125 (then the cutoff for postseason inclusion) in 2018 but shot his low round of the season on Sunday in Greensboro to jump to No. 119. Roger Sloan, also from British Columbia, lost in a playoff in 2021 to go from No. 131 to No. 92.

Just last week, Kurt Kitayama’s victory at the 3M Open catapulted him nearly 50 spots in the FedExCup standings.

It hasn’t helped someone like Hadwin that the cutoff for full PGA TOUR status for 2026 was trimmed to No. 100 versus No. 125. Those final numbers will not be firmed up until the end of the FedExCup Fall at The RSM Classic in November, so Hadwin still has plenty of golf left. Assuming he doesn’t win this week, he’ll have August off to get settled and sorted with a plan of attack for the fall events.

Hadwin can now only be laser-like in his approach to things at Sedgefield. Although he missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship in 2023, he finished tied for 28th last year and tied for 10th in 2021. It’s a golf course he likes. The one thing Hadwin admits will be the hardest is if, well, what if the best-case scenario unfolds? What if he’s in the mix on the weekend? In a final group on Sunday?

“You get your head down doing whatever and it happens ... you get overwhelmed because you haven’t been in that position in a long time. That can just be one of the harder things to deal with while going through some struggles,” Hadwin says. “I haven’t been in that position all year so I don’t know if I’m ready or not, I’m just hoping good enough golf comes so then I can challenge myself.”

A challenge ahead, but also better late than never to record his favorite golfing moment of the year.