Justin Thomas came to the final hole of the final tournament of the PGA Tour’s regular season on Sunday needing a birdie to make the field for the FedEx Cup, the golf circuit’s playoffs. At least that was the projection in a fluid points race to finish in the top 70 for the season and advance.

His third shot on the 507-yard, par-4 18th at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, came from off the green – a 34-foot chip. Thomas landed his ball on the cup on the bounce. But it came out. Thomas reacted by falling backward to the ground.

It wasn’t the only bit of body language for the former Alabama All-American on the hole.

Thomas’ tee shot landed among pine trees off the right side of the fairway, and he tried to play a monumental hook to get the ball out of the trees and to the green. That necessitated a wild swing that had Thomas pirouetting on one leg before running to get a view of his ball.

In the end, Thomas finished 71st in the season points standings – 8.322 points behind No. 70 Ben Griffin.

“I did everything I could,” Thomas said during CBS’ televised coverage of the tournament shortly after finishing his round. “It’s completely out of my control. I fought as hard as I could. I played as well as I could today and this week, and I gave myself a chance …

“I want to keep playing, because I’m really starting to play well, and I’m excited about playing golf, so I don’t want my season to be over.”

The top 70 advance to the FedEx Cup playoffs starting with the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week. From there, the top 50 move on to the BMW Championship before the top 30 play in the Tour Championship.

Thomas had reached the Tour Championship for seven straight seasons, finished in the top 12 in points annually in that span and won the FedEx Cup in 2017.

Thomas never got higher than 60th in the points standings this season. But after a ninth-place finish at the Travelers Championship on June 25, he was inside the playoff line at 66th. He missed the cut at three of the next four tournaments (and finished tied for 60th in the other) to come to the Wyndham Championship in 79th place.

Thomas’ tap-in for par on the 18th was the last shot played on that hole before bad weather took the golfers off the course. When the six twosomes returned to finish their rounds, more than an hour later, nothing happened that budged Thomas from No. 71.

The two-time major champion went down to the final golfer on the course with a chance, though. According to the PGA Tour, if Lucas Glover had triple-bogeyed the tournament’s 72nd hole and fallen into third place, Thomas would have risen to 70th.

Glover hooked his tee shot and ended up in the rough. But it could have been worse: His ball hit a parked cart and bounced back toward the fairway when it might have skittered away far to the left into the trees. With a two-shot cushion, Glover played it safe from there and parred the 18th to win the Wyndham Championship.

Thomas finished at 11 under to tie for 12th in the Wyndham. He carded a 2-under 68 on Sunday after shooting 65 on Friday and 66 on Saturday.

Thomas eagled the par-5 15th on Sunday to move into 70th in the points standings. But with a bogey on 16 and a par on 17, he slipped a spot coming to the 18th tee.

“Personally, I thought today was harder than winning a golf tournament,” Thomas said. “If you don’t win a golf tournament, you finish whatever you finish, you learn from it, you go to the next week. Whereas if I fail here, my season’s done, so I definitely felt more nerves that last day and a half than I have trying to win golf tournaments.”

Hodges, who played at Ardmore High School and UAB before joining the Crimson Tide and the PGA Tour, won the 3M Open last week to vault to 35th in the standings. Riley is 54th entering the playoffs.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.