While Luke Donald was upstaging the field with his win at the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic on Sunday, nobody was having a closer shave than JD Trahan.
The American, who has had his tour card ever since qualifying in 2005 and has career earnings of $8,626,283, had a bad year this time around with total earnings of $668,166 and had to sink a 22-foot birdie putt on the very last hole of the PGA Tour's very last tournament of 2011, to finish 125th on the PGA Tour money list and earn his Tour Card for 2012.
Anyone finishing lower than that on this year's money list will have to go back to Q-school to get back on Tour next year - like luckless Bobby Gates, just $1,431 behind Trahan in 126th place.
In the end, perhaps the biggest winners after World No 1 Donald, whose Disney World victory clinched the 2011 US Money List title, proved to be a youngster from South Korea, Sunghoon Kang, and a veteran who also plays on the Seniors Tour, Tom Pernice Jr.
Kang came into the week 141st on the money list and knowing that he needed to finish in a tie for third or solo fourth to retain his card.
When he stood over a birdie chance on the 72nd green, he was sitting in a tie for seventh but was lucky to be in a position whereby he could watch his playing partners putt on similar lines.
While they missed, the Korean youngster, learning lessons from their failed attempts, was able to nail his crucial eight-foot clutch putt for a third place tie and save his Tour card
"I'm just dreaming right now," he said afterwards. "That's what I feel.
"The guys' balls didn't really break that much, so I hit a little left and just barely, like, lipped in.
"I was really nervous. (But) one day can't change my life, that's what I thought. So I really tried to do my best today and it worked."
It was the 24-year-old's best-ever result on the PGA Tour and moved him up 21 places in the final standings to 120th.
Meanwhile, Pernice Jr, 52, was fifth alternate for the event at the start of the week and found himself at 143rd on the money list.
However, the veteran produced four consecutive rounds in the 60s to join Kang in a tie for third, his card was made safe when Australian Nick O'Hern produced a bogey at the last to slip back into joint-sixth.
Pernice Jr has won twice on the PGA Tour, and once on the Champions Tour, where he has also had no fewer six top-10s this season.
The veteran, who tied for second at the Viking Classic earlier this year, moved 22 spots to 121st on the money list and stated afterwards: "I'm not trying to show anybody anything.
"I'm just out there trying to play the game. The ball doesn't know how old you are. I'm just trying to stay out here and compete. I just love the challenge."
Another American veteran, Billy Mayfair, tied up his card when he also joined the tie for sixth, climbing from 127th to 109th in the process, and the only other player to rise into the top 125 was Disney Classic runner-up and former Open Champion Justin Leonard, who made a giant leap of 53 spots to 91st on the back of his first top-10 of the season.
Despite the huge disappointment of slipping back a few places to 126th and missing out on his 2012 Tour Card, the 25-year-old Gates insisted that, it had "been a good year".
"I learned a lot. I made a lot of mistakes this year and I hope someone's shining down on me and I can just get through this and regroup for next year."
Roland Thatcher was another to experience heartache, just 12 months after saving himself in equally dramatic circumstances.
Thatcher finished solo second at this event last year and, despite throwing away victory with a late wobble, was nevertheless delighted to preserve his card in the process.
Little did he know what this year would bring.
golf365.com