How it works: Three-Victory Promotion to PGA TOUR
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Each season on the Korn Ferry Tour, the top finishers earn PGA TOUR membership for the subsequent campaign. This has been established and defined across time.
There’s a way to accelerate that path, however.
Winning three Korn Ferry Tour events in one season provides automatic TOUR membership, effective for the next Full-Field Event. Perhaps the most famous example came in 2005, when Jason Gore won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour within a month – then won on the PGA TOUR that fall. His Korn Ferry Tour torrent came shortly after he played in the final group of the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.
The Three-Victory Promotion program was established before the 1997 Korn Ferry Tour season, ensuring the game’s highest-form players would be able to compete against the world’s best, without needing to wait until the following season.
Only 13 times has a Three-Victory Promotion been accomplished, and only four times since 2009. As professional golf gets deeper and deeper, so does the Korn Ferry Tour, and the difficulty of winning a single event – let alone three – only stiffens.
Matt McCarty earned a Three-Victory Promotion at the 2024 Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron, becoming the first player to secure a Three-Victory Promotion within a single-year season since Wesley Bryan in 2016. (Mito Pereira won three times in the 2020-21 combined season.)
Only one season has seen multiple Three-Victory Promotions, and uniquely there were three. Heath Slocum, Chad Campbell and Pat Bates each earned a Three-Victory Promotion via the 2001 Korn Ferry Tour.
Here's a look at all Three-Victory Promotions from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA TOUR:
Season | Player | Events won |
2024 | Matt McCarty | Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper, Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Woodhouse, Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron |
2020-21 | Mito Pereira | Astara Golf Championship, UNC Health Championship, BMW Charity Pro-Am |
2016 | Wesley Bryan | Chitimacha Louisiana Open, El Bosque Mexico Championship, AdventHealth Championship |
2014 | Carlos Ortiz | The Panama Championship, El Bosque Mexico Championship, WinCo Foods Portland Open |
2009 | Michael Sim | Ellie Mae Classic, BMW Charity Pro-Am, AdventHealth Championship |
2007 | Nick Flanagan | Henrico County Open, BMW Charity Pro-Am, Xerox Classic |
2005 | Jason Gore | Pete Dye Classic, Scholarship America Showdown, Cox Classic |
2003 | Tom Carter | Canadian PGA Championship, Price Cutter Charity Championship, Alberta Classic |
2002 | Patrick Moore | Henrico County Open, Peek'n Peak Classic, Korn Ferry Tour Championship |
2001 | Heath Slocum | Greater Cleveland Open, Visit Knoxville Open, Cox Classic |
2001 | Chad Campbell | Henrico County Open, WNB Golf Classic, Monterey Peninsula Classic |
2001 | Pat Bates | Siouxland Open, Shreveport Open, Korn Ferry Tour Championship |
1997 | Chris Smith | BMW Charity Pro-Am, Dakota Dunes Open, Cox Classic |