Justin Thomas, Max Homa, Tony Finau and the season that shaped pro golf’s future

A road-trip bus scene in the 1988 romantic comedy “Bull Durham” showed career minor-league home runs leader Crash Davis, played by Kevin Costner, regaling his Durham Bulls teammates, wide-eyed Triple-A prospects, with tales of the big leagues – or ‘The Show.’ What was it like? Was it as good as they say? Davis was in the twilight of his career, but the rookies hung onto every word. The old-timer helped them visualize their dream. The movie ended before their careers panned out, but we could guess a handful became major-league stars, while others branched into other pursuits.

The 2014 Korn Ferry Tour season was analogous to that film. It was the first year without a direct chute from Q-School to the PGA TOUR, changing the pathway to the game’s premier professional tour from a three-stage tournament, including a six-round final stage, to a season-long competition. Comparably to the movie, players on the Korn Ferry Tour could sit on the bus and size each other up with the knowledge that somewhere within this crop of talent were 25 men who would graduate to golf’s version of The Show.

The season commenced on a swing through Central America (as it still does), including a stop at The Panama Championship, less than 30 miles from the famed Panama Canal. Players stayed at a host hotel – Hotel El Panama in downtown Panama – and shared a 30-minute bus ride to the course, winding through city streets and onto a highway, passing brightly colored single-story houses, neatly stacked in rows into a hillside, before exiting and veering into Club de Golf de Panama.

Jason Gore, who was on that bus in 2014, was (and remains) the Korn Ferry Tour’s all-time wins leader (7) – the self-described Crash Davis of golf. He had experienced the highs (winning three straight Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2005, just weeks after competing in the U.S. Open’s final pairing), and lows (shooting 84 from that final pairing, or losing his TOUR card multiple times). Just three months from turning 40, he had lost his TOUR card and was back on the bus, scrapping and clawing for another chance to compete against the world’s best. It was harder now, though; the Korn Ferry Tour had gotten deeper in his nearly two decades as a pro, and here he was – metaphorically and physically – face-to-face with the young stars he was tasked with outplaying across an eight-month, 25-tournament season.

Among those who joined Gore in that week’s Panama field: Justin Thomas, Max Homa, Tony Finau, Colt Knost, Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin, Steven Alker, Daniel Berger, Andrew Putnam, Tom Hoge and Mark Hubbard (just to name a few). All these players, and more, would earn a PGA TOUR card at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance later that fall, surviving a sprawling schedule across multiple continents and states, missed cuts and uncertainty (even for the likes of Thomas, Homa and Finau), and some of the stiffest competition ever seen on a circuit not named the PGA TOUR.

On that bus in Panama was nothing short of the future of professional golf.

“When I grew up, you were a dork if you played golf,” Gore said. “These kids grew up watching Tiger … Tiger brought this influx of really good athletes, guys that could do other things, play other sports. You started to see these kids come up, super athletic and competitive. Tiger and college golf and all that stuff changed the patterns of who was playing out there.

“You walked up and down the range, looking at them, just like, ‘God, they’re so good.’ It was a changing of the guard.”

The Korn Ferry Tour Class of 2014 is pacing toward becoming the winningest class in Korn Ferry Tour history. Graduates have accounted for 64 PGA TOUR victories (second all-time), with ample runway to increase that total.

On the eve of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, 10 years after the maniacally competitive Class of 2014 celebrated their achievements at the season finale, it’s hard to overstate the significance of the Korn Ferry Tour season that propelled the likes of Thomas, Finau and Homa to TOUR stardom – and fostered a lifelong connection.

“It paved my way,” Thomas said of his 2014 season. “It was a stepping stone in the process of my career, a very impactful one. I’m making my own schedule, traveling week to week, don’t have a college coach that’s organizing my life … there are a lot of things I went through that year on the Korn Ferry Tour that have helped me and continue to help me out on TOUR.”

“We have a bond,” Finau added, “because of that class.”

Thomas, Finau and Homa first converged on the 2014 Korn Ferry Tour due to their having earned status at Q-School’s Final Stage the prior fall (the first Q-School without direct access to the PGA TOUR). The top 45 finishers and ties (across six rounds) earned guaranteed starts on the 2014 Korn Ferry Tour; Finau (T3) and Homa (T6) each advanced comfortably, while Thomas rebounded from a third-round 78 with rounds of 69-66-65 for a T32 finish, two strokes inside the number.

Thomas takes step up

The precocious Thomas had turned pro at 20 after two seasons at Alabama, while Homa turned pro after his senior season at the University of California-Berkeley, which included the 2013 NCAA individual title. Finau, meanwhile, was seven years into his pro career, having navigated mini-tour circuits and Q-School setbacks before breaking through in the fall of 2013. Though their paths differed, their raw talent was similarly hard to overlook.

Dominant collegiately for the Crimson Tide, Thomas made a seamless transition to the Korn Ferry Tour with five straight top-15 finishes to begin the 2014 season, encouraging his fellow rookies. “For us to watch him continue to do that professionally made us a little more optimistic that it’s harder, but it will translate,” Homa said.

Thomas was amply hyped; even so, his game exceeded that hype.

“He could just hit 3-wood to the moon,” said Jonathan Randolph, an All-American at Ole Miss who played two years on mini-tours before earning his TOUR card via the 2014 Korn Ferry Tour. “He was skin-and-bones when he came out; he was little, and he could still crank it. To this day, he’s the best 3-wood ball-striker I’ve ever seen.”

“He was a no-brainer superstar coming out of Alabama,” added Colt Knost, a third-time Korn Ferry Tour grad in 2014. “He was known as Jordan Spieth’s friend, but we quickly realized he was the real deal.”

Behind the scenes, Thomas had a trusted advisor that season in his mom Jani. When canvassed about memories of the 2014 season, veteran Korn Ferry Tour staffers are quick to note Jani Thomas and how they enjoyed having her around. Her son wouldn’t turn 21 until late April, so initially he wasn’t old enough to meet the standard of most rental car providers. Plus, the international travel – unfamiliar locales, the language barrier – offered logistical challenges for a young pro, on top of learning the week-to-week cadence of TOUR-sanctioned competition.

Thomas would cruise to a fifth-place finish on the 2014 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season standings, safely inside the top 25 (the mark for a TOUR card at the time). Ten years later, he noted his mom as indispensable to the accelerated learning curve.

“I would like to think and hope that everything would have gone the same,” Thomas said recently, “but something tells me that she helped in plenty of ways that I don’t know. So I’m very thankful for that.”

Finau finds his groove

Finau needed seven years as a pro to reach the Korn Ferry Tour, but several peers remembered first learning his name at the TOUR’s 2007 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, where he grabbed headlines for his powerful swing, mind-bending distance and imposing frame that suggested a new wave of athletes set to take professional golf by storm (aka the "Tiger effect"). In retrospect, his arrival was a microcosm of the changing of the guard.

“I remember playing with him and thinking, This guy’s going to be a problem out on the PGA TOUR,” Knost said. “Back then he was one of the very few, I would say, athletes in professional golf. Now we’ve started to see a lot more guys like that; he’s kind of your modern-day professional golfer with his build and how he plays the game … Giving up 40 to 50 yards on every tee shot, I remember thinking, I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to compete with these guys.”

Finau, then 24, was a consistent presence throughout the 2014 season. After three missed cuts in his first four events, he found a groove with 10 top-25 finishes in a 14-event span to comfortably finish inside the top 25 on the Regular Season standings and earn his first TOUR card. It was an emotional achievement for Finau, whose mom Ravena had tragically died in a car accident less than three years prior.

Ten years later, Finau remembered the difficulty in traveling solo that season (he and his wife Alayna had recently started a family), but he knew of the Korn Ferry Tour’s importance in reaching his PGA TOUR dream.

“Six or seven years of Monday qualifiers and state opens, mini-tours, living that life, trying to make my way in the game of golf … at the end of the day, it was all worth it for me,” Finau said. “I needed it to grow as a person and a player. When I finally got to the Korn Ferry Tour, I knew my window of opportunity from there was going to be wide open to live out my dream.

“I give so much credit to my wife through those years. There were certain times I was gone five or six weeks in a row, and it was extremely difficult on our marriage, in our life at that time, but we knew it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”

The most impressive part of Finau’s one-and-done on the Korn Ferry Tour? He was still learning what it meant to play professional golf.

“I played with him a decent amount up in Canada in 2013,” Hubbard said. “… He was super raw, he was swinging 100% and hitting it a million miles, and those courses up there are horrible for that. Obviously, he had the power, but … even on the Korn Ferry Tour, it was just pure raw talent and you could see that, so you thought, ‘OK, if he ever figures out golf and not just being an athlete, he can be incredible.’ Once he got out on TOUR, there was a switch when once he found the first puzzle piece, he put the rest of the puzzle together really fast, figuring out how to tone it back, still going to hit it far but equally as straight.

“The pieces were more in place for Max,” Hubbard continued, “just because he was a good golfer all the way through his life.”

Homa hits the spotlight

If Max Homa lacked the dazzling outward athleticism of Finau or even Thomas, his ability and grit were if anything overdeveloped. The veteran Gore had seen it up close; both hail from Valencia, California, and played at par-61 Vista Valencia Golf Course. Initially, Gore played mostly with Homa’s dad John (a longtime acting coach), and Max tagged along starting at age 5 or 6. He improved steadily but, perhaps, relatively quietly.

Homa wasn’t recruited to his preferred college choice, UCLA (he still remembers the name of the player offered a scholarship ahead of him). Playing with a chip on his shoulder, he thrived at Cal and found immediate success on the Korn Ferry Tour with a seventh-place finish at the South Georgia Classic in his fourth start. He shot a final-round 63 to win the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX in his next start, added four more top-20s to finish No. 17 on the Regular Season standings, and earned his first TOUR card.

“Max swung it great with a lot of balance and precision,” said Blayne Barber, a fellow Korn Ferry Tour Class of 2014 graduate. “He was very buttoned-up, polished and professional.”

Homa’s victory was the third in a particularly sweet stretch in the spring: Andrew Putnam won in Midland, Texas, followed by Barber in Valdosta, Georgia, and then Homa in Greenville, South Carolina. Their caddies that season (including Joe Greiner, who still caddies for Homa) were friends who traveled together and stayed together.

“For those three caddies to experience that together and all three get their TOUR cards at the same time was really cool,” Barber said.

The tight-knit community extended to the pros themselves, with a mix of camaraderie and good-natured ribbing. Knost was older, but didn’t mind taking a few bucks off the rookies – especially Thomas, with whom he’d room at a few TOUR stops later that fall.

“Definitely some long road trips crammed in the car with some other guys, staying in hotels with people,” Homa said. “The season’s more crammed in spots, so you get a bit of a Groundhog Day feel … some people that are much older and have been out there forever just grinding – we’re out there, (age) 22, they probably hated us.”

Gore says that wasn’t the case. He traveled with his family; he and wife Megan in their white Ford F-150 with their two kids (then 9 and 5), exploring slices of Americana. He tells a funny story about his son Jaxon (who has autism and is high functioning) worrying that the landscape would shift to black-and-white as they crossed the border into Kansas, a nod to “The Wizard of Oz.” But while the Gores spent ample time together riding roller coasters and zip lines, even flying and crashing a drone, he relished his role as elder statesman.

“We talked a lot about what it was like to be in The Show,” Gore said. “They all had aspirations… we’d gather ‘round the lunch table and tell funny stories, growing up with Tiger, all this stuff they all dreamed about, and you’ve been there.

“Good one-off conversations – ‘tell me what it’s like to do this’ – probably (allowed me to)elaborate and scare the heck out of them a little bit. But it was fun.”

The camaraderie

Adam Hadwin remembers bunking with fellow Canadian Nick Taylor in tight quarters in Central America, their beds nearly touching. A few months later, Hadwin’s trip to the Wichita event changed his life; he met his now-wife Jessica, a Wichita native. He had two more conventional victories, as well, at the Chile Classic and Chiquita Classic en route to the top spot on the season-long standings and fully exempt 2015 PGA TOUR status. He’s now 36 and has kept his TOUR card ever since – despite missing the cut in Wichita, it was the most emotionally profitable week of his career.

“A good year, obviously, both personally and professionally,” Hadwin said.

Others’ memories of the 2014 season also extend beyond just the golf; indeed, these were formative experiences for a traveling band of mostly young phenoms.

“Being 23 years old, so many guys travel … you go to Leon, Mexico, eating tacos with everybody, you get to know everybody so well,” Randolph said. “You get in the mud with somebody, you’re going to learn a lot. You looked out for everybody. It was fun when people won; you were genuinely very happy for them.”

“Everybody is rooting for each other,” Hubbard said. “The majority of the rules officials, the operations guys, the media (team), you all feel like you’re in it together. You feel like you’re co-workers working toward the same goal and mission.”

That mission was to savor the moment, yes, but to make it just that: a moment. Although everyone loved Gore’s stories about The Show, they wanted to see it for themselves, which meant doing everything they could think of to not to stick around on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Homa was already a lock to move on after his mid-season victory at the BMW. After several close calls, Thomas broke through at the season’s penultimate event, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio. (He celebrated at fast-casual Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.) Finau clinched his card with a triumph at the Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae, two weeks before the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. It was the first TOUR-sanctioned title for each; they’ve since combined to win 27 times on the PGA TOUR.

Not that everyone was destined for the same place. Steven Alker captured a piece of golf history in a marathon 11-hole playoff at the Cleveland Open, outlasting Dawie van der Walt. It marked Alker’s fourth and final Korn Ferry Tour win, age 42 at the time, a reminder that he could still hang against the young guys. The season also sharpened his game for an illustrious second act on PGA TOUR Champions, where he has won eight times.

“I was the older guy out there, doing my thing,” Alker said. “I didn’t know a lot of these young kids, didn’t really know a lot about them, but you could just see walking down the range, the way they played, the scores they were shooting, that they would be really good.”

If Alker operated under the radar, so did North Dakota’s Tom Hoge, a third-year Korn Ferry Tour member whose third-round 60 at the AdventHealth Championship changed his career. Hoge had missed the cut in four straight starts and was 100th on the season-long standings, on the verge of losing status and falling into no-man’s land.

After making the cut on the number at the AdventHealth, he blistered Nicklaus GC at LionsGatewith that 11-under 60 en route to a sixth-place finish. He added another top-10 finish the next week in California, didn’t miss another cut for the rest of the year, and clinched his first TOUR card with a third-place finish at the Chiquita Classic. He has since made 280-plus TOUR starts, including a win at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

“Everyone’s trying to survive out there, really,” Hoge said. “You’re traveling to other countries, a lot of dinners you’re going to; a lot more camaraderie out there. It was pretty cool, right out of college, to get that experience, meet a lot of the guys and hang out and establish a lot of relationships, and it still is cool to go see these guys 10 years later now.”

Nick Taylor, whose victory at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open snapped a 69-year drought for Canadians at their national open, was on the bubble on the final day of the 2014 Korn Ferry Tour season. But the fifth-year pro and former world No. 1 amateur delivered a final-round 63 at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course to secure his first TOUR card. His then-caddie Mike Darby called it the best round he had seen under the circumstances, and playing partner Brad Fritsch, also of Canada, posted on X that he’d “witnessed an all time pressure round by @ntaylorgolf59 for his PGA TOUR card. Amazing. Awesome.”

Taylor’s heroics gave way to a memorable evening in northeast Florida that is still cherished by several members of the 2014 class.

The celebration

The PGA TOUR card ceremony took place on the Sunday night of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course. Each player was called to the stage to accept his card and pose for photos, and the festivities didn’t end there.

TPC Sawgrass is near a collection of lively bars in Jacksonville Beach, and a group of players partook accordingly. Ten years later, Colt Knost remembers the Mexican restaurant that served as a launching pad for the night to come – TacoLu.

The only tricky part was that PGA TOUR new member orientation was scheduled for the next morning, a daunting arrangement for the revelers, who nonetheless carried on deep into the night.

The next morning brought some cobwebs. Homa remembers Hubbard rolling in, perhaps a bit tardy, and beelining for the snack area. Hubbard confirms the account.

“I had, I don’t even want to know how many bottles of wine that night, and I was in the hot tub with some of my buddies and my assistant coach from San Jose State,” Hubbard said. “I was up ‘til at least 3, probably more like 4 or 4:30 (a.m.), and I don’t know if I slept through my alarm, or if my phone didn’t charge … either way, orientation was at 7:30 or 8 a.m. and I woke up at 11, and it was like, ‘Oh no,’ and I had 20 missed calls from (Jonathan) Randolph, rolled in all disheveled at 11:30.

“They’re talking about TOUR earnings projections and all this stuff,” he added, “and I’m over there rummaging through snacks at 11:30. The ultimate mess, but well worth it.”

Gore was long gone by then, having finished third at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship and earned his TOUR card via the Korn Ferry Tour for the third time. He had caught a quick flight back home to California – “I wanted no part of what those boys were getting into,” he said with a laugh.

That didn’t mean his mark on the class was forgotten. Far from it.

“Gore is somewhere, if I remember right,” Homa said recently as he scanned the Class of 2014 group photo, taken on a staircase inside the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse, players stacked in roughly a dozen rows. Daniel Berger wore a white visor. Hoge took the middle of the front row, flanked by Hadwin and Zac Blair. Andres Gonzales sported his trademark handlebar mustache and a mischievous grin.

Gore was three rows from the top, on the staircase’s right shoulder, standing next to a grinning Thomas, who had turned 21 midway through the season.

Thomas, Homa, Finau, Hadwin, Taylor, Hoge – they’re among the Class of 2014 still competing and thriving on TOUR. Knost is an accomplished CBS broadcaster and podcaster, and Gonzales has recently embarked on a promising media career, PGA TOUR Radio among his pursuits. Barber recently began a second career in wealth management. Alker won the PGA TOUR Champions’ season-long Charles Schwab Cup in 2022; Alex Cejka is a three-time senior major winner.

As for Gore, he works for the PGA TOUR as Executive Vice President Chief Player Officer, which means he’s a day-to-day liaison between players and management. The ‘real’ Crash Davis, a man named Lawrence Davis who inspired the “Bull Durham” lead character, would also stay in the game, becoming a successful high school and American Legion coach.

In the movie, we don’t see what happens to Nuke in The Show, or whether Crash and Annie end up together; all of that is implied and left to the imagination. But the Korn Ferry Tour Class of 2014’s next act continues to play out before our eyes, in real-time. Like the film, few will ever forget that magical season and all that came from it – the crazy stories and crazier road trips, the characters and connectivity, the hard knocks and lessons learned.

It was a destination unto itself but also a stepping stone to something greater.

“It’s like a high school graduating class or college … not that I would know a college graduating class, but you go through together and guys will bring someone up, like, yeah, I went through (Korn Ferry Tour) with him. It’s a cool little brotherhood,” Thomas said.

“You have the guys you got your card with, the guys you celebrated within Jacksonville that night. So you always remember that.”