Tale of two players: Veteran Ben Kohles, rookie Mason Andersen share lead at Korn Ferry Tour Championship

NEWBURGH, Ind. – Ben Kohles has won on the Korn Ferry Tour four times – twice in his first two starts in 2012, and twice this season. The 32-year-old University of Virginia alumni has already locked up his PGA TOUR card for the third time. He’s been hovering at the top of the Korn Ferry Tour Points List all season and entered the week at No. 1. He knows what he needs to do now, and he knows exactly what lies ahead of him.

And then there’s 24-year-old Korn Ferry Tour rookie Mason Andersen. Not even two months ago, he wasn’t sure he would make it to the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. But a streak of hot play with consecutive T43-T2-T18 finishes over the summer earned the Arizona State University grad a tee time at Victoria National Golf Club in southern Indiana and secures him full 2024 Korn Ferry Tour status. Entering the week outside the top-30 bubble at No. 42, he is now projected to move to No. 8 and join Kohles on the PGA TOUR.

Almost a decade of years and experience separate the two. And yet, both sit at 9-under par tied for the lead after two rounds at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance.

Kohles is the only player in the 73-man field to remain bogey-free for the week, despite a deluge of rain and frigid weather on Thursday, going 68-67. Starting on the back nine Friday, he made three birdies and one eagle – on the par-5 15th – and then 11 straight pars. He’s been T1 in driving accuracy, first in scrambling and T2 in putting. Consistency is the word.

“I've been playing this course a bunch of times, so you know … you've got to keep it in the fairway here,” Kohles said after Round 2. “The fairways are pretty wide, and with as soft as it is, they're even wider, but you miss a little bit off of that and there's trouble lurking. … I'm just trying to stay in the moment and enjoy it.”

Andersen, in turn, struggled to maintain the magic of his Thursday 64, going 3 over in his first eight holes Friday. He dropped from T1 in scrambling and first in putting in Round 1 to T21 and T18, respectively, in Round 2.

“Very different from yesterday. Obviously yesterday … I was firing on all cylinders,” Andersen said. “Today I struggled early and was kind of struggling the whole day. … I think I lost my concentration, my focus a little bit early in the round, cost me on No. 2. But that's just like this golf course in general, there's just crap everywhere. You've got to be focused and concentrating for 18 holes.”

His first birdie came on No. 9, and he settled into a rhythm, going 3 under on the back nine and finishing with a rousing 40-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to card a second-round 71.

“I don't know. I think my back was kind of against the wall a little bit early on today, so it kind of forced me to focus in and wake up in a sense,” he reflected.

With a win, Kohles would lock up the No. 1 spot in the Points List and be fully exempt on the 2024 PGA TOUR season, automatically qualifying for the 2024 U.S. Open and THE PLAYERS Championship. He would also secure the rare Three-Victory Promotion and his TOUR membership would kick in next week. He sees the full picture.

Growing up in North Carolina, Kohles has memories of playing Pinehurst No. 2 on his 14th birthday with his father, squabbling over who shot 98 vs. 99. Now, he’s just two rounds away from a potential spot in the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

“I mean, to definitely go from the early success I had right away, bang, bang, and then get on TOUR right away and then really struggle those next three or four years after that, you can't really see the gains, you know, in a short period of time, right?” Kohles reflected. “You've got to add up and it's like day by day, you've got to try to keep building and building and then eventually over years to come there's going to be a nice foundation there.”

Andersen has much less – but everything more – to play for: his first PGA TOUR card. The gravity of that may not have even hit him yet. He’s just relishing the family-and-friends bonanza that comes with a big week like this.

“My dad's side is kind of rogue, yeah. They're great people, though. The best humans I know,” Andersen said. “Yeah, it's fun. It's a good time to relax after the round. It gets my mind off things. … I mean, we're out in Sullivan. ... It's the middle of nowhere. We got some log cabins and about six cases of beer, so we kind of just fish and have a good time.”

Andersen then casually relayed some news about his cousin Klay, a professional skater and athlete in his own right, saying, “Oh, yeah. Klay almost died yesterday. He dumped the entire bottle of lighter fluid on the charcoal grill and then lit it with one of those tiny lighters and half his beard and his hair caught on fire. That was a good one.”

A tale of two players it is.

Things to Know

• Andersen, Matt McCarty (T3/-7), Wilson Furr (T8/-5), and Trace Crowe (T8/-5) are the only players currently projected to move into the top 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List; the four players currently projected to fall out of the top 30 are No. 26 Carter Jenkins (T68/+10), No. 27 Joe Highsmith (T27/-1), No. 29 Shad Tuten (T17/-2), and No. 30 Jackson Suber (T60/+6)

• Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance is the 26th and final event of the 2023 season, and the top 30 players on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List upon conclusion of the final round will earn PGA TOUR membership for the 2024 season

• Upon conclusion of the final round, players ranked Nos. 31-60 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List will earn an exemption to Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, where 2024 PGA TOUR membership will be awarded to the top five finishers and ties

• Third-round tee times will run from 7:25 a.m. through 9:35 a.m. local time off the first and 10th tees