Korn Ferry Tour Championship brings 'once-in-a-lifetime' chance at a PGA TOUR card

NEWBURGH, Ind. – The swine flu was inadvertently one of the best things to ever happen to Shad Tuten.

As a high school senior in Georgia, Tuten contracted the state’s third known case of the H1N1 virus. It caused him to miss the basketball season – he was his school’s starting point guard and aspired to play in college. He lost 25 pounds and turned his attention to golf.

Now he’s on the verge of his first PGA TOUR card. Tuten arrives at the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance at No. 29 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List. Thirty PGA TOUR cards will be finalized after the 72-hole, no-cut event at Victoria National Golf Club in southern Indiana.

There isn’t much wiggle room, and Tuten knows it. There’s just a 29-point separation between Nos. 26 and 33 on the Points List, the equivalent of a 31st-place finish this week. The projections will move at a fast and furious pace throughout the week, starting when balls hit the air Thursday morning at a Victoria National track with a championship aesthetic and no shortage of perilous shots.

Tuten’s longtime dream is at his fingertips, and he knows it. Rather than shying away from the stakes, though, he chooses to embrace them.

“It could potentially be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Tuten said this week. “So I’ve got to take it while I can and just do my best … If you had told me I was 29th coming in here, I would’ve told you I’m very happy. I’ve played the best golf I have in my entire career, without winning … but I’ve played really, really good golf for an extended period of time.”

Thirty players will be winners come Sunday afternoon at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Therein lies the magic of the week, which culminates in a card ceremony with each player crossing the 18th green to collect the Korn Ferry Tour’s ultimate prize.

The top 16 players on the Points List into the week have mathematically clinched their spot in the top 30 and hence 2024 PGA TOUR membership. This roster includes an eclectic mix of savvy veterans excited for a return to the game’s biggest stage (like David Skinns and Ben Silverman) and rising stars set to receive their first TOUR card like Pierceson Coody and Norman Xiong.

The next nine players on the Points List, Nos. 17-25, are well positioned to secure that top-30 position but know the job is not quite done. Rafael Campos, No. 23, is pleased with a season where he has rededicated himself to fitness, strengthened his team and ascended the Points List during a midseason stretch with six top-20s in eight starts. He knows he’s close, but that mathematically he could certainly be passed this week. The Puerto Rico native is not taking anything for granted.

“It’s going to be a stressful week, nerve-wracking week, but I’m here for it,” Campos said. “Hopefully come Sunday, we’ll be celebrating instead of thinking about things we could’ve done differently throughout the year … I’ve been nervous before, I’ve had pressure before, but this year means a lot more to me than it has the last 10 years. It’s been a really hard year travel-wise, and I’m really happy that all these changes have allowed me to play a full season without getting injured. I’m really happy to be here. It’s going to be a stressful week with a lot of pressure, but I’m not the only one that has the pressure.”

Everyone in this week’s field has a mathematical chance to move inside the top 30 and earn a PGA TOUR card. For some, it will take a heroic week of sorts; those ranked No. 61 and below on the Points List need a win for a mathematical chance.

Joey Garber, No. 68 on the Points List, arrives at the season finale on the strength of back-to-back top-12 finishes, at the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, vaulting from No. 95 to No. 68 on the season-long standings. The significance is twofold: by qualifying for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, he has secured fully exempt status on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour, and he has a lottery ticket of sorts – a win would very likely secure a TOUR card.

Garber also has a chance for revenge at Victoria National, where he was brought to tears after the final round in 2022, having missed a TOUR card by the slimmest of margins. He finished in a five-way T12 that week; a three-way T12 would have been enough for a TOUR return. He gave it his all, rebounding from a double bogey at the par-4 14th with four consecutive closing birdies.

What better amends than raising a trophy to rubber-stamp a TOUR return?

“Last year in Evansville, I played my butt off at the end and when my back was against the wall, I felt comfortable,” Garber said after the final round at the Nationwide. “Today I had a lot of confidence because of that … Last year in Evansville, even though it was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through, it was the best thing for me, and I needed that for today.

“I’m happy with what I’ve done the last two weeks. The golf courses were tough the last two weeks, and I think that’s what kind of brought the best out of me. We’re going to go to one more tough one, and I’ll see if I can put the pedal down.”

Garber speaks for the majority of the field when he says this. One more week for a chance at a TOUR card via the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour standings. A season-long race has built from January to this point, and this is no time to slow down.

As Tuten said, after all, there’s no knowing when the opportunity might come around again.