Ben Kohles named 2023 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – The PGA TOUR announced Wednesday that Ben Kohles has won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year for the 2023 season, as voted by Korn Ferry Tour membership.

Kohles finished No. 1 on the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour Points List off the strength of two wins – astara Chile Classic presented by Scotiabank and HomeTown Lenders Championship – as well as eight top-10s, including four such finishes in the final five events of the season. Kohles made 23 starts throughout the 26-event season and posted the fourth-lowest scoring average on Tour (68.80).

By virtue of his No. 1 finish on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List, Kohles earned fully exempt status for the 2024 PGA TOUR season, as well as exemptions for the 2024 U.S. Open and 2024 PLAYERS Championship. It marked Kohles’ third time earning PGA TOUR membership, as he previously achieved a TOUR card following the 2012 and 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour seasons.

Both of Kohles’ wins last season came in April, just 28 days apart, which helped him sit atop the Korn Ferry Tour Points List after 20 of the final 21 events of the season. Kohles’ win at the astara Chile Classic marked his first PGA TOUR-sanctioned title in over 10 years, dating back to his rookie season on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2012. Four weeks after his win in Chile, Kohles won the HomeTown Lenders Championship, prevailing in a two-hole sudden-death playoff, earning his fourth Korn Ferry Tour victory of his career.

Kohles turned professional in 2012 after a highly decorated collegiate career at the University of Virginia, where he was a two-time All-American and back-to-back winner of the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year award in 2010 and 2011. He became the first (and remains the only) player in Korn Ferry Tour history to win each of his first two starts, as he won at the 2012 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship and Cox Classic.

Kohles will make his 2024 PGA TOUR debut at this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii.