Five things to know for Korn Ferry Tour’s home stretch

With the TOUR Championship in the rearview mirror, and 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler earning his first FedExCup crown, it’s time to ask a key question: Who’s next?

The Korn Ferry Tour Finals will help provide the answer.

The top 30 players on the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Points List, finalized after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, will earn 2025 PGA TOUR membership. Three Korn Ferry Tour Finals events remain, starting at next week’s 144-player Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation in Tennessee, progressing to the 120-player Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Ohio, and culminating at the 75-player Korn Ferry Tour Championship in southern Indiana. All three events will be broadcast on Golf Channel.

Thirteen of 30 TOUR cards have been solidified across the Korn Ferry Tour season’s first 23 events. That means 17 TOUR cards remain up for grabs, with an eclectic mix of rising stars and wily veterans battling for the coveted cards. It’s not just about TOUR cards either, as status implications around the top-75 and top-100 cutoffs on the season-long standings will take hold across the next two events, leading into the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at a new venue, French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course.

Here are five things to know about the rest of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, a key cornerstone in professional golf’s future.

1. Who has clinched so far

Thirteen TOUR cards have been determined across the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season’s first 23 events, with eight soon-to-be PGA TOUR rookies and five earning a return trip.

The eight players who will be 2025 PGA TOUR rookies: Matt McCarty, Tim Widing, Steven Fisk, Taylor Dickson, Cristobal Del Solar, Quade Cummins, Kevin Velo and William Mouw. The crop includes six Americans in addition to Chile’s Del Solar (who carded a TOUR-sanctioned record 57 at the Astara Golf Championship earlier this year) and Sweden’s Widing, who won in back-to-back starts at the LECOM Suncoast Classic and Veritex Bank Championship in April.

The five who have earned a return trip: Max McGreevy, Harry Higgs, Brian Campbell, Kevin Roy, and Ryan Gerard (who played on TOUR as a Special Temporary Member in 2023 but didn’t earn top-125 non-member FedExCup points, hence failing to earn membership). McGreevy and Roy each earned a quick return trip after playing on TOUR in 2023 and losing status, while Campbell will play on TOUR for the first time since 2017. (Higgs holds conditional TOUR status in 2024.)

2. Chase for No. 1

The 2024 season will be a success for all 30 players who secure PGA TOUR cards, but the No. 1 spot offers a little extra.

The No. 1 player on the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Points List will qualify for the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont and THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass – and will also be exempt from the TOUR’s periodic reshuffle of Korn Ferry Tour graduates.

After winning three times in his last six starts, Santa Clara alum Matt McCarty holds the No. 1 spot on the season-long standings with three events remaining. McCarty has secured a Three-Victory Promotion to the FedExCup Fall and is eligible for next week’s Procore Championship (opposite the Simmons Bank Open) and the Sanderson Farms Championship (opposite the Korn Ferry Tour Championship), but he can choose to play on either the PGA TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour in those weeks. The Three-Victory Promotion exempts him from the TOUR’s reshuffle of Korn Ferry Tour graduates in 2025, but it does not guarantee a spot in the U.S. Open or THE PLAYERS, which sets up an intriguing decision matrix for the third-year Korn Ferry Tour pro.

McCarty has accrued 2,567 Korn Ferry Tour points this season, and he holds a 687-point edge over Max McGreevy (a two-time winner this season), with three events remaining. Korn Ferry Tour Points are elevated across the four-event Finals, with a tournament winner receiving 600 points (compared to 500 points in a standard event) and a second-place finish receiving 330 points (compared to 300).

McCarty’s lead is so pronounced that only three other players are within 1,200 points (the equivalent of two Korn Ferry Tour Finals wins): Tim Widing trails McCarty by 881 points, Steven Fisk trails by 931 points, and Taylor Dickson trails by 1,194 points.

McCarty, 26, holds a strong position in the race for No. 1, but then again, we’ve learned to expect the unexpected in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

(The No. 1 finisher will not be exempt into the TOUR’s Signature Events but can qualify for those events via a tournament win, the Aon Next 10 or the Aon Swing 5, same as all PGA TOUR members including the 30 Korn Ferry Tour graduates.)

3. Bubble watch

With 17 of 30 PGA TOUR cards still yet to be determined, it sets up for a twisting and turning finish to the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season.

Focus will turn to the No. 30 spot across the final three legs of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, with Southern Methodist alum Noah Goodwin holding down No. 30 into the Simmons Bank Open, just 13 points ahead of Trey Winstead, an Louisiana State University product and first-year Korn Ferry Tour member. (Goodwin held Korn Ferry Tour status in 2023 but lost it after finishing No. 110 on the season-long standings, then advanced through all three stages of Q-School with his dad on the bag.)

University of Virginia alum Danny Walker – who narrowly missed his first TOUR card with a tie for seventh at Q-School’s Final Stage last fall (two strokes back of the top five and ties for a card) – stands No. 28 on the season-long standings with three events remaining, just seven points ahead of No. 29 Trevor Cone, who was a PGA TOUR rookie in 2023 but lost status.

Air Force alum Kyle Westmoreland stands No. 32 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List, seeking a return TOUR trip after his rookie season in 2023, with Dalton Ward (who began 2024 with no Korn Ferry Tour status) at No. 33 on the standings.

There’s no shortage of storylines in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, and they’ll continue to crystallize as the Finals build toward a dramatic conclusion at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

4. Keeping your job

The top 30 is the Korn Ferry Tour’s ultimate goal. The top-75 and top-100 cutoffs, though, also matter deeply in a player’s career.

Nos. 31-75 on the season-long standings, finalized after the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, will secure fully exempt 2025 Korn Ferry Tour membership, not subject to reshuffle.

Nos. 76-100 on the season-long standings, also finalized after the Nationwide, will keep conditional Korn Ferry Tour status for 2025 and remain eligible for the reshuffle, meaning if they get into an event and make a cut, they will earn points to improve their spot on the Priority Ranking. To illustrate the importance of this category, look no further than University of Southern California alum Kaito Onishi, who finished No. 100 exactly on last year’s standings – with a final-round 67 at the Nationwide for a T24 – to keep some semblance of status. He finished T8 at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard in his first start of 2024 to set up his season; he now stands No. 27 on the Points List with three events remaining and has a chance at a TOUR card.

Players outside the top 75 can also regain or improve Korn Ferry Tour status via PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, where the top five and ties at Final Stage will earn PGA TOUR cards, the next 40 and ties will earn guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts, and the remainder of Final Stage finishers will earn conditional Korn Ferry Tour status.

The top 144 on the Points List are eligible for the Simmons Bank Open, with the top 120 after the Simmons Bank Open eligible for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. (In a change from 2023, these events will not feature alternate lists).

The top 75 after the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship will qualify for the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship (no alternates, same as 2023).

5. Two new courses

The Korn Ferry Tour Finals-opening Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron was played at Hillcrest Country Club for the 35th consecutive year, one of just two courses that has hosted the Korn Ferry Tour since its inception in 1990. In contrast, two of the next three events will feature first-time Korn Ferry Tour host venues.

Next week’s Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation moves across the Nashville, Tennessee metroplex from The Grove to Vanderbilt Legends Club (North Course), a Bob Kupp/Tom Kite design that measures 7,197 yards, par 70. The Vanderbilt Legends Club is the home course of Vanderbilt University’s men’s and women’s golf teams and previously hosted the LPGA’s Franklin American Mortgage Championship from 2004 to 2006.

The following week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship will be played at the Ohio State University Golf Club’s Scarlet Course, the only constant host venue for each Korn Ferry Tour Finals (established in 2013). There’s a week off before the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, which moves roughly 80 miles across southern Indiana from Victoria National Golf Club to French Lick Golf Resort’s par-72 Pete Dye Course – set up to be a brute at 7,667 yards.

French Lick’s Pete Dye Course is no stranger to high-level competition, having hosted the 2015 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, won by Colin Montgomerie. The venue has also been described by popular YouTube creators BustaJack Golf as the “hardest golf course in America.”

If you secure a PGA TOUR card with clutch play down the stretch at French Lick, you have unequivocally earned it.