The First Look: Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance

It doesn’t get any bigger than this.

The 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season concludes at this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, the final leg of the four-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals and 26-event Korn Ferry Tour schedule.

The top 30 on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, contested for the first time at French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course in southern Indiana, will earn 2025 PGA TOUR membership and fulfill a lifelong dream. The top 17 on the Points List into the week have clinched their TOUR cards, with 13 cards yet to be determined.

The final few holes Sunday at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship are some of the most dramatic in sports, as the 30th TOUR card could hang in the balance until the final putt. Players who rise to the occasion will cherish the moment forever, while those who fall just short will remember it in a different light. It’s arguably the purest form of competition in sports. It’s the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

As the Korn Ferry Tour season reaches its last leg at brawny French Lick, here’s what you need to know.

FIELD NOTES: The top 75 players on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List after the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, the Korn Ferry Tour Finals’ third leg, have advanced to the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Seventy-four players will compete at French Lick, as Matt McCarty clinched the season-long No. 1 spot with a T5 at the Nationwide Children's and will compete at this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship on the PGA TOUR (he earned a Three-Victory Promotion with wins this season at the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper, Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Woodhouse and Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron). McCarty secured fully exempt 2025 PGA TOUR membership (not including Signature Events) with his Three-Victory Promotion, and by finishing No. 1 on the season-long standings, he has qualified for the 2025 U.S. Open and THE PLAYERS Championship … All 75 players who qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship have secured fully exempt status on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour, not subject to reshuffle … Nos. 31-60 on the Points List after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship will be exempt to PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry’s Final Stage, where the top five finishers and ties will earn 2025 PGA TOUR cards. Nos. 61-75 on the Points List after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship will be exempt to PGA TOUR Q-School’s Second Stage (as will Nos. 76-85, which were finalized after the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship) … There will be no cut at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship; all players who complete 72 holes will receive Korn Ferry Tour points.

STORYLINES: Texas A&M alum Sam Bennett holds the all-important No. 30 spot into the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, looking to earn his first TOUR card. Bennett, winner of the 2022 U.S. Amateur, played in the final group for the final two rounds of the 2023 Masters Tournament, en route to a T16 finish. He has made the cut in all four of his major championship appearances, and he has notched 10 top-25s in 23 Korn Ferry Tour starts this season, highlighted by back-to-back T3s in late July …Earlier this year, South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter became the youngest winner on either the PGA TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour since Ralph Guldahl (1931 Santa Monica Open) at age 19 years, 4 months, 11 days, winning The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club in January. Now he looks to hang on for a TOUR card, as he added just two more top-10 finishes and enters the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at No. 27 on the season-long standings, less than eight points ahead of No. 30 Bennett. (It’s a minimal cushion – for reference, a 52nd-place finish at the 75-player, no-cut Korn Ferry Tour Championship yields 8.5 points.) … Four players in the field are two-time Korn Ferry Tour winners this year: Max McGreevy, Tim Widing, Taylor Dickson and Harry Higgs. A third win at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship would yield a Three-Victory Promotion to the remainder of FedExCup Fall and fully exempt status on the 2025 PGA TOUR, ahead of the reshuffle category … Five players moved inside the top 75 at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship to keep their season alive: Cole Hammer, Dan McCarthy, Jacob Solomon, Davis Shore and Rick Lamb. All players in the top 75 have a chance to earn a PGA TOUR card with a win at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship … Potgieter, who turned 20 in September, is the youngest player in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship field. The oldest is Tommy Gainey, 49, who enters the week at No. 50 on the Points List.

WHO HAS CLINCHED: Seventeen players have mathematically clinched a PGA TOUR card via the top 30 on the season-long standings, with 16 of the 17 players set to compete at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Although McCarty has clinched the top spot on the season-long standings, there’s still an incentive for players to move up the Korn Ferry Tour Points List and improve their position on the 2025 PGA TOUR’s initial Priority Ranking, with Nos. 2-30 on the final Points List ordered accordingly. This ranking will likely be crucial for early-season starts on the TOUR’s springtime schedule. (These players will be subject to periodic reshuffles throughout the season based on FedExCup standing.) The 17 players who have clinched a TOUR card so far: McCarty, McGreevy, Widing, Steven Fisk, Frankie Capan III, Dickson, Higgs, William Mouw, Brian Campbell, Thomas Rosenmueller, Ryan Gerard, Cristobal Del Solar, Quade Cummins, Kevin Roy, Kevin Velo, Paul Peterson and Isaiah Salinda.

THE POINTS: The four Korn Ferry Tour Finals events feature an elevated points distribution, compared to the 22 pre-Finals events. Winners of Korn Ferry Tour Finals events, including the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, receive 600 Korn Ferry Tour Points. This is elevated from a standard Korn Ferry Tour (pre-Finals event), where winners receive 500 Korn Ferry Tour Points. A runner-up finish at a Korn Ferry Tour Finals event allocates 330 points, compared to 300 for a pre-Finals event. Click here for Korn Ferry Tour points allocation.

ON THE VERGE: After the 17 players who have clinched a TOUR card into the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, the next five players on the Points List have created a buffer between themselves and the bubble, making it very likely they’ll earn a TOUR card Sunday evening in southern Indiana. These five players are Karl Vilips (973 points), John Pak (959), Jackson Suber (940), Mason Andersen (921), and Jeremy Paul (920). Still, wild scenarios exist that could bump them outside the top 30, and they won’t take anything for granted.

THE BUBBLE: The players who hold the Nos. 23-30 spots on the Points List into the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, respectively, are Kris Ventura, Ricky Castillo, Danny Walker, Noah Goodwin, Aldrich Potgieter, Kaito Onishi, Trevor Cone and Sam Bennett. No. 31 Trent Phillips trails Bennett by 43 points (the equivalent of a top-23 finish this week), and No. 32 Trey Winstead trails by 62 points (the equivalent of a top-14 finish). For reference, No. 40 Pontus Nyholm trails by 176 points (top-three finish), and all players No. 59 or lower would need a win for a chance to move inside the top 30 on the Points List.

COURSE: French Lick Golf Resort (Pete Dye Course), par 72, 7,667 yards. The big ballpark can play more than 8,000 yards and although it won’t extend quite as far this week, it will provide a stern test for players on the verge of their PGA TOUR dreams. Dye, whose work includes TPC Sawgrass’ PLAYERS Stadium Course and Harbour Town Golf Links in a wide catalog, carved this track into a hillside of one of Indiana’s highest points, yielding a memorable landscape that includes three man-made lakes, “volcano” bunkers and various elevation changes. The Pete Dye Course also hosted the 2015 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, won by Colin Montgomerie. The finishing stretch includes the 220-yard, par-3 16th, 465-yard, par-4 17th, and 626-yard, par-5 18th.

LAST TIME: France’s Paul Barjon won the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour Championship, the fifth and final iteration contested at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Indiana, with a 14-under total, three strokes clear of Fabian Gomez. It marked Barjon’s second Korn Ferry Tour title of the season and vaulted him from No. 45 to No. 8 on the Points List, well inside the top 30 for a PGA TOUR return. Barjon had previously graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020-21 but lost his TOUR card after the 2022 season. Gomez fell short of a TOUR card, finishing No. 48 on the Points List, but Joe Highsmith and Mac Meissner each vaulted inside the top 30 after sharing third place. Josh Teater (solo fifth) and Wilson Furr (T6) also moved inside the top 30 with strong finishes at the season finale, while Rafael Campos finished T52 at Victoria National but held on for the No. 30 spot.

How to follow (all times ET):

• Thursday: 1-4 p.m. (Golf Channel)
• Friday-Saturday: noon-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2-4 p.m. (NBCsports.com/golfchannel, NBC Sports App)
• Sunday: 12:30-3:30 p.m. (Golf Channel)