Globe-trotting Paul Peterson is headed to PGA TOUR

Paul Peterson has visited 40-plus countries, six continents and logged hundreds of thousands of airline miles, chasing a singular dream in professional golf.

The work has paid off. Peterson is headed to the PGA TOUR in 2025.

After winning last week's Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation, the second leg of the four-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, Peterson has clinched his 2025 PGA TOUR card via the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List. The top 30 on the Points List after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance will earn 2025 PGA TOUR membership; Peterson is one of 17 players to have cemented #TOURBound status with two events remaining on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour schedule.

Peterson grew up in Salem, Oregon, and played collegiately at Oregon State before turning pro in 2012. He then set sail on an international golf journey that has included time on the DP World Tour, Japan Golf Tour and Asian Tour among other circuits. He won in the Czech Republic and Myanmar, proposed to his now-wife Maggie in a helicopter ride arranged by Ryan Fox and his wife Anneke (whom they befriended on international circuits), relished the culture of Thailand and accrued countless memories. Along the way, he moved across America to St. Simons Island, Georgia, in 2018, where he has befriended several area pros including Patton Kizzire, who won last week's Procore Championship on the same day Peterson lifted the Simmons Bank Open trophy.

Peterson plays golf his way. He ranks near the Korn Ferry Tour's low end in Driving Distance (No. 147 of 150 qualified players), but he makes up for it with precision and short-game acumen (No. 4 in Driving Accuracy, No. 2 in Scrambling). He's a throwback, and he has gained an extra edge this summer in working with mental coach Amiee Smith-Schuster (who also works with Kizzire). The 36-year-old has notched six top-20 finishes in his last 11 starts, punctuated by his first Korn Ferry Tour title at the Simmons Bank Open, and the best is likely yet to come.

Twelve years after turning pro, Peterson will now assume a long-awaited place as a card-carrying PGA TOUR member.

About Paul Peterson

Age: 36
Hometown: Salem, Oregon (born in Tucson, Arizona)
Alma mater: Oregon State University
PGA TOUR starts: two
Cuts made: two
Best PGA TOUR finish: T29, 2015 CIMB Classic