After a season-long battle to earn a PGA Tour card, it all comes down to the final tournament in the Korn Ferry Tour season.
This year, the Korn Ferry Tour Championship heads to French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course in southern Indiana, where a field of 74 competes for the chance to claim one of the coveted PGA Tour cards.
The top 30 on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List will claim the cards. However, the top 17 on the points list have already secured their places on the PGA Tour next season. That leaves 13 up for grabs, all of which will be handed out following this week’s event.
Even those who miss out on a PGA Tour card have some reassurance over their futures. All 75 players who were eligible for this week’s event now have fully exempt status on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour, while they will have another opportunity to reach the PGA Tour via Q-school.
Players between 31st and 60th on the points list following the final putt on Sunday will be exempt into the final stage of Q-school, while those in positions 61 to 75 will be exempt into the second stage (along with players placed between 76 and 85 on the points list). Following Q-school, PGA Tour cards will be awarded to the top five finishers and ties. For many in the field in Indiana this week, the goal is to avoid that extra hurdle.
As well as the potentially life-changing incentive of a PGA Tour card, there is also prize money available at this week’s event, with a total payout of $1.5m available - the same amount as the three Korn Ferry Tour Finals events that preceded it.
The winner will receive $270,000, with $135,000 going to the runner-up in the no-cut event.
Below is the prize money breakdown for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
Korn Ferry Tour Championship Prize Money Payout
Who Are The Star Names In The Korn Ferry Tour Championship?
With 17 of the 30 PGA Tour cards already secured, 13 players fill the spots between 18th and 30th in the standings to leave them just one solid performance from taking their cards.
Currently occupying those positions are, in order, Australian Karl Vilips, Americans John Pak, Jackson Suber and Mason Andersen, and German Jeremy Paul.
Norwegian Kris Ventura is next, followed by US stars Ricky Castillo, Danny Walker and Noah Goodwin, South African Aldrich Potgieter and Japanese player Kaito Onishi. Trevor Cone and Sam Bennett, both from the US, hold the remaining positions in the top 30.
Bennett currently has 787.502 points, while the player directly beneath him, Trent Phillips, has 744.534 points - 42.968 below the coveted final spot.
To take Bennett’s position, Phillips will need a minimum of a top-23 finish this week, and likely higher depending on how the 2023 Masters low amateur performs. Bennett, meanwhile, will be desperate to avoid Q-school after missing out at the final stage of it last year.
Another standout name in that clutch of players is Potgieter, who, in February, became the youngest player to shoot 59 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in the Astara Golf Championship in Colombia.
For all players 59th or lower on the points list, only a win will do this week to reach the top 30.
Among those in the field who have already secured PGA Tour cards are Harry Higgs, who finished T4 at the 2021 PGA Championship, along with Frankie Capan III, who finished T41 at the 2024 US Open, and Cristobal Del Solar, who carded the lowest ever round in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in the same tournament Potgieter achieved his record-breaking feat.
The incentive for the players with PGA Tour cards confirmed at this week’s event is to finish as high as they can on the points list to improve their positions on the PGA Tour’s priority ranking and give them a better chance of making more starts during the early part of 2025.
The player at the top of the points list, Matt McCarty, is not in the field as he is competing in this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship on the PGA Tour.
What Is The Prize Money Payout For The Korn Ferry Tour Championship?
There is a $1.5m purse at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, with $270,000 going to the winner and $135,000 heading to the runner-up. However, arguably a greater incentive for the 74-player field is the chance to win one of 13 PGA Tour cards.
Where Is The Korn Ferry Tour Championship?
For the first time, the season finale will be held at French Lick Golf Resort's Pete Dye Course in southern Indiana. The par-72 7,667-yard layout was also the venue for the 2015 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
