The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough

FedEx Cup The FedEx Cup is the championship trophy for the PGA Tour. Its introduction in 2007 marked the first time that men's professional golf had a playoff system. Since its inception, the competition has been sponsored by FedEx. In 2022, the PGA Tour ...

points to stay at that level. Those who are on the top 30 of the money list at year's end are given PGA Tour memberships for the next season. Since the 2013 season, the Korn Ferry Tour has been the primary pathway for those seeking to earn their PGA Tour card. Q-School, which had previously been the primary route for qualification to the

, has been converted as an entryway to the Korn Ferry Tour.

History

Announced in early

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

by PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman, the "satellite tour" was formalized by the

in 1990, originally named the Ben Hogan Tour, sponsored by the Ben Hogan Golf Company. The first season of 1990 had 30 events, and the typical event purse was $100,000. Late in 1992, Nike acquired the title sponsorship and it became the Nike Tour for seven seasons (1993–1999). Buy.com was the next title sponsor with the tour being titled the Buy.com Tour for three seasons (2000–2002).

Nationwide Insurance Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and affiliated companies, commonly shortened to Nationwide, is a group of large U.S. insurance and financial services companies based in Columbus, Ohio. The company also operates regional headquarters in Scott ...

became the tour's next title sponsors for the start of the 2003 season, with the tour being renamed the Nationwide Tour. After seasons as the Nationwide Tour, Web.com was announced as the new title sponsor in late June

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. The 10-year sponsorship deal was effective immediately, and the tour's name was changed to the Web.com Tour mid-season. In June 2019, the PGA Tour announced a 10-year deal with Los Angeles–based consulting firm Korn Ferry to replace Web.com as the tour's sponsor. The vast majority of tournaments have always been hosted within the mainland United States. In 1993 the tour reached beyond those boundaries for the first time, with the Monterrey Open in Mexico. It was an annual fixture on the tour schedule until 2001. The following season, the tour added

PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf ...

co-sanctioned events in Australia and New Zealand, and the Canadian PGA Championship in Canada. A tournament in Panama was added in 2004, and the tour returned to Mexico in 2008. The tour has also visited Colombia (since

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

), Chile (2012–2015), Brazil (2013–2016), the Dominican Republic (2016–2017) and the Bahamas (since 2017).

Rules and results

All Korn Ferry Tour tournaments operate similarly to typical PGA Tour tournaments in that they are all 72-hole stroke play events with a cut made after 36 holes. The cut on the Korn Ferry Tour is for the top 65 players and ties, which is the same as the PGA Tour. The fields are usually 144 or 156 players, depending on time of year (and available daylight hours). As with the PGA Tour, the winner of the tournament will get a prize of 18% of the total purse. Since this tour is a developmental tour, players are usually vying to play well enough to gain status on the PGA Tour. Until 2012, there were a number of ways of getting onto the Korn Ferry Tour: Top 50 golfers at qualifying school after the top 25 and ties, those who finished between 26th and 60th on the previous year's money list, 126–150th on the previous season's PGA Tour money list, and those who were formerly fully exempt on the PGA Tour in the recent past. Those without status can also earn enough to exceed 100th on the previous season's money list and earned unlimited exemptions for the remainder of the season. Around 14 open qualifying spots are given during the Monday of tournament week, and those who finished in the top 25 of a Korn Ferry event are automatically exempt into the next tournament. If a Monday morning qualifier wins an event, they will earn full-exempt status for the remainder of the season. Past PGA Tour winners aged 48 and 49 can play on the Korn Ferry Tour on an increased basis to prepare themselves for PGA Tour Champions, while former PGA Tour winners with limited status use the Korn Ferry Tour as a way to get back to the main tour. In 2007 Paul Claxton became the first man to reach

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1 million in Korn Ferry Tour career earnings. The Korn Ferry Tour offers

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolling ...

(OWGR) points. From 2006 until August 2022, when the OWGR points system changed, the winner earned a minimum of 14 points (provided at least 54 holes were played) and 20 for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Starting in 2013, the other events of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals awarded 16 points to the winner. Tournaments shortened to 36 holes were given reduced values of ten points for regular season events and the win is considered unofficial. With the change in the OWGR system, there are no minimum points for any tour. In

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, the winner's points ranged from 10.14 to 15.31, averaging 13.05. In

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, the winner's points ranged from 11.08 to 14.63, averaging 13.13.

Three-win promotion

Since 1997, a player who wins three tournaments in one year on the Korn Ferry Tour receives an immediate promotion to the PGA Tour for the remainder of the year and for the following year. This "performance promotion" (sometimes informally referred to as a "battlefield promotion") has occurred 13 times: *

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

: Chris Smith *

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

: Heath Slocum, Chad Campbell, Pat Bates *

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Patrick Moore Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter. Moore's early interest in astro ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

: Tom Carter *

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

: Jason Gore *

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

: Nick Flanagan *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

: Michael Sim *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

: Carlos Ortiz *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

: Wesley Bryan * 2020–21: Mito Pereira *

: Matt McCarty

Changes for 2013 season and beyond

On March 20, 2012, the PGA Tour announced radical changes to the main tour's season and qualifying process effective in 2013. Major changes to what was then known as the Nationwide Tour were also announced at that time. Full details of these changes were announced on July 10 of that year. The first major change was that beginning in fall 2013, the PGA Tour season started in October of the previous calendar year. This change had several consequences for the Korn Ferry Tour, either directly or indirectly. Starting with the 2013 season, the Korn Ferry Tour has a structure similar to that of the main PGA Tour, with a regular season followed by a season-ending series of tournaments. In the case of the Korn Ferry Tour, the ending series consists of four tournaments, to be held during the main tour's

playoffs, called the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. At least 150 players will be eligible to compete in the Finals—the top 75 on the Korn Ferry Tour regular-season money list, plus the players finishing between 126 and 200 on the FedEx Cup points list. Non-members of the PGA Tour are also eligible if they would have earned enough FedEx Cup points to finish 126 to 200. In addition, PGA Tour players who have been granted medical extensions for the following season are eligible. Because some of the PGA Tour players will be exempt by other means, such as tournament wins in the previous two years, the Finals fields will not consist of all eligible players. A total of 50 PGA Tour cards for the following season will be awarded at the end of the Finals—25 to the top regular-season money winners on the Korn Ferry Tour, with the remaining 25 determined by total money earned during the Finals. Those who finish in the Top 75 on the points list but fail to earn PGA Tour cards retain full Korn Ferry Tour status, along with those who finished 126–150 on the PGA Tour FedEx Cup standings. Conditional status is given to those who finish in the top 100 on the money list or 151–200 in the FedEx Cup. From 2013 to 2022, the

PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament The annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, also known as Qualifying School or Q-School, was historically the main method by which golfers earned PGA Tour playing privileges, commonly known as a Tour card. From 2013 to 2022, Q-School granted privil ...

was replaced by the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament which granted playing rights only for the Korn Ferry Tour. In 2023, the Qualifying Tournament again awarded PGA Tour cards, this time to the top five plus ties. Those up to 40th plus ties are fully exempt on the Korn Ferry Tour. The next twenty are fully exempt on PGA Tour Americas and conditionally on the Korn Ferry Tour. All others who reach the final stage are conditionally exempt on bot the PGA Tour Americas and Korn Ferry Tour. Finally, the Korn Ferry Tour now provides up to two entrants in the following year's Players Championship. One invitation is extended to the player who tops the money list for the entire season, including the Finals. The golfer who earns the most during the Finals also receives an invitation; if the same player leads both money lists, only one invitation is given.

Money and points list winners

Awards

Career money leaders

The table shows top-10 career money leaders on the Korn Ferry Tour as of the 2024 season. Players in bold were 2024 Korn Ferry Tour members. There is a full list on the PGA Tour's website.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Nike, Inc. 1990 establishments in Florida Professional sports leagues in the United States