PGA Tour U adds Accelerated point avenues, expands KFT access
The PGA Tour University program continues to expand.
The PGA Tour announced Thursday added benefits, including more avenues to earn points toward PGA Tour Accelerated, expanded access for graduates to the Korn Ferry Tour, and additional PGA Tour cards for notable second-place seniors.
Starting this year, Accelerated, which offers underclassmen PGA Tour access when they compile 20 points for achieving certain performance benchmarks, will expand to offer points for the following, while adjusting point values for some previous achievements:
- Lifetime 26 weeks as No. 1 in WAGR – 1 point
- Lifetime 52 weeks as No. 1 in WAGR – 1 point
- Top 5 in an official PGA Tour event or select DP World Tour events – 1 point
- Top 10 and ties at D-I NCAA Individual National Championship – 1 point
- Jones Cup – 1 point
- Northeast Amateur – 1 point
- Southern Amateur – 1 point
- African Amateur – 1 point (previously 2 points)
- Asia-Pacific Amateur – 1 point (previously 2 points)
- D-I NCAA Individual Champion – 2 points (previously 3 points)
- European Amateur – 1 point (previously 2 points)
- Latin America Amateur – 1 point (previously 2 points)
- British Amateur – 2 points (previously 3 points)
- U.S. Amateur – 2 points (previously 3 points)
- Western Amateur – 1 point (previously 2 points)
(Note: events that are listed mean that a player must win that event to earn the points.)
These points will not be applied retroactively, leaving Florida State’s Luke Clanton and Auburn’s Jackson Koivun at 17 points each. Virginia’s Ben James is next at 11 points.
Vanderbilt senior Gordon Sargent became the first player to reach 20 points in 2023 and is expected to take up PGA Tour membership this summer.
Additionally, the top 10 seniors in the regular PGA Tour U program will receive exempt KFT membership. Previously, Nos. 6-10 were conditional members. Also, the top five players in combined points earned between the PGA Tour and KFT that first season after graduation will keep their KFT status for the following season, up from three players. This takes effect this year.
Lastly, if a runner-up senior in PGA Tour U reaches 1,300 points, he will also earn PGA Tour status equal to the No. 1 player, starting in 2026. Since the launch of PGA Tour in 2021, the No. 2 finisher has not surpasses the 1,300-point mark, averaging 1,176 points.
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