Looking back at how last year’s ‘Korn Ferry 50’ fared on the PGA Tour
The PGA Tour season may have concluded Sunday at East Lake, but there are still Tour cards for next season on the line this week at the last event of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
The Korn Ferry Tour awards 50 PGA Tour cards every season, with half being handed out at the end of the regular season and the other half coming via the three-event KFT Finals.
Those 50 come with varying degrees of status at the highest level. A year ago, four players earned fully exempt status on Tour: Will Zalatoris, Stephan Jäger, Joseph Bramlett and Mito Pereira.
Jäger and Bramlett were fully exempt for the 2021–22 PGA Tour season after leading the Korn Ferry full-season and Finals points lists, respectively. Pereira was also fully exempt due to winning three times during the Korn Ferry Tour season, as was Zalatoris due to FedExCup points earned as a non-member in the 2021 PGA Tour season.
The other 46 players who qualified for the Tour via Korn Ferry were given priority ranks from Greyson Sigg at No. 1 to Justin Lower at No. 46.
As we prepare for this year’s 50 to be finalized Sunday at Victoria National Golf Club, let’s take a look at how last year’s 50 fared on the PGA Tour.
HEADLINER: Will Zalatoris
Zalatoris is obviously the biggest name that found himself among the 50 Tour cards earned through the KFT last year, but his is a bit of a unique case. The Wake Forest product spent much of his final season as a Korn Ferry member playing the PGA Tour with special temporary status. He was several close calls away from winning a Tour event, which would’ve automatically given him full status and allowed him to cash in on all his high finishes with a trip to the 2021 FedExCup Playoffs. Instead, he had to wait until 2021-22 to obtain full status, which he parlayed into a season that saw him leading the FedExCup after winning the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, before injuring his back the following week at Wilmington Country Club and being forced to withdraw from the BMW Championship as well as the Tour Championship.
QUALIFIED FOR TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP: Zalatoris, Cameron Young, Sahith Theegala
Young and Theegala joined Zalatoris inside the top 30 of the Tour’s final standings for the 2021-22 season, both advancing to East Lake in their rookie campaigns. Young’s season featured five runner-up finishes, including a closing eagle to clip Rory McIlroy for silver at The Open Championship at St. Andrews. The Demon Deacon also finished T-3 at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, just missing out on a playoff with Zalatoris and eventual champion Justin Thomas. Young is virtually a lock to earn PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors.
Theegala had great chances to win at both the WM Phoenix Open and Travelers Championship, but ultimately finished T-3 and T-2 in those events, respectively. The former Pepperdine star earned himself a spot in the Sentry Tournament of Champions and three of the four majors next season by virtue of making it to East Lake.
ADVANCED TO BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: Trey Mullinax, J.J. Spaun, Davis Riley, Kurt Kitayama, Lucas Herbert, Taylor Pendrith, Mito Pereira, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Taylor Moore, Alex Smalley
This group of players all finished inside the top 70 of the FedExCup Standings, with three of them hoisting trophies. Herbert won the Bermuda Championship back in October of 2021. Spaun won the Valero Texas Open the first weekend in April, earning himself a start in the following week’s Masters. Mullinax got it done in early July at the Barbasol Championship, which was played opposite that week’s Genesis Scottish Open. The most notable performance among this group was likely Pereira’s near-win at the PGA Championship. The Chilean stood on the 18th tee with a one-shot lead, but made double bogey after finding a creek with his tee shot. He finished T-3 alongside Young, missing the playoff by a single shot.
MADE FEDEXCUP PLAYOFFS: Lee Hodges, John Huh, Brandon Wu, Chad Ramey, David Lipsky, Aaron Rai, Jäger, Patrick Rodgers, Adam Svensson, Hayden Buckley, Vincent Whaley, Sigg, Callum Tarren, Max McGreevy, Matthias Schwab
This group did enough to get into the first playoff event, and more importantly, retain full status on Tour by finishing inside the top 125 in the regular-season standings. The lone victory amongst these players came courtesy of Chad Ramey at the Corales Puntacana Championship in March.
126-150: Austin Smotherman, Justin Lower, Kelly Kraft, Nick Hardy, Michael Gligic, Andrew Novak, Austin Cook
This group of players just failed to retain full status on the PGA Tour, and while they will have limited status next season, they are also eligible to play the KFT Finals in an attempt to regain full status and climb the priority list.
151-200: Dylan Wu, Paul Barjon, Joseph Bramlett, Scott Gutschewski, Seth Reeves, Ben Kohles, Curtis Thompson, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, David Skinns, Jared Wolfe, Bronson Burgoon, Dawie van der Walt
These players are in a similar boat to those in the 126-150 category. The key difference is that this group is even further down the PGA Tour priority list. However, they also received invites to KFT Finals for a chance to earn their cards once again.
OUTSIDE TOP 200: Joshua Creel, Brett Drewitt
Creel and Drewitt are in the unenviable position of finishing just outside the top 200. Creel came in at No. 202 and Drewitt was just two spots further down the list. These two players will have no Tour status this upcoming season and were not eligible to play in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Creel and Drewitt will now have to press the reset button and head to Q-School as they look to find their way back to the highest level of professional golf.
LIV: Peter Uihlein
This one is fairly self-explanatory. Uihlein chose to leave the PGA Tour in favor of LIV Golf and was suspended by the Tour as a result. The former No. 1 amateur in the world is one of seven LIV players remaining on a lawsuit against the Tour.