Analysis
Korn Ferry Tour doubles PGA TOUR cards to 40; 10 go to the top tier
From 2027 the top 10 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list go to the PGA TOUR Championship Series and Nos. 11 to 40 to the Challenger Series. On this year's list, the line would have fallen between Tommy Morrison and Cooper Dossey.
Forty players will earn PGA TOUR cards through the Korn Ferry Tour in 2027, twice the 20 a season it promotes now, the PGA TOUR said on Wednesday when it released the 2027 schedule. The top 10 on the 2027 points list go into the PGA TOUR Championship Series, the 24-event top tier that starts in 2028. Nos. 11 to 40 get membership of the Challenger Series, the tier below it.
On this year’s final points list, the line would fall between Tommy Morrison, tenth, and Cooper Dossey, 11th. Ross Steelman, Sandy Scott, Ian Holt, Alistair Docherty, Alvaro Ortiz, Austin Hitt, Cole Sherwood, Doc Redman, Blades Brown and Morrison would be in the top tier. Dossey, Hunter Eichhorn, Dylan Menante and the rest of this year’s top 20 would be in the Challenger Series. So would Yuta Sugiura, who finished 21st after shooting 58 in Oklahoma, and Cole Hammer, who dropped from 20th to 22nd on the final day of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Both missed out on a card this year.
Under the eligibility rules the PGA TOUR’s policy boards approved in September, the top 20 on the Challenger Series points list move up to the Championship Series a year later. Championship Series fields will average about 120 players; Challenger Series fields will have 144.
The 2027 Korn Ferry Tour has 25 events in seven countries and 15 states. It opens in January with The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island and ends, as in 2026, with the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in Glen Allen, Virginia. In between are five events in Latin America. One is new to the schedule: the Scotiabank Abierto de Chile, first played in 1927, which holds its 97th edition at Prince of Wales Country Club in Santiago. The 120th Visa Argentina Open returns to Olivos Golf Club, which hosts it for the 13th time.
The four Korn Ferry Tour Finals events cut the field each week, from the top 156 on the points list at the Simmons Bank Open in Franklin, Tennessee, to 132, then 100, then 60 at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. The PGA TOUR gave no purses with the schedule.
Sources
Spotted an error? Tell us and we will fix it. Our editorial standards.
