Genesis Championship 2026: Chacarra can go 1,453 points clear in Korea

Kiradech Aphibarnrat tees off at 22:00 GMT on Wednesday (07:00 on Thursday in Cheonan) in the first of the card-race groups at the Genesis Championship (22–25 October). He is 108th in the Race to Dubai and 50.18 points short of the top 100. The DP World Tour says he needs a solo 26th or better. This is the last event of the regular season. On Sunday the rankings decide who keeps a full card for 2027 and who goes to the Play-Offs in Abu Dhabi.

Chacarra plays, Reed and McIlroy don’t

Eugenio Chacarra won in Delhi on Sunday at −21, after finishing third and second in his two previous starts, and is the first player to win three times on the tour this season. Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy, second and third in the Race to Dubai, are not in the field.

Race to Dubai	Points	In Korea
1. Eugenio Chacarra	4,092.89	Yes
2. Patrick Reed	3,474.62	No
3. Rory McIlroy	3,144.86	No
4. Casey Jarvis	2,695.51	Yes
5. Aaron Rai	2,467.00	No
6. Ryan Fox	2,266.95	Yes

The winner gets 835 points. If Chacarra takes them, he goes to Abu Dhabi 1,453.27 ahead of Reed. A win for Jarvis would lift him to second, and Fox, the Open champion, would move up to fourth with his second title of the season. “Keep winning. You know, that’s why we tee it up. I’ll see you guys out in Korea,” Chacarra said in Delhi.

This is his 10th start in 11 weeks. He starts at 22:40 GMT on Wednesday from the 10th tee with Fox and Sungjae Im, who won this event in 2019.

Söderberg needs 0.75 points

The top 100 after Sunday get Category 10 status, a near-full schedule for 2027. Those just outside, down to 110th, get Category 18 status or go to Q-School. According to the DP World Tour:

• Marcus Kinhult is 94th and still at risk.
• Matteo Manassero got back inside, to 98th, with a share of 34th in Delhi.
• Eddie Pepperell is 99th and not playing.
• Viktor Hovland is 100th but already exempt as a 2025 Ryder Cup player.
• Sebastian Söderberg, 101st, is 0.75 points short, and making the cut is likely to be enough.
• Sean Crocker, 103rd, needs 10.70 points, roughly 68th or better.
• Yuto Katsuragawa, 106th, needs 28th or better.
• Further back, Ross Fisher (120th) needs a top eight and Marcel Siem (133rd) a top five. Pablo Larrazábal (165th) needs a runner-up finish to keep his card for a 20th straight season.

Wenyi Ding holds 70th, the last qualifying place for Abu Dhabi (5–8 November). Rafa Cabrera Bello (81st) and Thomas Detry (87th) are among those chasing it. The top 50 after Abu Dhabi go on to Dubai.

Ten PGA TOUR cards go to the leading players in the final rankings who are not already exempt. Joe Dean holds 10th place on 1,681.81 points, 126.89 ahead of Nacho Elvira, according to the PGA TOUR’s eligibility list. Daniel Hillier and Jacob Skov Olesen, eighth and ninth in the Race to Dubai, are in the field and inside that top 10.

Lee’s eight birdies last year

Junghwan Lee was world No. 451 when he won here 12 months ago, according to Golf Monthly. He started the last round four behind, bogeyed the 2nd, then birdied the next five holes and added birdies at the 10th, 14th and 18th for a 64. He won at −11 by three from Elvira and Laurie Canter. Elvira bogeyed the last two holes, and Canter holed an eagle putt of about 100 feet at the 18th to share second. “I feel like I’m in a dream, I still can’t believe I won,” Lee said. Nobody has defended the title.

Lee’s final round, in the DP World Tour’s highlights:

Lee plays the first two rounds with Si Woo Kim and Jarvis. Kim is world No. 14 and the highest-ranked player in the field. He has three second places and 11 top-10 finishes in 24 starts this year but no win. A victory would be his first as a professional outside the United States. He has not played an individual stroke-play event since August.

The course and the field

Woo Jeong Hills Country Club opened in 1993 and hosts the event for the second year running. It is a hilly, tree-lined parkland course of 7,367 yards and has long been home to the Korea Open. The event is co-sanctioned with the KPGA Tour, and 39 of the 126 players are Korean. All nine winners so far have been Korean. The prize fund is US$4 million, and the winner also gets two years’ status on both tours.

Thursday’s groups in GMT

Korea is nine hours ahead of GMT, so the morning wave starts on Wednesday evening in Britain. Add an hour for British Summer Time, which ends on Sunday.

GMT	Tee	Players
22:00 (Wed)	–	Kiradech Aphibarnrat
22:10 (Wed)	–	Sebastian Söderberg
22:30 (Wed)	–	Daniel Hillier, Jacob Skov Olesen, Chanmin Jung
22:40 (Wed)	10th	Eugenio Chacarra, Ryan Fox, Sungjae Im
23:10 (Wed)	–	Sean Crocker
03:05	1st	Si Woo Kim, Junghwan Lee, Casey Jarvis

The tour’s world feed runs from 03:00 to 08:00 GMT on Thursday and Friday, 03:30 to 08:00 on Saturday and 02:30 to 07:30 on Sunday. Sky Sports shows it in the UK and Golf Channel in the US. When coverage starts on Thursday, Chacarra’s group will be more than four hours into its round and Kim’s will be about to tee off. Our tournament hub carries a report each morning after play.

Sources

• DP World Tour: Genesis Championship 2026, five things to know
• DP World Tour: Genesis Championship tee times, Chacarra, Fox and Im start together
• DP World Tour: Who are the players fighting for their card at the Genesis Championship
• DP World Tour: Genesis Championship 2026 Fantasy, ones to watch
• DP World Tour: Race to Dubai Rankings
• DP World Tour: Junghwan Lee storms to Genesis Championship on home soil (2025)
• DP World Tour: How to watch
• PGA TOUR: DP World Tour eligibility rankings
• Golf Monthly: Junghwan Lee wins Genesis Championship 2025
• Golf Post: Genesis Championship 2026 preview
• Golfshake: Genesis Championship 2026 preview
• AP: PGA Tour goes to Bermuda, DP World Tour to South Korea
• Wikipedia: Genesis Championship
• DP World Tour on YouTube: Round 4 highlights, 2025 Genesis Championship