After Scottie Scheffler, no one has won more in professional golf than Matt McCarty in 2024 and now his winning is not just exclusive to the Korn Ferry Tour.
McCarty, his year’s Korn Ferry Tour points leader became the first player since 2016 to win three times in a single calendar year, earning an automatic promotion to the PGA Tour. This week’s Black Desert Championship was just his second Tour event as a member and third in his career.
But while winning is winning, winning on the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour are two totally different things. So it’s understandable when McCarty, holding a two-shot lead on the back nine of the final round at the Black Desert Championship, three-putted the 12th hole to cut his own lead to one, he may have felt some nerves.
Two holes later, you would have never known.
On the drivable par-4 14th, McCarty delivered the shot of the tournament, turning over a 3-wood from 297 yards off the tee to just 3 feet, 7 inches. It was the closest tee sheet all week at the drivable par-4 and the ensuing eagle expanded his lead to three, on his way to a final-round 67 to win the inaugural Black Desert Championship for his first PGA Tour win.
The win on the “big Tour” puts a bow on a remarkable three-and-a-half-month run for McCarty, who only got his first Korn Ferry Tour win in mid-July at the Price Cutter Charity Championship. He won again three starts later and then grabbed the third in Boise at the first Korn Ferry Tour Finals event, locking up his PGA Tour card and earning an instant promotion before even the end of August.
While the FedEx Cup Playoffs played out, McCarty finished out the KFT season before making his first PGA Tour start last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he finished T63. He’s now just the second player ever, joining Jason Gore in 2005, to win in the same season after earning the battlefield promotion.
Clearly, one start was enough to make the adjustment because he came out firing at Black Desert Resort this week, making seven birdies and an eagle in round 1 for a 62. Then he caught fire again on Saturday — a marathon day after he had to get to the course early to play the last few holes of his second round — with a birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie run on his front nine as a part of a 64 to give him his first career 54-hole lead.
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He opened with a birdie Sunday and then added another at the 7th to make the turn with a two-shot lead over Lucas Glover, who had already finished his final round at 19 under after a 62. But the costly three-putt on 12 halved that lead, putting McCarty in a nervy spot as he waited on the 14th tee.
Stephan Jaeger and Kevin Streelman were also making a push as Jaeger got to 19 under and Streelman had a putt to join him on 14.
But then McCarty proved his metal with his tee shot on the 310-yard par-4, so close to the hole that Streelman had to mark McCarty’s ball just to hit his own birdie putt.
The eagle brought him to 22 under for the week, which no one could match after two more birdies and a bogey on 17 to finish, that number got to 23 under. Jaeger ended up in solo second at 20 under.
By being the top player on the Korn Ferry Tour, McCarty was already in next year’s Players and U.S. Open Championship, but this victory will also mean he starts next season at the Sentry and gets a Masters Invitational. It also extends his Tour membership through the end of the 2026 season.
