‘PGA Tour University’ will help best collegiate golfers begin pro careers

There’s officially a new path to the PGA Tour.

In a statement released Monday, the PGA Tour announced PGA Tour University, a new program that will allow top collegiate players to earn professional status for their performance in amateur events. The program awards the top 15 graduating seniors with status on the PGA Tour’s development tours — Korn Ferry Tour, Mackenzie Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, PGA Tour Series – China — based on a ranking system.  

PGA Tour University is only open to NCAA Division I golfers who completed four years of college.

“With the level of immediate success from the top collegiate players in the last decade, our team has done extensive research over time and developed a plan to provide a pathway for those players as they begin their journeys into the professional ranks,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement.

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The top five finishers in the ranking system following the NCAA National Championship will earn Korn Ferry Tour status for the remainder of the season. This status will grant the players entry into all remaining full-field events. The top five will also be exempt to the final stage of that fall’s Q school if necessary.

Nos. 6-15 in the rankings will earn status on one of the three international tours for the remainder of the season as well as being exempt to second stage of Q school.

The PGA Tour is partnering with the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) to create the ranking system. Similar to the OWGR, WAGR ranks players based on their average finish in eligible events on a rolling basis over the past 104 weeks.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for these players to begin their professional careers on a path to the PGA Tour,” Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin said in a statement.

The first PGA Tour University rankings will be unveiled this summer in the lead up to the 2020-21 NCAA golf season.