The post PGA Tour’s slow-play policing takes big step on feeder circuit appeared first on Golf.

The post PGA Tour’s slow-play policing takes big step on feeder circuit appeared first on Golf.

Every few years the PGA Tour makes minor updates to its pace-of-play policy, often from suggestions of its own player-led pace-of-play committee, working to find improvements for slow play and the narratives that surround it. What’s coming next would be more than “minor”. But first, you’ll see it on the Korn Ferry Tour. 

Starting next month, speed-of-play statistics for Korn Ferry Tour players will be made public for the first time, following a decision made by the PGA Tour Policy Board in November. The data for average stroke times has been privately available to individuals throughout 2026, but will now be included among player profiles and stat pages on the Korn Ferry Tour website. 

The initiative was communicated in a memo to PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour players this week, and the data will become publicly available following the Colonial Life Charity Classic, played May 14-17. It hinges on the following four “objectives,” which are framed in particularly player-friendly way. They are listed below, verbatim from the memo shared with members: 

1. Providing competitive context to fans

2. Creating positive storylines and changing the perception around speed of play, which currently skews negative 

3. Correcting inaccurate information and supporting members who are incorrectly labeled as slow 

4. Being informative to the slowest players and monitoring any changes to their speed of play. 

This move shouldn’t come as a massive surprise — the PGA Tour promised it was coming 13 months ago — but it is following a delayed release. It was at the 2025 Players Championship that Jay Monahan declared speed-of-play stats for the PGA Tour would arrive by the end of 2025, saying it was a “point of emphasis” following feedback from the Tour’s Fan Forward initiative. Like many of the changes arriving at the PGA Tour these days, it has taken longer than originally promised to implement, and any impact this data has will likely alter how the PGA Tour eventually publishes data about the best players in the world.

At the time of the 2025 announcement, it was not clear what info would be made public. But now, according to the memo, tournament-specific timings and season average timings will be made available for each player. There will be an overall Speed-of-Play ranking that lists the fastest players up top, relative to the tour average. Each type of shot will also be categorized. I.e. Average stroke times for tee shots will be separated from the same data for approach shots. Individual averages will even be made available during tournaments, offering a minutiae of update that hasn’t been shared before.

Much of this data is made possible via the Tour’s ShotLink system — the same instrument it uses for keeping super-accurate Strokes Gained statistics (not to mention data funneled to sportsbooks) — which has only recently arrived in full force on the KFT. It takes an army of vigilant volunteers, but the Tour hopes it can provide context for situations where it has sorely been missing. It should help slower players understand the results of their processes. It should help highlight which players play at an average pace but seem slow when paired with a very fast player. And it should help the PGA Tour decide how to unleash that data with its upper-tier of pros. It’s just not clear when that will happen.

Much remains in flux for the PGA Tour’s competitive structure moving forward, and speed-of-play data is impacted by those structures. For instance, pace of play becomes extremely important when field sizes grow, and the Tour is still working on figuring out how many players will be in each field. Regardless, the KFT has long been where rules changes can be first observed at the elite level, much like how Major League Baseball first altered some of its rules on the minor-league level. The KFT, for example, currently allows distance-measuring devices (rangefinders) which is a pace-of-play initiative. Will that reach the PGA Tour level, too? 2026 is an information-gathering period, with that rule in place for the first time.

Also included in the memo were screenshots highlighting just how forward-facing the speed-of-play averages will be. In those images, mocked up for a default player’s profile, the individual’s speed of play ranking was situated just beneath his strokes gained data — adjacent to the most important stat of them all.

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The post Brendan Valdes announces cancer diagnosis, steps away from Korn Ferry Tour appeared first on Golf.

The post Brendan Valdes announces cancer diagnosis, steps away from Korn Ferry Tour appeared first on Golf.

Recent PGA Tour University graduate Brendan Valdes announced Wednesday he was diagnosed with primary mediastinal lymphoma and will step away from the Korn Ferry Tour as he undergoes treatment.

In his Instagram post, Valdes said a mass was discovered in his chest during a medical exam a month ago, and further testing revealed his diagnosis. He recently finished his first round of chemotherapy.

“While a long journey lies ahead,” he wrote, “my treatments should have me back on the golf course and completely healthy this year.”

Valdes, 22, was a member of the Auburn men’s golf team that won the NCAA Championship in 2024. A three-time All-American while in college, Valdes earned his 2026 Korn Ferry Tour card via the PGA Tour University Ranking. North Carolina’s David Ford finished atop the standings to earn a 2026 PGA Tour card, and Nos. 2-10 earned Korn Ferry Tour status. Valdes finished second in the ranking.

One of the sport’s promising young talents, Valdes made four of 11 cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025 — his best finish a T3 at the Price Cutter Charity Championship — and made the cut in all three of his PGA Tour starts, highlighted by a T20 at the 3M Open.

In the caption of his Instagram post, Valdes wrote: “As the Terminator once said… I’ll be back.”

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The post 12 costly and controversial golf rules scenarios from 2025 season appeared first on Golf.

The post 12 costly and controversial golf rules scenarios from 2025 season appeared first on Golf.

With hundreds of events and many thousands of rounds played across golf’s pro tours every year, rules violations abound. While the most common penalties rarely cause a stir, every season sees other rules scenarios that ignite controversy and, at times, can be incredibly costly to players’ bank accounts and reputations.

Still others offer bizarre situations that leave even the most studious expert on the Rules of Golf scratching their heads.

And the 2025 season was chock full of all of the above.

From cheating accusations to career-changing violations and beyond, here are the most costly, controversial and downright strange rules fiascos of the 2025 pro golf season, in no particular order.

Pro DQ’d for bizarre incident: ‘I didn’t cheat’

The first incident we’ll cover came at the DP World Tour’s premier event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, in September.

There, veteran Marcel Siem was disqualified for a bizarre incident on the 18th hole. After losing his tee shot right in a water hazard, but not out of bounds, Siem mistakenly hit a provisional.

But it gets worse. After spectators found his original tee shot, Siem went ahead and continued playing his provisional. Given that he wasn’t supposed to hit a provisional in the first place, Siem was quickly DQ’d in the scorer’s tent.

Later that night, Siem took to social media to counter any cheating claims, saying, “Hey, guys, just wanted to give you a quick insight on what happened today. I just wanted to let you know I didn’t cheat. I would never do that, so I got disqualified, unfortunately.”

Shane Lowry’s controversial penalty at Open confirmed by video

Amid the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, the site of his 2019 Open win, Shane Lowry received a penalty that left him frustrated and confused.

On the 12th hole in Round 2, Lowry made a practice swing in thick rough next to his ball, then proceeded to hit his shot. The TV broadcast noted that his ball appeared to “oscillate” after his practice swing.

News

In the scorer’s tent after the round, rules officials told Lowry video reviews showed his ball moved, and he was hit with a two-shot penalty.

Later, Lowry revealed that he disagreed with the ruling but feared fighting the accusation would hurt his reputation.

“I was in there with the rules official and wasn’t arguing my case, but I’m disappointed that they don’t have more camera angles on it,” Lowry said after the round. “The one zoomed in slow motion, they’re trying to tell me if it doesn’t move from the naked eye, if you don’t see it moving, it didn’t move. I told them I definitely was looking down towards the ball as I was taking that practice swing, and I didn’t see it move.

“But I had to take the penalty because, to be honest, whether it was or not, but I had to take the penalty because I can’t have my name talked about or tossed around like that, and I just get on with it.”

Rory McIlroy denied relief from … banana peel

World No. 2 Rory McIlroy had a historic 2025 season, highlighted by his victory at the Masters. But the most bizarre moment of McIlroy’s year came in his very last start.

The five-time major winner made a highly anticipated appearance at the 2025 Australian Open at Royal Melbourne in December. In the third round, McIlroy hit a shot into the rough that came to rest in the most unlikely of scenarios.

Rules

His ball was located behind a large tuft of grass … with a banana peel resting on top of it. Fearing any attempt to move the banana peel would cause his ball to move, thereby eliciting a penalty stroke, McIlroy was forced to hit away.

After his round, McIlroy explained that he was confident that he didn’t deserve a free drop in the scenario, so he didn’t even bother calling in a rules official to help.

“The banana, it’s a loose impediment and it was rested on the ball,” he explained after the round. “So if I moved the banana peel the ball would’ve moved. I just didn’t even try.”

2 Korn Ferry Tour pros DQ’d after 1 reports rules violation

At the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2025 Memorial Health Championship, Cole Hammer’s uneasiness with a moment in the first round resulted in his disqualification. It also got his playing partner DQ’d.

When pro Nelson Ledesma’s caddie flashed four fingers at Hammer after Hammer had hit a 4-iron on the 17th hole, Hammer flashed four fingers back at him, confirming that was the club he hit.

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The Rules of Golf prohibit players and caddies from giving advice to one another, including information on club selection.

The incident didn’t sit well with Hammer, so he reported it to rules officials in the morning. That’s when they determined that both players should be DQ’d.

“I didn’t think that they would be disqualified,” Hammer said of his playing partner Ledesma and his caddie. “I just thought since I was the one who gave the sign that I would be disqualified. And I thought that was worst-case scenario.”

Rules controversy strikes viral Internet Invitational

The inaugural Internet Invitational took the golf world by storm this fall, and it was not without its rules controversies.

Perhaps the biggest of all arrived in the middle of the final million-dollar match. At one point, competitor Malosi Togisala was accused of using the slope function on his rangefinder, which was not allowed during the tournament.

A Zapruder-like investigation followed, with accusations and recriminations flying around Big Cedar Lodge. In the end, Togisala denied any wrongdoing and held strong, so no penalty was called.

Rare penalty at Q-School costs pro his PGA Tour card

Ben Kohles was on the verge of earning his PGA Tour card for 2026 at Q-School, when disaster struck.

In a share of the lead during the final round, Kohles lost his tee shot at the 8th hole into a wooded area. As he tried to move loose impediments from around his lie, his ball moved.

That resulted in a one-shot penalty, and Kohles made double bogey to fall out of the lead.

It didn’t get better at the next hole. At the 9th, Kohles hit his tee shot into the water, eliciting another penalty and another double. He eventually signed for a five-over 75, which dropped him into a T29 at six under, five shots short of a playoff for the final Tour card.

Pro suspended after ‘reckless infringement’ of rules

Swiss pro Cedric Gugler got into a whole lot of hot water this year on the DP World Tour’s junior circuit, the HotelPlanner Tour.

News

At a tournament in the Czech Republic this year, Gugler was disqualified for “playing his ball from the wrong place on putting surfaces on multiple occasions” during the first round.

But the punishment didn’t stop there.

In November, an Independent Disciplinary Panel ruled that Gugler had “conducted himself in a manner that fell below the standards of behavior and ethical conduct expected of Tour members.” Furthermore, his actions in the Czech tournament constituted a “reckless infringement of the Rules of Golf.”

As a result of the findings, Gugler was suspended for the first 10 events of 2026.

DP World Tour pro fined for ‘breach’ of behavior

At the DP World Tour’s Nexo Championship in August, pro Sam Bairstow disqualified himself after learning of a penalty he committed on the 14th hole. But after an outcry from fellow pros, Bairstow was also fined for a “breach of the DP World Tour’s Code of Behavior.”

So what happened? A fan video showed Bairstow’s ball move before he hit his second shot from deep rough on the 14th. He should have placed the ball back and taken a one-shot penalty, but he did not.

When confronted by rules officials after signing his scorecard, the pro first denied any wrongdoing, but eventually disqualified himself when shown the footage of the penalty.

Bairstow reportedly received a €25,000 fine for his actions.

Davis Riley self-reports rangefinder penalty

Safely inside the cutline on the 17th hole at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, Davis Riley’s heart sank when he looked through his rangefinder and saw two numbers. One represented the yardage for his shot, the other showed his slope-adjusted yardage.

Players were permitted to use distance-measuring devices early in the 2025 PGA Tour season, but they were not allowed to use the slope function.

Riley didn’t think twice. He self-reported the violation and received a two-shot penalty to fall outside the cut line. Incredibly, he eagled the 18th to make the cut after all.

“It’s a game — it’s a gentleman’s game,” Riley said after his round. “That’s just something, when you start out with that, that’s the integrity of the game knowing guys are going to keep that there. You kind of have to have that same trust as if guys, what happened to me today, have the security to say, ‘Hey, I shot this, and it was accidentally on slope.'”

Pro’s slow-play penalty threatens Tour card hopes

At the 2025 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, the second of four Korn Ferry Tour Finals events, Bryson Nimmer was in 36th place in the season-long standings. He needed to jump into the top 20 over his final events to earn a PGA Tour card for 2026.

News

It was a tall task, but one within reach. But Nimmer made his quest even harder when he earned a slow-play penalty at the event. According to Tour officials, Nimmer took 68 seconds to play his approach shot on 18 in the opening round, which far exceeded the 40 seconds allotted for most shots.

Due to a rule change that increased the punishment for slow-play violations, Nimmer received a one-shot penalty. He would go on to miss the cut and finish 47th in the final Korn Ferry standings, missing out on a PGA Tour card but securing KFT status for 2026.

Amateur plummets down leaderboard after improving lie penalty

Thanks to his 2025 NCAA individual championship title, amateur Michael La Sasso earned invites into several PGA Tour events. And at the Sanderson Farms Championship near his college, Ole Miss, La Sasso thrilled the local fans with an opening-round 66 that put him in second place.

But it wouldn’t last. Unbeknownst to fans, La Sasso earned a penalty on the 6th for violating Rule 8.1a which governs improving lies. A two-shot penalty. That dropped the star amateur to four under and into a tie for 13th.

On Friday, La Sasso struggled to a 76 and missed the cut.

2 pros penalized for playing wrong ball on same hole

The last rules scenario one the list is one you may have never seen before.

During the final round of the 2025 Sentry, PGA Tour pros Cam Davis and Will Zalatoris committed what might be the most embarrassing rules violation of the year.

Rules

On the par-5 15th hole, the two pros both played the wrong ball on their third shots. As in Davis played Zalatoris’ ball, and Zalatoris played Davis’ ball.

Upon realizing their error, the two pros replayed their shots from the correct spots and added two-stroke penalties to their scorecards. The penalties cost each pro hundreds of thousands of dollars in winnings.

The error also earned the pros’ criticism from NBC analysts Dan Hicks and Mark Rolfing on the TV broadcast.

Said Rolfing: “Wow, what a pair of mistakes there.”

Said Hicks: “Especially with the money involved here and the FedEx Cup points. It’s just frustrating, disappointing, everything above.”

Said Rolfing: “Almost doesn’t seem possible in today’s game. You cannot play your own ball.”

Said Hicks: “Losing a little bit of focus, right? Just kind of get careless.”

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The post ‘That. Sucks.’: Brutal weather ruling costs PGA Tour qualifying dreams appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘That. Sucks.’: Brutal weather ruling costs PGA Tour qualifying dreams appeared first on Golf.

There was no way to sugarcoat it. No way to minimize it. No way to obscure the truth.

The PGA Tour’s ruling to cancel the final round of the second stage of PGA Tour Q-School had screwed some people over — and one of them was James Nicholas.

“That. Sucked,” Nicholas said in a video posted to his Instagram on Friday afternoon. And after hearing his story, it was hard to argue his point.

Nicholas had woken on Friday morning in Valdosta, Ga. in the driver’s seat. The aspiring PGA Tour pro (and successful Korn Ferry Tour player) had competed three rounds at second-stage qualifying for the PGA Tour. With one round still to play, he was one shot out of the top-10 and a spot in final qualifying, where the top-5 finishers would earn a PGA Tour card for 2026.

Almost immediately after Nicholas started his final round, it seemed clear to him that he was going to have a good day.

“I was playing great today,” he said. “I was four under, well within the number to get through this week to get into final stage next week for a chance at my PGA Tour card.”

But then, when Nicholas turned for the 14th tee box, the horn blew. A storm system was blowing into Valdosta, causing the Tour to pause play temporarily. But then the delay stretched longer. And longer. And then came the news that no player in the field wanted to hear.

“The final round of Q-School just got canceled due to some weather,” Nicholas said. “It’s about to clear up, but because the final group cannot finish, we are not allowed to go out and try to finish — even though I would have finished and some other groups would have finished.”

What did the cancellation mean for those in the field at the event? Under the PGA Tour bylaws, it meant that Nicholas’ four-under-through-13-holes Friday performance was obsolete. His third-round scores would now be counted twice, and they would leave Nicholas the first player out of a spot in Final Qualifying.

Of course, reverting to Thursday’s scores was the only course of action for the rules officials in place of four rounds’ worth of scores from the entire field. But pro golfers are conditioned to compete in 72-hole strokeplay events, where a combination of aggression and restraint is needed to score well. As Nicholas pointed out, had the players known in advance that the event might have been three rounds, they might have calculated their aggressiveness differently. In other words, the weather-driven redirection put those who’d competed in the event under the auspices of playing 72 holes at a strategic disadvantage.

“If we knew it would have been 3 rounds, we could have played a bit more aggressive down the stretch yesterday,” he wrote.

Nicholas was a good sport about the ordeal, especially considering the enormity of the opportunity squandered by a rules decision outside of his control. He admitted that he felt lucky to have already secured Korn Ferry Tour status for 2026, which was something that some of the other players affected by Friday’s rules decision could not say. But there was a real cost to the decision made by the rules officials in Valdosta beyond PGA Tour dreams.

“At Q school, you pay $4,500 just to get there, and then you spend $1,500 on Airbnb and car rentals and all that in flights to get there,” Nicholas said. “So I spent $6-7,000 just to be here.”

Those close to professional golf know that the journey to PGA Tour status is about much more than ability. It exists somewhere at the intersection of great golf and great fortune — and the standards for both golf and luck are only rising in a world of fewer PGA Tour cards and fewer events.

Golfers in pursuit of these precious few chances tend to adopt a worldview of rugged self-belief. In some ways, the willingness to accept that you alone will determine your success is what allows those on the brink of PGA Tour status to continue competing, even when the losses are far more common than the wins.

For Nicholas and almost assuredly for all the other players principally affected by Friday’s weather ruling, this was what made the decision so gutting. It wasn’t that the dream of PGA Tour status slipped through his fingers on Friday afternoon in Georgia — it was that somebody else decided it for him.

“We’ll just have to work hard and get ready for January to start up for the Korn Ferry Tour season,” Nicholas said. “I’m excited. I’m ready. But yeah, that sucks.”

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The post PGA Tour players just got a raise (sorta). Here’s how it works appeared first on Golf.

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The PGA Tour is changing its financial structure to help developing players get paid.

In a memo sent to players on Tuesday morning — and first reported upon by Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine — the PGA Tour announced two new financial initiatives for its fully exempt Korn Ferry Tour Members and former fully exempt PGA Tour members aimed at helping to ease the financial burden of life as an aspiring PGA Tour pro.

The two initiatives — named the “Member Support Program” and “Pathways Player Achievement Grant” — provide a financial safety net for pros competing full-time within the PGA Tour system.

The so-called “Member Support Program” is the most significant of the two programs, providing a $150,000 “earnings assurance” to players ranked below No. 126 on the prior season’s FedEx Cup points list. To be eligible to receive the salary, players must compete in 12 events between the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours throughout the season.

It’s helpful to think of “earnings assurance” as simply a guaranteed base salary of $150,000, paid out to all players either through tournament checks or upon the completion of the PGA and Korn Ferry Tour seasons. For those who earn more than $150,000 in a season, the “earnings assurance” is a moot point: they receive the cash in the form of tournament checks as their season progresses. But, for the relatively rare player who doesn’t earn more than $150,000, the balance of the $150,000 “earnings assurance” is paid out at the end of the season, effectively providing a compensation “floor” for players battling for their competitive future.

The second program, the “Pathways Player Achievement Grant,” is effectively a $15,000 stipend for Korn Ferry Tour players. The grant, which will be available to players on the Korn Ferry Tour and top performers on the PGA Tour Americas and PGA Tour University programs, does not come with an events stipulation and can be used toward any expense, either as compensation or to cover player costs such as travel and hotels.

The two programs represent an expansion of PGA Tour developmental efforts in an increasingly fragmented pro golf landscape, helping to shore up the Tour’s developmental pathway against outside competition from LIV, the Asian Tour, and the DP World Tour. They are similar to compensation efforts launched by the Tour in 2022, which provided a similar “salary floor” for competitors on the big tour and expanded stipend efforts to help with travel costs. According to Romine, the PGA Tour policy board cited the importance of strong PGA Tour developmental pathways as a key reason for the new programs.

The changes enacted by the PGA Tour policy board on Thursday come in the same offseason as changes to make the PGA Tour dream even more elusive. In 2026, the Tour will have just 100 “cards” available for the first time, down from the traditional 125, a competitive shift that has far-reaching impacts on those chasing a coveted spot on the big tour.

Those changes have arrived with ample criticism from several corners of the pro game, particularly those on the fringes of the PGA Tour who might be susceptible to the purse sizes or broader competitive opportunities offered on other major tours.

Last month, the Korn Ferry Tour celebrated its latest class of PGA Tour graduates, welcoming 20 future PGA Tour pros to the big show.

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The difficulty of playing your way onto the PGA Tour is well known. But what about the steep financial costs of pursuing your PGA Tour dream? We have a clear window into that reality thanks to Korn Ferry Tour pro James Nicholas.

The 29-year-old Yale grad, who hails from New York City, is one of hundreds of elite pros trying to graduate to the big leagues. In 2025, he played in 26 Korn Ferry Tour events, finishing 64th in the standings.

That was good enough to keep his KFT card for 2026, but not enough to make it to the PGA Tour.

But Nicholas is also a burgeoning social media star, with popular Instagram and YouTube accounts.

And in his latest Instagram post, Nicholas gave a transparent look into his costs and earnings from a long year of pro golf.

Over 11 made cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour, Nicholas pulled in $173,507. Add to that $43,544 for a T61 finish at the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, bonuses and a small amount from the Minor League Golf Tour, and Nicholas earned a total of $255,058 on the course in 2025. That figure does not include sponsorships.

But most revealing were his costs. From travel expenses (AirBnbs, rental cars, flights, etc.) to caddie pay, coaches, trainers and even his YouTube crew, Nicholas’ total costs broke down to about $150,000 for the year.

All in all, he played well enough to end the year with a net gain of over $100,000.

You can check out a full breakdown of Nichols’ expenses and earnings below.

James Nicholas’ golf expenses for 2025

Caddie

$58,000

Accommodations

$27,747

Flights

$17,036

YouTube team

$13,100

Food

$12,809

Coaches

$5,855

Rental Cars

$4,661

Entry Fees

$4,600

Trainer

$2,650

Miscellaneous

$3,601

Locker and club repair

$850

Equipment and apparel

Free

Total expenses

$150,909

James Nicholas’ 2025 on-course earnings

Korn Ferry Tour

$173,507

U.S. Open

$43,544

Minor League Golf Tour

$1,711

Bonuses

$35,900

Total earnings

$255,058

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The post These 20 Korn Ferry Tour players just earned their 2026 PGA Tour cards appeared first on Golf.

The post These 20 Korn Ferry Tour players just earned their 2026 PGA Tour cards appeared first on Golf.

The final round of the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Championship started with two players who needed to win to earn their PGA Tour card leading the way.

For Barend Botha and Sandy Scott, only a win would put them in the top 20 and onto the PGA Tour. But Sunday at the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort was not their day. Scott quickly faded, making three bogeys on his front nine en route to a final-round two-over 74 and a T8 finish. Botha lost the lead early as Chandler Blanchet, who had already clinched his PGA Tour card for next season, opened with three straight birdies. Botha hung tough but could not catch Blanchet, who shot a Sunday 66 to post 14 under and beat Botha by two.

Blanchet’s win saw him finish the season in second place on the Korn Ferry Tour points list just behind Johnny Keefer. The 29-year-old, who will be a PGA Tour rookie in 2026, became emotional after the final putt dropped and he turned his attention to what he hopes is a long future on the top circuit.

“I hope I can lead by example,” Blanchet told Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine about having his two kids watch him chase his dreams. “Hopefully we can be on the PGA Tour for a long time, and they can see that perseverance and hard work and translate that into their life.”

The drama was everywhere at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. As the weekend leaderboard unfolded, Pontus Nyholm found himself at the center of it.

The 27-year-old Swede entered the week at 18th in the standings but fell onto the bubble over the weekend. With Botha making a weekend charge at the trophy, the pressure was ratcheted up on Nyholm to try to secure his card. On Sunday, the pressure came from Botha, who had to win to get his card, and Mitchell Meissner, who made a late charge as Nyholm leaked oil down the stretch, shooting a back-nine 40. Meissner birdied 12, 13, and 15 to enter the conversation and needed at least two more to finish to have a chance at catching Nyholm. But a wayward tee shot on 16 led to a bogey and caused Meissner to finish 21st in the standings.

“Really proud of how I fought,” Meissner told Romine after finishing one spot shy of his card. “It was cool to have a chance today. I’m grateful to be in this position. My buddy last night, he said, when I was a senior in college and going through the yips, I didn’t think I’d be in this spot. So grateful to be here and happy to have a chance.

After dodging Meissner, Nyholm just had to sweat out Botha’s Sunday charge. But once Blanchet held him off, Nyholm could exhale.

“Yeah, I’ve got a new favorite golfer in Chandler Blanchet,” Nyholm said after he secured his card.

On the other side of the coin was Zecheng “Marty” Dou. Three weeks ago, Dou was considered a long shot to make it back to the PGA Tour. But the 28-year-old posted a T2 finish at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship and followed that with a solo second at the Compliance Solutions Championship to jump into the top 20. Dou entered the Korn Ferry Championship at 19 and posted rounds of 72, 69, 72 and 72 to finish T18 and punch his ticket back to the PGA Tour.

“I haven’t really put much thought into getting my card this year,” Dou told Romine after the round. “I was just looking to get into Q School, maybe second stage or third stage. Two runner-ups, and suddenly it turns out to be getting my card. Coming in at 19, I was nervous all week.

“You want to show it on the best stage. Getting it done this week, I’m just looking forward to next year.”

Check out the full list of Korn Ferry Tour graduates below, in order of their finish on the Korn Ferry Tour points list.

2025 Korn Ferry Tour graduates

1. Johnny Keefer

2. Chandler Blanchet

3. Austin Smotherman

4. Neal Shipley

5. Emilio Gonzalez

6. Hank Lebioda

7. Adrien Dumont de Chassart

8. S.H. Kim

9. Christo Lamprecht

10. Davis Chatfield

11. Zach Bauchou

12. Pierceson Coody

13. S.T. Lee

14. Jeffrey Kang

15. Hensei Hirata

16. Trace Crowe

17. John VanDerLaan

18. Zecheng Dou

19. Sudarshan Yellamaraju

20. Pontus Nyholm

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The post In pro golf’s ‘offseason,’ a rare, grueling chase emerges every weekend appeared first on Golf.

The post In pro golf’s ‘offseason,’ a rare, grueling chase emerges every weekend appeared first on Golf.

Once the calendar flips to September, the PGA Tour, and for the most part, pro golf as a whole, goes semi-dormant. Outside of the Ryder Cup, the FedEx Cup Fall Series and the DP World Tour’s finishing stretch of the Race to Dubai, golf takes a backseat in the fall. It’s why the PGA Tour moved the FedEx Cup Playoffs to August so it would not conflict with football, and it gives its members time to have an “offseason” before The Sentry rolls around in January.

But pro golf doesn’t go completely cold in its “offseason,” there’s just a different goal for those in the arena. It’s an arena that delivers something rare in pro golf.

Real stakes.

The focus for most teeing it up during October and November — be it on the PGA Tour or the Korn Ferry Tour — isn’t about padding their bank accounts or peaking for major championships. It’s about keeping the dream alive.

That pursuit is draining. The climb up the professional ladder is grueling, and the resilience needed to stay there is something few have.

Fall on the PGA Tour is about players trying to either stay or get on the right side of the top-100 bubble to keep their fully-exempt status. You’ll have a handful of players jockeying to get into the first two Signature Events of 2026, and a few of the top players might make a start here or there.

But for the most part, it’s about Lanto Griffin, who finished third at the Procore Championship behind two guys — Scottie Scheffler and Ben Griffin — who were only there to stay crisp for the Ryder Cup. A win would have meant Griffin, who has one career victory and entered the fall at 142nd in the standings, would have been exempt for two years. Instead, Griffin now sits at 105 after a missed cut at the Sanderson and has just weeks to jump five spots.

It’s also about Steven Fisk, the 28-year-old PGA Tour rookie who arrived in Jackson, Mississippi, with one top-10 finish on his resume and sitting well outside the top 100.

With just a few weeks left to earn his card for 2026, Fisk fired back-to-back 65s to vault into contention and then shot a Sunday 64 to track down Garrick Higgo to claim his first PGA Tour win and the peace of mind that comes with it.

“Self-belief. Grit. I know I’m good enough. I thought I could do it,” an emotional Fisk said after his win.

“It’s a lifelong dream, honestly. Sometimes you doubt yourself. I don’t know. I knew I could do it. And to have some job security is pretty nice. It has been a long, hard year.”

Hours before Fisk tapped in to wash his worries away, a former PGA Tour member put the pedal down on Sunday to breathe some life into his career.

Doc Redman’s last PGA Tour start came at the 2023 RSM Classic. He narrowly missed out on regaining his card at last year’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship. But the 2025 season was hard for Redman on the KFT. The former Clemson star finished 138th on the points list and has no status for next season unless he gets through Q-School. But Redman got into the Sanderson Farms by winning a three-way playoff at the Monday qualifier and then shot 65-67 on the weekend to finish in a tie for ninth place at 16 under. That top-10 finish gets Redman into the Bank of Utah Championship, where he can continue accumulating non-member points, earning him KFT starts next season.

Redman needed a birdie on 18 Sunday to secure his top-10 finish. He hit his drive 330, stuck his approach to seven feet and rolled in the birdie putt to punch his ticket to Utah. Even as his climb stalls, Redman’s self-belief remains intact.

“So there is really no bad results unless I had a bad attitude or something like that,” Redman said on Saturday about staying positive even when professional golf gets hard. “So you know, I think I’m good enough, so I just got to trust that.”

The chase is even more intense this time of year on the Korn Ferry Tour, with players needing to finish in the top 75 on the points list to guarantee their status for next season or else be left adrift in the pro golf world. The top-75 cutoff takes place after the Compliance Solutions Championship, which is the third leg of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

First, we go to Cole Hammer.

The Texas product entered the week at No. 79 in the points ranking and needed a strong final round to secure his place in the Finals. With his job status on the line, Hammer fired a bogey-free 64 to jump into the top 15 and finish at No. 72 in the rankings. With his KFT privileges secured for 2026, Hammer could exhale.

“I am so relieved, honestly,” Hammer said after his round. “But more so proud of just how I fought. I really had to lean on my experience from last year all day long. I knew I was in a similar position [as last year], and it’s not easy.

“I might have looked calm on the outside, but it felt like there were bumblebees inside me. I was buzzing so much. It’s hard standing over a three-footer on the last hole thinking, ‘OK, if I make this I’ll have a job. If I don’t, I won’t.’ … There’s so much finality to these last couple of events that the other events don’t have. Knowing that I pretty much had my job on the line was a pretty stressful experience. I learned that I’m a little bit tougher than I think I am. Sometimes I’m not sure if I can handle the big moment or whatever life calls for, but today I think I showed that I can hang in there and stick around in the ring for all 12 rounds.”

Among the others who buckled down on Sunday at The Patriot Club in Owasso, Oklahoma, was Blades Brown. The 18-year-old phenom elected to forgo college to turn pro. He started the season with no status and needed to finish in the top 75 to have full playing status on the KFT.

Brown played his final seven holes in three under to finish in a tie for 43rd and get into the Korn Ferry Tour Finals on the number at 75.

“I cannot explain or put into words the feeling that I was feeling on those last couple of holes,” Brown told Golf Channel after his round. “I remember my hands were shaking on No. 17, and I was like, ‘What the heck, Blades? You have a pitching wedge in your hand. Just hit it where you want.’ I was an unreal pressure and I learned a lot about myself.”

James Nicholas entered the week 78th in points but shot 23 under to finish in third place and vault into the top 75. Samuel Anderson played his final four holes in two under to go from 76th to 72nd and avoid a trip back to Q School.

In professional golf, the dream is always right there. It’s one swing away, one round away, one feeling away. The fall is about those still chasing it — still raging against the dying light.

Some are successful. They keep climbing using inertia and self-belief as their fuel. Others are left to continue the chase, knowing they’ve chosen a pursuit that can’t be faked. The only way up is to get the ball in the hole.

“I think the correct answer is let the chips fall where they may and focus on what you can control,” said Sam Ryder, who sits at No. 111 in the FedEx Fall. “I can’t control how people play. Really I just know — it’s really more process-oriented stuff. I’m very aware where I’m at. You know it all year. You get a text every single week that tells you exactly where you are on FedEx. You can’t hide from it.”

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It has never been easy to earn a PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Tour. It’s harder now after changes were enacted for this season. But one aspiring pro, Bryson Nimmer, added another layer of difficulty this week by earning a slow-play penalty at a Korn Ferry Tour Finals event.

Here’s what you need to know.

Pros fight for fewer Tour cards at Korn Ferry Tour Finals

The FedEx Cup Playoffs may be over, and the PGA Tour may be off, but there are Tour cards on the line this week anyway.

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Pros are battling in the second of four Korn Ferry Tour Finals events at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. The field features the top 144 players in the Korn Ferry Tour standings following last week’s Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation. The top 120 in the standings after this week’s event will advance to the Compliance Solutions Championship.

So what are they playing for? After the final event, the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in October, the top 20 finishers will earn PGA Tour cards for the 2026 season, a life-changing development for any pro.

But that’s far fewer than last year. In November 2024, the PGA Tour ratified major changes to its membership makeup. Full-time PGA Tour cards were reduced from 125 to 100. As part of the changes, the number of full Tour cards awarded at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship dropped from 30 to 20.

That change is of crucial importance to Nimmer, who was the victim of the slow-play penalty in question.

Rules officials dish out slow-play penalty

Coming into the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship at Ohio State University’s Scarlet Course, Nimmer was ranked 36th in the Korn Ferry Tour points list. Last year, that would have put him on the bubble of earning a PGA Tour card.

But with the new rules, Nimmer would need to make some moves in the final three events to complete his dreams.

News

Nimmer was at even par when he arrived at the par-4 18th hole on Thursday, his ninth hole of the opening round. A few birdies on the second nine would position him well for a run at some serious points on the weekend.

At 18, Nimmer found the rough with his drive, the green with his approach, and then two-putted for a textbook par. Except ultimately, he’d write a 5 down on his scorecard for the par-4.

According to the Korn Ferry Tour, Nimmer took 68 seconds to play his approach shot on 18, which far exceeded the 40 seconds allotted for most shots. Worse yet, new slow-play rules adopted this season changed the penalty for a player’s first bad time from a warning to a stroke.

As a result, Nimmer was assessed a one-stroke penalty. His par became a bogey, and he finished the round with a two-over 73. Another 73 in Friday’s second round saw Nimmer miss the cut. He’s now projected to fall to 40th in the Korn Ferry Tour standings.

Though his task has grown harder, with two Korn Ferry Tour Finals events remaining, Nimmer still has an opportunity to make a run and earn his PGA Tour card.

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The post Bizarre ‘clerical error’ leads to ineligible player in contention at Korn Ferry event appeared first on Golf.

It’s been a wonderful week on the Korn Ferry Tour for the veteran pro MJ Daffue.

On Saturday morning, Daffue woke tied for third at the KFT’s annual Pinnacle Bank Championship — a finish that, should it hold, would represent his best finish in three years.

There was just one problem: He wasn’t supposed to be in the field.

The story of perhaps the strangest contender in golf in 2025 comes to us courtesy of the always-interesting Monday Q Info, whose website and social media channels delight in the unusual stories at the center of golf’s working class. And, according to Monday Q, the story of Daffue’s accidental journey in contention begins with a “clerical error.”

“MJ Daffue is currently T4, but he is not supposed to be in the field,” Monday Q posted on X on Friday afternoon. “And Rayhan Thomas, who sat on the range all day Thursday as the first alternate, before not getting in, should be in the field.”

According to Monday Q, the issue stemmed from the minutiae of PGA Tour exemption rules. Daffue was playing on what’s called a “medical exemption,” given to players with PGA Tour eligibility who run into medical issues that keep them from competing. While competing under a medical exemption, Tour players are required to earn a certain number of World Ranking points to maintain their eligibility.

Daffue failed to reach the points threshold and had his PGA Tour card lapse just a few weeks ago. When his exemption lapsed, he fell from the highest-ranking eligibility category for this week’s Pinnacle Bank Championship into one of the lower eligibility categories.

Here’s where the Tour’s fumble came in: The Tour didn’t realize that Daffue’s major medical had lapsed, and accidentally placed him in the highest-ranking eligibility category. He was gifted a spot in the field as a result, while the next-highest-ranked player in the field, Rayhan Thomas, was left out as first alternate.

“Had he been listed in the correct category, Daffue would have ended as the fourth alternate,” Monday Q wrote. “Therefore Rayhan Thomas, who I spoke with as he was driving back to Oklahoma, was left out of field he should have been in. And with just one more event left in the regular season and Thomas being 107th in points, the start was vital. His father had flown in from Dubai for the event and Rayhan sat on the range the entire day and headed home after the last tee time had teed off and no one had withdrawn.”

For Thomas, the bad break should not be fully in vain. According to Monday Q, the Tour is “working” to find a solution that will allow him to compete in a future event.

For Daffue, the good fortune was well-spent. Though he wasn’t “supposed” to be in the field, he will be given the opportunity to finish the tournament after playing 36 holes. He enters Saturday’s third round at the Pinnacle Bank Championship just a few shots off the lead set by Matt Atkins, and looking for his first top-10 finish of any kind since a T9 at the Alfred Dunhill in 2022. Perhaps he’ll even have time to play the lottery.

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