The Korn Ferry Tour Championship has completed 36 of its 72 holes at the Victoria Golf Club in Newburgh in Indiana and the Australians who were hoping for this event to assist in earning the right to play the PGA Tour next season have been disappointing to date.
There are still many permutations to play out over the final 36 holes but, by missing the cut, Jamie Arnold has lost any chance of making it into the top 25 in the points table specific to the three-event Korn Ferry Tour finals and will, therefore, miss out on qualifying for the PGA Tour for the first occasion.
Arnold appeared to need a top 25 or better this week but, unfortunately for the US-based Sydney golfer, his dream of playing the PGA Tour is over for the meantime after dropping two shots late in his second round and missing the cut by one.
Curtis Luck also missed the cut this week and is now precariously placed in 23rd place in the points table as the event enters the final 36 holes without him in the field. He will, therefore, need to rely on the performances of others but he is delicately placed as he attempts to return to the PGA Tour where he played as a rookie this season.
Two double bogeys in his round of 75 today could well prove very costly for the talented Luck, a former US and Asia Pacific Amateur Champion and world number one amateur.
Cameron Davis and Brett Coletta have both made the cut this week but Davis, currently in 41st place this week following his second round of 73, now needs a big finish to force his way into the top ten he likely needs to regain his PGA Tour status.
Victorian, Coletta, improved sharply with his second round of 68 but he finds himself in 50th place heading into Sunday and Monday and, needing a top-five result this week to finish inside that all-important top 25 in the Finals points table, he faces a huge although not totally impossible task.
New Zealander Steve Alker’s chances of returning to the PGA Tour disappeared with a missed cut this week.
Australians Rhein Gibson and Cameron Percy have both missed the cut this week but they have their PGA Tour cards locked up courtesy of their performances throughout the season and, in the case of Percy, through his good finishes in the opening two events of the Finals.
Photo – Cameron Davis – his hopes still alive but something special needed over final 36 holes.
