Australians face important Korn Ferry Tour week
Rhein Gibson – file photo
The final event of the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season, the US$1.5 million Korn Ferry Tour Championship, is played in Newburgh, Indiana this week with PGA Tour cards up for grabs for the 75 players (73 after two pulled out) who have made it to this, potentially, career-changing week.
At the completion of the event on Sunday the leading 30 players on the season-long points race will have their PGA Tour playing rights for next season and therefore access to the riches which that tour offers.
Amongst that group are four Australians and the scenarios each face in order to finish inside the top 30 are as follows.
Rhein Gibson is currently 36th on the list and needs to finish solo 21st or better to be on his way back to the PGA Tour. Early in the season, after he had won an event and finished inside the top ten in four other starts at about the same time, Gibson looked a shoe in to be back on the bigtime, but he has not made the weekend in any of his last five cuts and will need a turnaround if he is to get the job done.
Likewise, Brett Drewitt was flying at the start of the season with numerous top tens but his form too has fallen away of late, missing 14 of his last 16 cuts and if he is to return to the PGA Tour he needs to finish solo 17th or better this week.
Curtis Luck produced a season-best finish when runner-up recently, giving him hope to get to the PGA Tour but in 47th place currently he needs to finish solo 4th better to do so.
Dimi Papadatos finished runner-up in Chile early in the season to give him hope of making it to the PGA Tour for the first time but there have been plenty of missed cuts since and he will need to win this week.
