Lucas Herbert – gets his chance to join the PGA Tour – file photo
Five Australians and one New Zealander have one last chance to either gain or regain PGA Tour status when they line up in the first of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals in Boise in Idaho on Thursday.
Aaron Baddeley, Greg Chalmers, Rhein Gibson, Lucas Herbert, Curtis Luck and New Zealander Danny Lee are targeting a finish inside the top 25 at the completion of three Finals over the next three weeks.
One other Australian, Brett Drewitt, has already graduated to next season’s PGA Tour courtesy of finishing 24th (the leading 25 graduated) in the points table over the combined 2020/2021 Korn ferry Tour season but he can improve his standing even further by playing well over the next few weeks.
The leading 75 from this season’s Korn Ferry Tour along with those players finishing between 126th and 200th in PGA Tour standings this season have the right to play the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
The Albertson’s Boise Open, is followed by next week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Open in Columbus, Ohio and the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in Newburgh in Indiana, each event worth US1 million dollars so not only is a PGA Tour card available but so too is more money than is typically available in regular season events.
Aaron Baddeley, Greg Chalmers, Rhein Gibson and Danny Lee played the PGA Tour this season but failed to regain their playing rights when the regular season came to a close at last week’s Wyndham Championship, Curtis Luck is in the field after finishing 67th in the Korn Ferry Tour’s regular season and Lucas Herbert gets his chance by his efforts on the PGA Tour despite playing as a non-member.
One other player who would have been eligible to play the event but has not entered is Victorian, Cameron Percy, who finished 135th in the regular PGA Tour season and will have conditional PGA Tour status in 2022 but is not attempting to improve his standing this week, at least.