PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Only five PGA TOUR cards remain up for grabs for the 2026 season, and they will be doled out this week at the Final Stage of Q-School presented by Korn Ferry. Put another way: It’s the last chance for the field of 176 players to lock up full PGA TOUR status.

Some participants began the Q-School process with no status at all, working their way through the system with the opportunity of a lifetime in their grasp this week. Just getting to Final Stage earns players some modicum of Korn Ferry Tour status, with the finer details dependent on how they finish. Others already have their Korn Ferry Tour cards locked up for 2026, so this is a free roll to play their way straight onto the PGA TOUR.

The field will play two rounds on each course – the Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass and Sawgrass Country Club, with the top five finishers (no ties) earning TOUR membership for 2026. In the event of a tie, a hole-by-hole playoff will be conducted to determine the final spot(s), which is a new procedure for PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, as the top five and ties at Final Stage were previously awarded TOUR membership in 2023 and 2024.

Before the competition gets rolling, here are five players to watch.

Fred Biondi

Q-School defines the fine margins that pro golf operates around. Fred Biondi’s road to Final Stage is an apt example.

Biondi finished No. 2 in the 2023 PGA TOUR University rankings as a high-performer from Florida, one spot behind Ludvig Åberg. While Åberg went straight to the PGA TOUR, Biondi headed to the Korn Ferry Tour. Hopes of joining Åberg were quickly dashed. Over the next year and a half, Biondi made just nine cuts while missing 22.

That dashed much of his status, and he managed to play only five times across PGA TOUR Americas and the Korn Ferry Tour this year. That meant he had to head back to First Stage of Q-School, where he nearly failed to advance. Instead, he holed a 20-foot birdie on the last hole to get through on the number, then comfortably advanced through Second Stage. Now, he’s here – on the precipice of a TOUR card that looked incredibly unlikely just weeks ago.

Ryo Ishikawa

Possibly the most decorated player in the field hasn’t played regularly on the PGA TOUR since 2017.

Ryo Ishikawa, 34, could reearn his card nearly a decade after losing it. The name will be familiar to many. He was a solid presence on TOUR from 2012 to 2017, finishing runner-up twice, notching nine top 10s and making more cuts than he missed. Yet Ishikawa fell out of favor in 2017, falling well outside the top 150 to lose his card.

Ishikawa didn’t stop playing golf, though. He returned to Japan and remained a prolific winner on the Japan Golf Tour. He has 20 victories on his native tour, most recently winning twice in 2024.

Now Ishikawa has a chance to get back, advancing through Second Stage for a spot this week.

Adam Hadwin

Hadwin lost full TOUR status two weeks ago, finishing outside the top 100 in the FedExCup Fall after The RSM Classic. Yet he could earn it back in his next start. That’s the opportunity available at the Final Stage of Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.

Hadwin represents a subset of this week’s field that already holds conditional status for 2026 and will use Q-School as a free roll to improve upon that. Hadwin will still get a handful of TOUR starts on his conditional status, but the difference is stark. With full status, he can lay out his schedule to fit his game. On the lowest conditional status, he’s guaranteed nothing and will have to settle for any event he can get into.

Hadwin showed flashes of form down the stretch, most notably contending into the weekend at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship before fading.

Hadwin, 38, had held full TOUR status since 2014. That will end without a top-five finish this week.

Nick Gabrelcik

Gabrelcik is another former PGA TOUR University grad. He finished fifth in 2024, immediately earning Korn Ferry Tour status. Unlike Biondi, Gabrelcik has maintained that status and already locked up a full Korn Ferry Tour card for 2026 via the season-ending Points List.

Then he went to Second Stage of Q-School last week and finished medalist at the Palm Coast, Florida. site, beating the field by three strokes to punch his ticket to Final Stage. Gabrelcik should be looked at as one of the favorites this week, not only because of his form, but because of his upbringing. Gabrelcik played collegiate golf at the University of North Florida, just a stone's throw away from TPC Sawgrass and Sawgrass Country Club.

As the field preps for a tournament designed to make them uncomfortable, Gabrelcik will have extreme familiarity with the venues and a heightened comfort level, considering his standing on the Korn Ferry Tour is secure. It’s all upside this week for the 23-year-old. That’s dangerous for the rest of the field.

Matt Atkins

Matt Atkins is part of the largest subsect of Q-School participants: the grinder trying to get one more shot.

Atkins got further than many do, earning his TOUR card for a year (2017-18). That season did not go according to plan, and he was back down to the Korn Ferry Tour the next year. He’s been trying to get back ever since.

Like most who fluctuate in and out of status on lower tours, Atkins questioned whether or not to continue pro golf during the struggles, but the tantalizing chance to get back on TOUR kept him going. He gave an emotional interview after Monday qualifying for The RSM Classic in 2023, right when he was at the crossroads of deciding whether to continue or not.

He kept going. He finished 50th on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024 but regressed this season, finishing outside the top 100. By getting to Final Stage, Atkins has assured himself at least some status for the Korn Ferry Tour in 2026.

He has his eyes set higher. Five people will realize their dream. Atkins hopes to be among them.