The Five: Names to know battling for PGA Tour cards at Korn Ferry Tour Championship

For many, the dream of playing on the PGA Tour never becomes more than that – a dream. For the players on the top-20 bubble at this week's Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by Virginia's Richmond Region, that dream is within reach.

The top 20 players on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List after this week will earn PGA Tour membership for the 2027 season. Everyone else heads back to the grind.

With 13 of the 20 cards already locked up, here's a look at five "bubble boys" straddling the top-20 line, who need one more strong week at The Federal Club to reach the game's biggest stage.

Davis Shore (No. 16)

Shore has been one of the Korn Ferry Tour's busiest players this season, making 24 starts, and he is one solid week from locking up his first PGA Tour card.

In those starts, he has nine top-25 finishes, including five top 10s.

The 28-year-old Alabama alum is one of the Tour's best putters and ball-strikers, ranking eighth in Strokes Gained: Total, 11th in SG: Approach the Green and seventh in SG: Putting.

He was hovering inside the top 40 on the Points List when a missed cut at the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS sparked a turnaround. He followed it with a T16 at The Blue Championship and a T5 at the Evans Scholars Invitational. A month later, he went T2 at the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron and T4 at the AdventHealth Championship in back-to-back starts.

Shore joined the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024, finishing 73rd on the Points List that year and 39th in 2025. Finishing inside the top 20 this time would be a third straight year of improvement.

Anything can happen at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, but at No. 16 he sits about 67 points clear of the first man out at No. 21.

Ian Gilligan (No. 17)

Gilligan enters the week No. 17 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List, with a PGA Tour card within reach in his first full season as a pro.

The 23-year-old finished No. 4 in the 2025 PGA Tour University Ranking, earning him Korn Ferry Tour membership. He has been one of the Tour's most consistent players, with nine top-10 finishes this season, including four top-fives in March and April. He added a T8 last week at the Compliance Solutions Championship.

His rise has been building for years. In 2024, Gilligan won the Western Amateur, beating Blades Brown, now No. 14 on the Points List, in the Round of 16. He then beat Florida teammate Jack Turner on the 29th hole of the championship match, the longest match in Western Amateur history.

His journey has been anything but ordinary. At 15, Gilligan was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer, one of only about 20 known cases worldwide. After seven months of treatment, he was declared cancer-free, and he returned to tournament golf three months later.

Now he is one strong week from a PGA Tour card.

Cole Hammer (No. 20)

Hammer, the 2019 Mark H. McCormack Medal winner as the world's No. 1-ranked men's amateur, holds the final spot inside the top 20 on the Points List.

He is having his best professional season this year, with four top-five finishes, including a co-runner-up finish at the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank and Intermountain Health.

He arrives at The Federal Club in good form. He was T6 at the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation, the first of four Finals events, and T7 at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship the next week. He did slip to a T55 in Oklahoma, which cost him two spots ahead of the finale.

Hammer finished 65th on the Points List in 2024 and 72nd in 2025. His amateur resume includes qualifying for the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay at age 15.

At 27, he is on the bubble with a chance to earn his first PGA Tour card.

Yuta Sugiura (No. 21)

Sugiura is the first player on the outside looking in at the top 20, but few have played better recently. Only Sandy Scott, who has won twice in as many starts, has a stronger case across the last month.

The 25-year-old from Aichi, Japan, won his first Korn Ferry Tour event at the AdventHealth Championship, beating Austin Hitt by a single shot. He had entered that week No. 85 on the Points List with no top 10s in 18 starts. The win moved him to No. 23.

Last week he shot a third-round, 12-under 58 at the Compliance Solutions Championship, tying the second-lowest round in Korn Ferry Tour history. He finished T11 and moved within six points of Hammer for the final spot in the top 20.

A late surge into the top 20 would cap a remarkable rookie season.

Austin Hitt (No. 22)

The 28-year-old UNC product finished No. 30 on the 2025 Points List, 10 spots shy of a card.

This season he has three top-10 finishes, including a runner-up finish at the AdventHealth Championship, where he shot a bogey-free, 12-under 60 in the final round and finished one shot behind Sugiura. He followed that with a T4 at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship.

Those results carried him from No. 54 in midsummer to No. 19 entering Oklahoma.

He then missed the cut at the Compliance Solutions Championship (70-72) and fell from No. 19 to No. 22.

Hitt's dream foursome would be Michael Jordan, Jordan Spieth and Will Ferrell, according to his UNC roster bio. With one more strong week, he could end up playing alongside Spieth on Tour.

As for the other two, no promises.