Korn Ferry Tour top-100 race takes shape with three events remaining for 2026

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Buckle up.

With three events remaining on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule, the race for 2027 status is entering its most consequential stretch.

The stakes are high this week at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, which begins Thursday at Ohio State University Golf Club. The second event of the four-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, Nationwide Children's is the final opportunity for players around the top-100 bubble to secure Korn Ferry Tour status for next season.

The top 20 players on the season-long points list will ultimately earn PGA Tour cards for 2027. Players finishing Nos. 21-60 will earn full Korn Ferry Tour status, while Nos. 61-100 will retain conditional Korn Ferry Tour membership.

Following Nationwide Children’s, the top 100 on the points list will advance to the Compliance Solutions Championship in Owasso, Oklahoma. For those outside the top 100, the 2026 PGA Tour Q-School presented by Korn Ferry will offer another path back, with the Final Stage awarding PGA Tour cards to the top five finishers and Korn Ferry Tour membership to the next 40 finishers and ties, along with additional Korn Ferry Tour membership for the remaining Final Stage competitors.

In other words, for players hovering around the bubble, there is no shortage of urgency, and the margins are thin.

Joe Weiler enters Nationwide Children’s at No. 98 with 224.446 points, while Billy Tom Sargent sits at No. 103 with 197.243. Bryson Nimmer is No. 107 with 188.282, and Jacob Solomon is No. 111 with 174.784. Just 49.662 points separate No. 98 from No. 111, leaving plenty of room for movement over the next three weeks. A 50-point finish this week would be enough to make up that difference, equivalent to an 20th-place finish.

And because each Finals event awards 600 points to the winner, the standings can change quickly.

Korn Ferry Tour Points List (as of Sept. 16)

Jacob Solomon – No. 111

For Jacob Solomon, the pressure of a late-season bubble week in Columbus is familiar.

When Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship was the second-to-last event of the Korn Ferry Tour season in 2024, Solomon finished T17 after shooting 5-under 67 in the final round. The performance moved him into the top 75 and preserved his Korn Ferry Tour status.

“Two years ago, I played really well here in Columbus and needed to play well,” Solomon said. “I ended up shooting a 5-under in the final round, which is probably the most clutch round of my career up to this point, just to keep my card out here on the Korn Ferry Tour.”

Solomon has been in this position before, and he knows what a good week in Columbus can do.

“It’s cool to know that I’ve done something like that before where, you know, I’ve seen this amazing final round under huge amounts of pressure to ultimately keep my card,” Solomon said. “Definitely some good memories I can draw on.”

His biggest takeaway from that experience is simple, to stay present.

“I think the biggest thing I learned from the experience in 2024 was just to stay present,” Solomon said. “Not get too far ahead of myself or behind myself. I can only control what I’m doing at the current time.”

That means focusing on the task in front of him, whether it is Wednesday’s pro-am or Thursday’s opening round.

“I can just do the best I can in that moment,” he said.

Bryson Nimmer – No. 107

Bryson Nimmer enters Columbus with a different kind of confidence.

He already knows what it feels like to win on the Korn Ferry Tour, having claimed the Tulum Championship last year. Now No. 107 on the points list, Nimmer is trying to use that experience as he works his way back inside the top 100.

“Just knowing that you have the ability to do it, and just trying to hone that in and try to focus and do it all over again,” Nimmer said of the confidence that comes from having won before.

Nimmer also has some protection from last year’s victory, which gives him status beyond this week. But that does not mean he is taking the opportunity lightly.

“Definitely want to get it done and be able to continue on this year,” Nimmer said. “I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit better lately and figured some stuff out, so I’d love to get one more week and just keep on moving.”

Nimmer’s season has included some flashes of the game that produced his Tulum victory. He opened the year with a T6 at The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island, shooting 22-under 266 and earning 80.714 points, his biggest points haul of the season.

Now he needs another productive week.

His recipe for Ohio State is straightforward.

“Just execute, really,” Nimmer said. “I mean, hit a lot of fairways and greens out here. This is probably one of the best courses we play all year.”

Billy Tom Sargent – No. 103

For Billy Tom Sargent, the math is even more immediate.

Sargent enters the week at No. 103 with 197.243 points, just outside the line that determines who advances to the next Finals event.

He has made 10 of 20 cuts this season, with three top-25 finishes, and enters Columbus after a difficult recent stretch. Sargent had missed six of his previous seven cuts before arriving in Columbus, making his position on the bubble all the more significant.

But Nationwide offers an opportunity to change that. A strong week can move a player several spots, while a missed cut can leave the gap to the top 100 intact or even widen it.

For Sargent, the objective is simple: give himself another week.

Joe Weiler – No. 98

Joe Weiler occupies the No. 98 spot entering Nationwide, putting him inside the top-100 line but with players tailing him within reach.

He has made eight of 22 cuts this season, with three top-25 finishes and one top10. His final-round scoring average of 69.00 ranks among the better marks on the Korn Ferry Tour, while he has also recorded six eagles this season.

That late-round scoring magic could prove particularly valuable during a stretch in which four rounds can determine whether a player advances or spends the following week watching the standings from home.

The bubble is not just about the players outside the line trying to get in. Those already inside must hold their grounds.

And with 600 points available to the winner at each Korn Ferry Tour Finals event, the standings can move quickly.

Three weeks to settle the race

The Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship is only the beginning of the final push.

After Columbus, the field moves to Owasso for the Compliance Solutions Championship before the season concludes with the 60-player Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by Virginia’s Richmond Region in Virginia.

For players around No. 100, the most immediate goal is much simpler: make it to next week.

Solomon has already learned what a clutch finish in Columbus can do. Nimmer knows he has the ability to win. Sargent is trying to climb back across the line. Weiler is trying to stay on the right side of it.

Three events remain, and for the players caught in the middle of the bubble, every shot can change where they go next.