Five players to watch at Korn Ferry Tour Finals

The Korn Ferry Tour Finals showcases a mix of rising stars and veteran grinders, with the ultimate goal of securing 25 coveted PGA TOUR cards via the top 25 positions on the Finals Eligibility Points List.

Twenty-five TOUR cards were determined via the top 25 on the Regular Season Eligibility Points List, which was set at the conclusion of last week’s Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna. These players (The 25) will compete in the Finals to better their position on the 2022-23 TOUR Priority Ranking, with the Korn Ferry Tour’s 50 graduates alternating positions between The 25 and The Finals 25.

Players to compete for The Finals 25 PGA TOUR cards: finishers Nos. 26-75 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Eligibility Points List, Nos. 126-200 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, non-members who would have earned enough FedExCup points to have finished Nos. 126-200, and medical extensions.

A solo fifth or better at one of the three Finals events will be enough to secure a TOUR card via The Finals 25; other combinations will suffice as well.

Click here for a full explanation of Finals structure and eligibility. Click here for The Finals 25 live projected standings.

Here’s a look at five notable players set to chase their first PGA TOUR card across the three-event Finals, which begins at this week’s Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron. The Finals then proceeds to Columbus, Ohio, for next week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, then to southern Indiana for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing and Finance.

MIN WOO LEE

When your older sister is a major championship winner, the bar to success seems pretty high, but Min Woo Lee is making his own waves as sister Minjee continues her own path on the LPGA.

Already a winner on the DP World Tour at the 2021 Genesis Scottish Open and 2020 ISPS Handa Vic Open, Min Woo clearly has what it takes to become a PGA TOUR regular, but the young Australian knows consistency will be key if he is to become a staple on the big stage.

Lee made just four cuts in 12 TOUR starts this season, but those came at the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play (T26), Masters (T14), U.S. Open (T27) and The Open Championship (T21). A must-make eagle late in the second round of the U.S. Open to make the cut on the number was probably the highlight of the year.

“Playing good in the majors is what we want to do as pro golfers, so by that measure it’s been a pretty good year,” Lee said. “It’s been a good learning year and hopefully I can take those lessons forward into these Korn Ferry Tour Finals and just do my thing day-by-day and see where it lands.”

The 24-year-old is a former winner of the U.S. Junior Amateur (2016) which enshrined him with Minjee as the first brother/sister pair to win both that event and the U.S. Girls' Junior (2012).

CHRIS GOTTERUP

Making the jump from college to PGA TOUR golf can be daunting for even the best players, but for Chris Gotterup, who finished No. 7 on the PGA TOUR University Velocity Global Ranking and has had a handful of TOUR starts already, the transition has been nothing short of seamless.

He has “TOUR-quality” ball-striking, “occasionally unbeatable” driving. Oklahoma men’s golf coach Ryan Hybl, speaking to PGATOUR.com during the John Deere Classic this summer, praised the College Player of the Year with those superlatives and more. Gotterup is “as ready for big-time pro golf as anybody I have been around,” Hybl said.

“More importantly,” the Sooners’ coach continued, “he is gritty and he believes he is supposed to be there, which is high on the value chart.”

You can’t argue with his results. Gotterup, who plays out of Little River, New Jersey, is a former winner of the prestigious Met Amateur. He wowed at Rutgers before transferring to Oklahoma for his senior year. Still finishing up his senior year in Norman in March, he played in the Puerto Rico Open and, hardly overwhelmed by the step up in class, finished T7.

Buoyed by the best result by an amateur on the PGA TOUR since Sam Burns at the 2017 Barbasol Championship (T6), Gotterup turned pro and accepted sponsor exemptions into the Travelers Championship (T35) and John Deere Classic (T4).

It was at the Deere, where he flirted with winning and shot a 5-under 66 in the final round, that Gotterup really made an impression. He played his way into the following week’s Barbasol Championship (MC), and very nearly into The Open Championship as one of the top three finishers not otherwise exempt to tee it up at the Old Course at St. Andrews.

“Validation that I do belong out here,” Gotterup said. Keep an eye on him.

PIERCESON COODY

Pierceson Coody turned pro this summer as the top-ranked player in PGA TOUR University. He quickly lived up to that billing, collecting a win and a T4 in his first three starts on the Korn Ferry Tour.

His victory in the Live and Work in Maine Open put him on the precipice of a PGA TOUR card, moving him to 31st on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Eligibility Points List.

He couldn’t quite keep up the pace, however, and was unable to crack the top 25 last week to earn his PGA TOUR card. He finished 32nd in the Regular Season points standings in just eight starts. He made half his cuts, but three of those four made cuts were top-10s. He shot three rounds of 63 or lower in those eight starts, as well.

When he’s on, he’s on. There would be no better time to summon his best stuff than in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which offer another opportunity for him to earn a PGA TOUR card at just 22 years old. Should Coody earn his card through the Finals, he’d surely be one of the can’t-miss kids that fans would watch with interest next season.

Coody’s lineage and pedigree make him an intriguing prospect. He is the grandson of former Masters champion Charles Coody and a former No. 1 in the world amateur rankings.

Pierceson was a three-time All-American at Texas, earning first-team honors in 2021, when he was also the Big 12 Player of the Year. He also won the 2020 Western Amateur and played on the United States’ victorious Walker Cup team last year, overcoming a stomach bug to win both his singles matches and help the U.S. to a 14-12 victory over Great Britain and Ireland. He led Texas to its fourth NCAA Championship this year, and its first since the Jordan Spieth-led squad a decade ago. It was Texas’ fourth national championship. The Longhorns also won in 1971 and 1972 when a couple guys named Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw were on the team.

Those are some big names to follow in the footsteps of, but Coody’s career is off to a promising start already.

AKSHAY BHATIA

Akshay Bhatia admits he has dealt with more adversity this year than he might have been expecting. The 20-year-old believes he’s stronger for it.

The often-smiling, technicolor-sporting North Carolinian appeared to be on the fast track to TOUR after winning the Korn Ferry Tour’s season-opening The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay in January.

The back didn’t always cooperate, though, and Bhatia struggled to rediscover the form of that magical week in Exuma with his girlfriend Presleigh on the bag, where he stuffed a wedge on the 72nd hole to tap-in range to cement a win that converted conditional status to full Korn Ferry Tour membership.

Bhatia, a fourth-year pro, is without a top-10 finish since his win but enters the Finals with on the strength of T14-T27 in his last two starts.

The California native entered the Regular Season-ending Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna at No. 30 on the Eligibility Points List, and he moved to the precipice of the all-important top 25 bubble with three rounds in the 60s to enter the final round at T13. He birdied two of his first four holes Sunday and was on the verge.

He was without a birdie the rest of the day, though, signing for even-par 71 and an eventual No. 30 spot on the Regular Season Eligibility Points List. The good news? Across the next three weeks, he has the chance to secure the trophy that he has desired all along: his first PGA TOUR card.

“Winning the first event feels like ages ago, and it’s just been hard,” Bhatia said in Omaha. “I’ve been hurt the whole year, and it’s not how I want my season to go. I want to be healthy. There's been a lot more adversity than I would've thought, but I know it's gonna help me in the long run, whether it's this week or a couple years from now.”

He wouldn’t mind it helping him across the next three weeks.

CHRIS NAEGEL

Chris Naegel has been long regarded as one of the best players without TOUR status. Across the next three weeks, he’ll have the chance to change that.

The St. Louis-area native went on the Monday qualifying circuit this summer and drew attention across the golf world for his propensity to make the most of these daunting one-day competitions. Qualifying for the U.S. Open at Brookline via Final Qualifying was just the beginning. Naegel, 39, went on a remarkable tear of Monday qualifying for four TOUR events in a five-week period in July.

In addition to his T56 at the U.S. Open, a T16 at the John Deere Classic proved critical as Naegel accrued 55 non-member FedExCup points. Naegel underwent a wild week after falling one stroke shy of a playoff at the Wyndham Championship's Monday qualifier; his 55 points looked safe to surpass No. 200 on the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List, good for a Finals berth, until Tom Kim won in Greensboro to earn automatic membership. This appeared to move Naegel’s 55-point total behind exactly 200 TOUR members, one spot shy of Finals entry.

But with Bubba Watson's resignation from the PGA TOUR, Naegel’s 55-point total was now bettered by exactly 199 TOUR members. He would be eligible for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Naegel has made 73 career Korn Ferry Tour starts, highlighted by a fourth-place finish at the 2019 Regular Season-ending WinCo Foods Portland Open, where he made a hole-in-one in a final-round 64. This will mark his first Finals appearance, his best chance yet at a TOUR card; his career-best Korn Ferry Tour ranking is No. 99 in 2016, when he made 10 cuts in 20 starts with three top-25 finishes.

If the Missouri Baptist alum can channel that Monday form across the next three weekends, his TOUR dream could become a reality.