Korn Ferry Tour Championship scenarios: See minimum finishes needed for PGA TOUR cards

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – It’s the final week of the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season, which also means it’s time to crunch the numbers.

The top 30 on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List after this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, contested for the first time at French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course, will earn 2025 PGA TOUR membership. The sprawling layout is carved into the southern Indiana hillside, a big and brawny test that befits the occasion.

The top 17 on the season-long standings through 25 of 26 Korn Ferry Tour events have mathematically clinched 2025 PGA TOUR membership, with the next five in the 99.99% range of probability. Expect some volatility in determining the final eight cards across the 72-hole, no-cut Korn Ferry Tour Championship, which features a starting field of 74 players.

Further piquing interest: Nos. 26-30 on the Points List into the week (Noah Goodwin, Aldrich Potgieter, Kaito Onishi, Trevor Cone and Sam Bennett, respectively) are separated by just 8.782 points. It’s a narrow margin, as a solo-52nd finish at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship awards 8.5 points. There’s a chance all five could hang on for a TOUR card with average play (if others close behind them on the bubble don’t play well), but if others on the bubble play well (or if others from further back finish in the top two), there’s a chance these five players will have a tight-knit contest Sunday for the final few cards.

All 74 players in the starting field have a mathematical chance to earn a PGA TOUR card this week (No. 1 Matt McCarty has clinched the top spot, more than 600 points ahead of No. 2 Max McGreevy; McCarty is playing this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship on TOUR via a Three-Victory Promotion). For those No. 59 and below, a win is necessary for a chance. But there’s a chance.

Look below for the minimum finishes needed for players to have a chance to move inside the top 30. It’s an imperfect reference, as it assumes low finishes by players around the bubble (which would keep the top-30 points total near its current position), but it’s a reference to illustrate the point gaps at various spots on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List. The silver lining for all players in the field – by finishing in the top 75 on the season-long standings, they have secured fully exempt status on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour, and the top five finishers (and ties) at PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry’s Final Stage will also earn TOUR cards. Nos. 31-60 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List (after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship) will advance directly to Final Stage, with the rest beginning at Second Stage.

(Scenarios assume that the minimum possible top-30 number is 790.449 points, adding solo-74th points (2.947) to the current No. 30 points total (787.502).