The Blue Championship: Pre-tournament notes, storylines, more

The 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Season continues this week with The Blue Championship, the 16th tournament of the 25-event schedule. The field includes six PGA TOUR winners with nine career victories, led by Chez Reavie with three career wins, and 52 Korn Ferry Tour winners with 75 career victories, led by four-time winner Robby Shelton.

Two past champions of The Blue Championship are competing this week: Nelson Ledesma (2019) and Cristobal Del Solar (2024). Nine players in the field stand in the top 200 of the Official World Golf Ranking, including Blades Brown (No. 95), Doc Redman (No. 122), Ian Holt (No. 153), Cole Sherwood (No. 160), Davis Lamb (No. 165), Carson Young (No. 182), Jeremy Gandon (No. 185), Drew Nesbitt (No. 194) and Jay Card III (No. 199).

Doc Redman and Ian Holt, Nos. 1 and 2 on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, respectively, are the only multi-time winners this season. Should either win for a third time this season, they will earn an automatic promotion to the PGA TOUR via the Three-Victory Promotion. Matt McCarty (2024) was the last player to achieve the feat.

Upon conclusion of the 25-event Korn Ferry Tour season, the top 20 players on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List will be awarded PGA TOUR cards for the 2027 season. Additionally, the player who finishes No. 1 will earn exemptions for the 2027 PLAYERS Championship and 2027 U.S. Open.

Notables in the field

• Cooper Dossey, who stands No. 9 on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, has two top-15 finishes in as many starts at The Blue Championship (T4/2025, T13/2024). Dossey has five top-10s, including two top-three finishes, in 14 starts this season; he entered 2026 with four top-10s in 53 career starts on the Korn Ferry Tour. Dossey earned full status for the 2026 season with a No. 44 finish on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List.
• Hunter Eichhorn stands No. 5 on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List off the strength of a Tour-leading eight top-10 finishes. Only two players finished the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season with at least eight top 10s – Johnny Keefer (nine) and Neal Shipley (eight). Eichhorn's season-high finish came at the Visit Knoxville Open, where he lost a playoff against Doc Redman.
• Chris Korte, a Littleton, Colorado, native who played collegiately at the University of Denver, enters the week at No. 46 on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List off the strength of his T2 finish at the 119 Visa Argentina Open presented by Macro. Korte, who played four seasons at Denver (2014-18) and won the 2015 Colorado Golf Association Amateur Championship, earned Korn Ferry Tour membership for 2026 via Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.
• With his victory in the most recent Korn Ferry Tour event – the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS – rookie Drew Nesbitt rose from No. 144 to No. 22 on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List. Nesbitt did not have a top-10 finish in any of his previous 12 starts this season. A native of Toronto, Ontario, Nesbitt earned Korn Ferry Tour membership with a No. 8 finish on the 2025 PGA TOUR Americas Points List.
• Tommy Morrison, who finished No. 6 in the 2026 PGA TOUR University Ranking after three and a half seasons at the University of Texas, recorded top-10 finishes in his first two starts on Tour (T10/OccuNet Classic, T5/Memorial Health Championship), propelling him to No. 80 on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List. Morrison's most notable amateur title came at the 2024 European Amateur Championship.
• Nineteen-year-old Blades Brown, who stands No. 12 on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, earned Special Temporary Membership for the remainder of the 2026 PGA TOUR Season, granting him a position in the Priority Ranking and allowing him to accept an unlimited number of sponsor exemptions. Brown has two top-10s on TOUR this season (third/Puerto Rico Open, T9/ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic).
• Three players in the top 10 of the Korn Ferry Tour Points List do not have a victory this season – No. 5 Hunter Eichhorn, No. 7 Michael Johnson, No. 9 Cooper Dossey.
• There are 10 first-time winners this season: Alistair Docherty, Zack Fischer, Ian Holt, Davis Lamb, Dylan Menante, Drew Nesbitt, James Nicholas, Alvaro Ortiz, Doc Redman and Cole Sherwood.
• Alistair Docherty won the 119 Visa Argentina Open presented by Macro. Through the Open Qualifying Series, the victory earned Docherty an exemption for next week's 154th The Open. James Nicholas, who stands No. 16 on the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, also qualified for The Open via Final Qualifying.

Tournament facts

• Course: TPC Colorado; par 72, 8,022 yards
• Field: 156 players
• Defending champion: Neal Shipley
• Purse: $1 million ($180,000/winner)

Note: Using player performance data from ShotLink powered by CDW, the PGA TOUR has created this story using AWS Gen AI technology. While we strive for accuracy and quality, please note that the information provided may not be entirely error-free.