Tag Ridings worked through a Tuesday afternoon practice session on the Hillcrest Country Club driving range, his workshop framed by a mountainous Idahoan backdrop. The contrasting worlds mirrored his current career dynamic.

Ridings will turn 50 in less than a month and become eligible to compete in PGA TOUR Champions Monday qualifiers. The Arkansas alum never lost the power of youth (he averages more than 300 yards off the tee), and his late-40s journey reminds of Steven Alker – who stayed competitive on the Korn Ferry Tour until just before his 50th birthday, then took the Champions Tour by storm almost immediately.

Ridings, though, isn’t quite done competing against the young guys. He begins this week’s Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron, the first leg of the four-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, at No. 121 on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List. He comfortably qualified for Boise (top 156 on the standings) and should figure to safely qualify for the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation (top 144), while the latter two Finals events, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship (top 120) and Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance (top 75) offer a more uncertain prospect.

The top 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List after the Korn Ferry Tour Championship will qualify for the 2025 PGA TOUR, the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the Finals rainbow. Ridings has previously thrived with his back against the wall – 20 years ago, he carded a final-round 64 at the final Full-Field Event of the PGA TOUR season, including a 15-foot birdie on the 72nd hole to maintain exempt status in the 125th spot. Ridings, an avid tinkerer, has never lost his love for the game or the fire to compete, and he has relished the challenge of fine-tuning his equipment as his body has changed with age.

That love was evident as he reflected on his career Tuesday with the Korn Ferry Tour content team, at a Hillcrest venue he first played in 1998 – the same year the Goo Goo Dolls, who will perform on the 18th fairway Saturday night, released their hit single “Iris.” Ridings looks forward to what’s ahead, but that doesn’t mean it’s yet time to abandon the PGA TOUR dream.

“I still want to play the PGA TOUR,” Ridings said Tuesday. “That’s where the money’s at, that’s where the greatest golf is, and the Champions Tour is looming in three weeks for me, so I’ll go attempt that as well. But I don’t care which Tour I play, so much, as I just want to enjoy the game and play. To have that opportunity again is awesome. I’d love to do that.”

Spencer Levin walked up a fairway at Hillcrest, one of the only two courses that has hosted the Korn Ferry Tour since the circuit’s inception in 1990, and he reflected on a trying season that leaves him No. 141 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List into the Finals. He’s glad to be in Boise but knows his spot in the next event is no sure thing. After winning the 2023 Veritex Bank Championship as a Monday qualifier for his first TOUR-sanctioned title – celebrated across the Golf Twitter community, where the spirited Levin is a fan favorite – he has yet to record a top-25 finish in 21 Korn Ferry Tour starts this season.

It's a nervy track record for a player who needs some big results in a hurry to keep his season alive – and to secure guaranteed starts for next season (the top 75 after the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship will retain fully exempt Korn Ferry Tour status, while Levin is assured at least conditional status as a recent past champion.)

Per Levin’s vantage though, that could be a good thing. The Californian has seen success in Boise, having finished runner-up to Kevin Tway in a 2013 playoff, and his vibes are high at Hillcrest with longtime friend Fred Stamey on the bag, who also caddied for Levin at the U.S. Amateur many moons ago.

“Veteran golfers will tell you that when you’ve been doing it such a long time, everything kind of blends together after a while,” Levin said. “But you can rely on some good experiences in the past, and that’s what I’ll try to do the next few days.

“I just turned 40 this year, and I’ve been playing professional golf a long time, and I still love to play, and I still feel like I can compete if I am playing well. Having said all that, I definitely want to play well so I can keep playing.”

The veterans Ridings and Levin, with 917 career TOUR-sanctioned starts between them, provide a contrasting vibe to most of the current Korn Ferry Tour Finals field. Twenty-three of the top 30 players on the season-long standings, entering the Finals, have yet to turn 30. Golf continually becomes more of a power game, with driver, wedge and putter quickly cementing themselves as the game’s three most important clubs, and the youth movement corresponds with this trend. Still the veterans can hang on with proverbial pluck and guile.

Contrast is the world’s texture, and it shines bright at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, as young stars and wily veterans jockey for 30 PGA TOUR cards. Some will expect the up-and-comers to safely ascend into the crucial 30 spots – but the vets might have their say too.

Is there everything to lose, or nothing to lose? Depends on the frame of mind.

“I know my back’s against the wall a little bit, but that’s alright,” Levin said. “Kind of heightens your focus and makes it a little more fun.”

PGA TOUR Digital's Elise Tallent contributed to this report