When 2024 began, Karl Vilips was in college. Now, he’s on the PGA Tour.
When 2024 began, Karl Vilips was in college. Now, he’s on the PGA Tour.
In between, he graduated from Stanford, dominated the Korn Ferry Tour and advanced to the highest level of professional golf. How he did so earned him Korn Ferry Tour Rookie of the Year honors, it was announced Wednesday.
Vilips, 23, turned pro after a No. 10 finish in the 2024 PGA Tour University Ranking. He started playing on PGA Tour Americas, making two starts before his Korn Ferry Tour debut in July on a sponsor exemption at The Ascendant. Vilips held conditional Korn Ferry Tour membership, played his way into The Ascendant with a runner-up finish in the Korn Ferry Tour member division of a qualifying tournament, through which the event awarded four of its five sponsor exemptions.
He then posted back-to-back top-25s in his first two Korn Ferry Tour starts, followed by a runner-up finish at the NV5 Invitational and a win at the Utah Championship. The Australian won the Utah Championship at 22 years, 11 months, and 19 days of age, making him the second-youngest winner on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024, only behind South African Aldrich Potgieter. Vilips and Potgieter were the only rookie winners on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024, in addition to being the only Korn Ferry Tour rookies who earned PGA Tour membership for the 2025 season.
Vilips made 10 starts as a rookie and finished No. 19 on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour points list. Vilips tallied seven top-25s in his 10 starts.
McCarty was the unanimous choice for the Jack Nicklaus Award.
Matt McCarty was named the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year on Wednesday.
McCarty, 26, was the unanimous choice by members of the tour for the Jack Nicklaus Award, the PGA Tour announced.
McCarty was No. 1 on the tour’s points list after three wins and nine top-10s during the season. His three victories all came within a 35-day span from July to August. That made him the 13th KFT player to earn the Three Victory Promotion to the PGA Tour.
On the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024, he had a scoring average of 68.38, setting a record. His finish at the top of the KFT points race earned him fully exempt status on the PGA Tour in 2025. He’s also in the field at the 2025 U.S. Open and the 2025 Players Championship.
The Korn Ferry Tour is staying in Tennessee until the next decade.
The Korn Ferry Tour is staying in Tennessee until the next decade.
The KFT announced Tuesday a five-year extension with the Visit Knoxville Open. Along with that, Holston Hills Country Club has agreed to a five-year extension to continue as host of the event.
The Korn Ferry Tour announced its entire 26-event schedule for 2025 about three weeks ago. The tour will visit Tennessee again in September for the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation in Franklin, Tennessee.
“We are grateful to continue our partnership with Visit Knoxville and excited to build upon our relationship that began in 2019,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin. “Holston Hills Country Club has been a terrific host venue for our Tour and has helped prepare our players for the next level. We are appreciative of the hospitality shown by the Knoxville community.”
The Visit Knoxville Open has been on the tour’s schedule since 1990. It’s one of four tournaments that has been an event on the circuit since it started in 1990. Visit Knoxville joined as title sponsor in 2019. In 2021, Holston Hills, a Donald Ross design, first hosted the event.
The course has also hosted the 2004 Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship and the 2007 Tennessee PGA Championship.
The schedule is comprised of 26 events, taking place in seven countries and 16 states.
The PGA Tour announced the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season schedule on Tuesday.
The schedule is comprised of 26 events, taking place in seven countries and 16 states. It begins in the Bahamas in January and concludes in October at French Lick Resort in Indiana.
This is the 35th season of Korn Ferry Tour competition, and it features 10 televised events and a new Korn Ferry Tour Finals schedule.
The first six events will be international, including stops in the Bahamas and South America. Then the series returns to the United States for three weeks before a quick trip to Mexico.
Then the series returns to the U.S. for the remainder of the season.
The four-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, all on Golf Channel, begins with the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation (Sept. 11-14) followed by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship (Sept. 18-21).
The Compliance Solutions Championship (Oct. 2-5) will become a Korn Ferry Tour Finals event in 2025, with The Patriot Golf Club in Owasso, Oklahoma, taking over as the host venue after two years at Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Oklahoma.
The 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season will finish Sunday, Oct. 12 with the final round of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, followed by the PGA Tour card ceremony.
2025 Korn Ferry Tour schedule
Date
Tournament
Location
Course
Jan. 12-15
The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island
Nassau, Bahamas
Ocean Club Golf Course at Atlantis Paradise Island
Jan. 19-22
The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club
Great Abaco, Bahamas
The Abaco Club on Winding Bay
Jan. 30 – Feb. 2
The Panama Championship
Panama City, Panama
Club de Golf de Panama
Feb. 6-9
Astara Golf Championship
Bogota, Colombia
Country Club de Bogota – Pacos y Fabios & Fundadores
Feb. 27 – March 2
118th Visa Argentina Open
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jockey Club
March 6-9
Astara Chile Classic
Santiago, Chile
Prince of Wales Country Club
April 3-6
Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club
Savannah, Georgia
The Landings Golf & Athletic ClubÂ
April 16-19
LECOM Suncoast Classic
Lakewood Ranch, Florida
Lakewood National Golf Club
April 24-27
Veritex Bank Championship
Arlington, Texas
Texas Rangers Golf Club
May 1-4
PGA Riviera Maya Championship
Tulum, Mexico
PGA Riviera Maya
May 15-18
AdventHealth Championship
Kansas City, Missouri
Blue Hills Country Club
May 22-25
Visit Knoxville Open
Knoxville, Tennessee
Holston Hills Country Club
May 29 – June 1
UNC Health Championship
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh Country Club
June 5-8
BMW Charity Pro-Am
Greer, South Carolina
Thornblade Club & The Carolina Country Club
June 19-22
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Wichita Open Benefitting KU Wichita Pediatrics
Potgieter led the KFT in driving distance in 2024 at 336.5 yards.
Nick Dunlap was a 20-year-old sensation who broke out on the PGA Tour in 2024. Aldrich Potgieter may be up next in 2025.
Potgieter became the second-youngest player ever to earn a PGA Tour card via the Korn Ferry Tour on Sunday, finishing 29th in the points after the KFT Championship to earn a promotion. At 20 years and 23 days, he trails only Jason Day, who was 19 years, 11 months, and 23 days at graduation in 2007.
In 2022, Potgieter won the Amateur Championship in Europe when he was 17, making him the second-youngest winner in that event’s history.
Potgieter led the KFT in driving distance this year at 336.5 yards, more than eight yards longer than the next closest player. He also shot 59 at the Astara Golf Championship, eventually finishing T-20.
Consistency is something the youngster has to work on. He missed more cuts (13) than he made (11) on the season, but the power and skill is clearly there.
And next year, he’ll get to put it on display against the best players in the world, week in and week out.
A little more than four months ago, Karl Vilips was completing his college career at Stanford.
He had a strong finish, placing T-8 at the NCAA Championship. It helped him earn conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour for the rest of the 2024 season thanks to his 10th-place finish in the PGA Tour University standings.
Fast forward to Sunday, and Vilips is moving on up again.
Other PGA Tour U alums who earned PGA Tour cards include John Pak, Quade Cummins, Noah Goodwin, William Mouw, Jackson Suber and Ricky Castillo. Vilips is the only one from the Class of 2024 to earn a promotion, and he’ll join Stanford teammate Michael Thorbjornsen on Tour.
Mouw, a Pepperdine product, had three T-2 finishes, two of those coming in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, and placed 10th in the season-long points race. Cummins earned his Tour card after three years on the KFT and finished in 11th in the standings.
Then there’s Vilips, who ended 19th in the standings after placing in the top 15 in his first four KFT starts. He also won the Utah Championship. Suber finished 37th on the points list last year, but a pair of T-2 finishes helped him move to 20th this time around.
Pak finished No. 1 in the Class of 2021 before an automatic PGA Tour card was awarded. Castillo, who won his KFT debut last summer, finished 26th in the standings. Goodwin was No. 30 in the standings, and he grinded through KFT Q-School last year and then had six top-10 finishes to earn his card.
The tournament within the tournament was the race to a promotion.
The tournament within the tournament at the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship was the race to a PGA Tour card for the 2025 season.
There are 30 being doled out in all this season and before they teed it up at the season finale, 17 cards were already claimed. Another five, while not officially locked up, were a virtual certainty. That left eight cards truly up for grabs.
Thornberry started the week in 51st, well outside the top 30, but he secured his playing privileges for 2025 with an outright win at The French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course. His final-round 66 got him to 9 under and vaulted him to 16th in the points. This is the first Tour card for the 2017 Haskins Award winner, who won the award after his sophomore season at Ole Miss when he won the NCAA individual championship.
“It’s crazy. This is my I guess fifth year since I turned pro and I’ve played a lot of good golf. I had such a good college career and I was excited to get out in the pro ranks,” he said of his journey to the PGA Tour. “Like really, it’s not that I struggled with my golf game, it’s like it never quite clicked for some reason at the pro level. It’s just amazing to finally get a win out here. To get a win and to be Tour Bound in the same day is just crazy. I’m sure it hasn’t all hit me yet, but it’s just a crazy day.”
He added that he got a little inspiration from his dad before the final round.
“My dad texted me this morning and kind of put it in my head, ‘You know, one good round, you could be on the Tour,'” he said. “So it’s crazy to actually go out there and have that one-in-a-hundred round that you needed at the exact right time. It’s just amazing.”
He was the only player in the 74-man field to climb inside the top 30. And that meant someone else had to fall out. Bubble Boy Sam Bennett was that golfer. He started the week 30th in points but a final-round 78, a day that included two double-bogeys, dropped him to 31st, the first man out.
Bauchou started the week 35th but he’s now well inside the safe zone for a coveted tour card.
There’s just 36 holes left for some to lock up their 2025 PGA Tour cards.
Through two rounds of the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship, 29 of the 30 golfers on the good side of the line have held on.
“Bubble Boy” Sam Bennett, who started the week in the 30th and final spot, is the one golfer who has fallen out, for now.
Bennett opened with a 72 but his second-round 3-over 75 has put him in a precarious position.
Meanwhile, Zach Bauchou is taking full advantage of this week’s 72-hole, no-cut event at French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course in Indiana. Bauchou has posted scores of 68 and 66 and is at 10 under, the only golfer at double-digits under par, and he leads the field by four shots.
Bauchou started the week in the 35th spot, on the outside looking in, but he’s now in the 13th spot, well inside the safe zone for that coveted tour card.
When the week started, 17 of the 30 cards were claimed and the next five were virtually assured of staying in the top 30. That left eight spots up for grabs.
After 15 seasons of 25 players getting a promotion, this year it’s 30 getting their cards. When the Korn Ferry Tour started in 1990, only the top five players earned their cards.
The French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course is a par-72 measuring 7,667 yards. It’s hosted the KFT finale for the first time.
Thirty golfers will earn status in the big leagues next year.
The Korn Ferry Tour season-long race has 30 PGA Tour cards for next season waiting at the finish line.
Of the 30, 17 have already been earned, leaving 13 up for grabs at the final tournament of the year, the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
The season-finale will be played at French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course in Indiana for the first time, where 75 players will be teeing it up. Matt McCarty, who earned his 2025 PGA Tour card via the three-victory promotion in 2024, is the lone player in the top 30 not there. Instead, he’ll be in the field at the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship.
All 75 players who qualified this week have earned 2025 Korn Ferry Tour status no matter what happens this week. It’s the quest for a promotion that will have added inspiration.
Who’s has clinched a 2025 PGA Tour card?
There are 17 players already making their plans for next season on the PGA Tour, led by McCarty, who will be playing in just his second PGA Tour event this week in Jackson, Mississippi. The 2022 U.S. Open was his only other start.
Who are the top 10 in the KFT points?
1. Matt McCarty
2. Max McGreevy
3. Tim Widing
4. Steven Fisk
5. Frankie Capan III
6. Taylor Dickson
7. Harry Higgs
8. William Mouw
9. Brian Campbell
10. Thomas Rosenmueller
Who’s inside the top 30 still without a 2025 PGA Tour card?
These players are currently inside the top 30 and would earn their cards by staying in the top 30 after Sunday’s final round.
The first five here have a strong enough points lead that, while none of them are guaranteed anything just yet, probably have done enough to earn their 2025 PGA Tour cards.
18. Karl Vilips
19. John Pak
20. Jackson Suber
21. Mason Andersen
22. Jeremy Paul
This next group of golfers are currently inside the top 30 but they have others close enough to overtake them. Consider these guys “on the bubble.”
The French Lick Golf Resort’s Pete Dye Course will be a par-72 this week measuring 7,667 yards. The finishing stretch includes the 220-yard par-3 16th, 465-yard par-4 17th, and 626-yard par-5 18th.
The venue hosted the 2015 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and the 2019 Senior LPGA Championship.
The Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort in French Lick, Indiana, site of the 2019 Senior LPGA Championship (above) and 2015 KitchenAide Senior PGA Championship. (Beth Ann Nichols/Golfweek)
Which players can earn PGA Tour status for the rest of 2024?
Max McGreevy, Tim Widing, Taylor Dickson and Harry Higgs all have two wins in 2024 on the Korn Ferry Tour. A third would mean a Three-Victory Promotion, which is immediate access to the PGA Tour’s 2024 FedExCup Fall as well as fully exempt status on the PGA Tour in 2025.
There is no cut this week for the 75 players in the field, so everyone will have four rounds to accrue points for next season.
After 15 seasons of 25 players getting a promotion, this year it’s 30 getting their cards. When the Korn Ferry Tour started in 1990, only the top five players earned their cards.
Capan earned his promotion for next season a week ago.
A week after clinching his 2025 PGA Tour card, Frankie Capan III has his first professional victory.
Capan shot a final-round 70 to finish the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship at 13 under, two shots clear of the field at Ohio State University Golf Club’s Scarlet Course. He had 18 birdies and an eagle over the four rounds and was steady down the stretch, making six straight pars to hold the field at bay. He earned $270,000 for the victory.
“It was great. I’m just really happy and blessed to be standing with you here today and just really excited with how my game has progressed from last year to this year and just kind of continuing as this year has gone on,” Capan said. “It feels fantastic.”
Capan becomes the 17th first-time winner on the KFT in 2024.
Capan earned his promotion for next season last Sunday after tying for 12th at the 2024 Simmons Bank Open in Franklin, Tennessee. That was enough to clinch a top-30 spot on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, earning him his 2025 PGA Tour card.
Matt McCarty, who has three wins on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2024, locked up the top spot on the season-long KFT Points List, which earned him exemptions into the 2025 Players Championship and U.S. Open. His third win made him the 13th golfer to earn the Three-Victory Promotion to the PGA Tour.
There’s one event left on the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2024 season, the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance at the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Golf Resort in Indiana. At the conclusion, all 30 cards will be determined. There were 17 who earned their PGA Tour cards ahead of the Nationwide event.
