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.
Higgs went five years between his first and second wins. He only had to wait seven days for his third.
Harry Higgs had gone five years between his first and second win. He only had to wait seven days for his third.
Higgs fired a 5-under 65 on Sunday to finish at 19 under. A short time later, Frankie Capan III birdied the 18th to shoot a 66 to get to 19 under and force a playoff at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The duo each birdied the par-5 18th to open the playoff, then Higgs eagled it the second time they played it to clinch his victory in the weather-challenged Visit Knoxville Open on the Korn Ferry Tour. Tee times were moved up both days over the weekend to avoid what the tour called “dangerous weather.”
Higgs winning putt was from more than 36 feet away.
“It does eons for confidence, but there’s a reason why I won. Taking care of
my body, my mind. Obviously I stuck to the exact same routine as last week and it worked again this week, so that’s probably not going to change much,” Higgs said. “I didn’t really feel like doing anything Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, but I just made sure that I did the same things. I got prepared in the same way.”
Harry Higgs poses with the trophy after winning the 2024 Visit Knoxville Open at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo: Brennan Asplen/Getty Images)
Higgs is the first golfer to win back-to-back tournaments in a playoff on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Capan shot 62 on Saturday and held the solo 54-hole lead. Quade Cummins went low Sunday with a 9-under 61, thanks in part to an ace on the fourth hole, but missed out on the playoff by a shot.
But neither could quite catch the overall steadiness of Higgs, who has conditional status on the PGA Tour in 2024. He has now put himself in great position to return full time in 2025. He entered the week No. 7 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list but shot up to No. 2 after his second straight win. The top 30 on the KFT list at the end of the season earn the promotion.
Rico Hoey has played in just one PGA Tour event and that was more than three years ago.
After earning his first Korn Ferry Tour win on Sunday in the 2023 Visit Knoxville Open, Hoey took a huge step toward perhaps being a regular on the big tour.
Hoey birdied the par-5 18th hole Sunday at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee, to win by a shot over Chase Seiffert and Norman Xiong. Hoey’s final-round 65 got him to 14 under for the week. It’s his sixth top-10 finish of the 2023 season.
“I’m just ecstatic. There was a lot of hard work. Everyone works hard. And I have battled through things for myself, and I’m just really happy to get it done,” he said. “And I never thought the day would come, but a lot of people told me it would.”
He punctuated his birdie on 18 with an animated fist pump.
“It was just like your heart’s racing, you can’t think straight, your head’s all over the place. I couldn’t control my hands,” he said of his putt on 18. “I just told myself: ‘Just hit it down the line and see what happens.'”
It’s his first win in 82 Korn Ferry starts and his second professional win since he claimed the 2017 Freedom 55 Financial Championship on the PGA Tour Canada.
The last 10 events of 2023 have been feast or famine for Hoey.
Rico Hoey poses with the trophy after winning the 2023 Visit Knoxville Open at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo: Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
Prior to winning this week, he tied for second. In the two events before that, he missed the cut. The three events before those missed cuts were three consecutive ties for third. In his last 10 starts, he either has finished in the top 10 or he has missed the cut.
Joshua Creel fired a 9-under 61 on Friday to fly up the leaderboard at the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2023 Visit Knoxville Open.
Creel was out in the early wave at Holston Hills Country Club and had eight birdies in his first 12 holes. Five straight pars cooled him off but a closing birdie got him to 9 under, one day after shooting an even par round.
After his career-low and course-record tying round, he was asked what was going through his mind after posting a 29 on the front nine.
“Fifty-nine, yeah. Par 70, turn 29, you’re thinking 59 for sure,” Creel said, adding that he thought a sub-60 round was oh-so-close.
“I lipped out putts on 14, 15 and 16, so that’s 61, could have been a couple better,” he said.
Creel’s red-hot Friday has him within a shot of the lead, held by Alejandro Tosti, the first-round co-leader.
Tosti is seeking his first professional win and knows there’s a lot of work ahead with 36 holes still to play this weekend. But he likes where he’s at.
“Just being in the fight for the tournament. I’ve been playing really good and I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door but not having a good result, so whatever is meant to happen will happen,” he said after rounds of 63 and 67. “I know there are not many guys playing better than me at this time, so I’m very happy with the opportunity.”
Tosti’s Argentinian countryman Jorge Fernandez Valdes is also at 9 under after shooting a 64 on Friday. Jacob Solomon and Matt McCarty are tied for fourth at 8 under. The other first-round co-leader, Nelson Ledesma, shot a 70 Friday to slide back into a tie for sixth.
Camilo Villegas is in the field and he’s tied for 10th (67-67).
They are four of the nine golfers from Argentina in the field this week at Holston Hills Country Club.
Nelson Ledesma and Alejandro Tosti are the co-leaders after one round at the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2023 Visit Knoxville Open.
Fellow Argentinian Augusto Nunez is tied for sixth. and tied for 20th is another golfer from the South American country, Jorge Fernandez Valdes. They are four of the nine golfers from Argentina in the field this week at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Ledesma in particular said he feels comfortable on the course with its familiar feel.
“I like the course, a typical course that we play in Argentina with some
trees. I really like the greens, the greens are nice. We are okay,” he said after a bogey-free round where he nabbed three birdies on the front and four more on the back for a 63.
Tosti, a rookie this season, also shot a 7-under 63 but his scorecard was a bit more interesting, as he had a double bogey, two bogeys but countered that and more with 11 birdies, including three straight to close his round.
“Eleven in one day was like ‘wow’, one after the other after the other,” he said. “Then I had a couple bad breaks where I made a double, but I again fought back and yeah, it’s like just everything was hitting the ball great. I mean, the best in many years, putting the best in many years, so everything is kind of coming together.”
A shot back at 6 under is Rico Hoey and David Kocher.
Last week’s winner Grayson Murray shot a first-round 73.
It’s the 11th tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2023 schedule. The Visit Knoxville event is one of the legacy events: it’s one of four on the circuit’s schedule every year since the tour started in 1990. It’s the third year the event is at Holston Hills.
Murray has been open about some struggles with mental health and alcohol.
The game’s future stars have descended upon Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee, this week for the Visit Knoxville Open on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Last year, Anders Albertson used an opening-round 8-under 62 to propel him to the win. Carl Yuan finished solo second at 19 under, MJ Daffue grabbed solo third at 18 under, and Taylor Montgomery — whose seen some steady success on the PGA Tour over the last 8 months — and Sean O’Hair tied for fourth at 16 under.
Ben Kohles, the 2022-23 KFT Points leader, is in the field looking for his third win of the season. Kohles won the Astara Chile Classic and the HomeTown Lenders Championship in April. Both events were decided by a playoff.
Grayson Murray reacts after winning the AdventHealth Championship at Blue Hills Country Club on May 21, 2023, in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jeff Curry/Getty Images)
Fresh off a win at the AdventHealth Championship, Grayson Murray now sits 14th on the points list. Murray has made six stroke-play event starts on the PGA Tour this season. He missed five cuts and tied for 15th at the Puerto Rico Open in March.
Murray has said he might consider playing the remainder of the season on the Korn Ferry Tour. Just eight months ago, he was in a scooter accident in Bermuda that didn’t lead to any broken bones but he did need 50 stitches — 25 on his face, 10 on his leg and others on various parts of his body.
Last week’s victory was Murray’s second on the Korn Ferry Tour and he also won as a rookie on the PGA Tour at the 2016 Barbasol Championship.
Murray has been open about some struggles with mental health and alcohol.
“I think everyone has their own battles,” Murray said after last week’s victory. “Sometimes people are able to hide ’em and function and
sometimes you’re not. You know, I think our society now is getting better about accepting that, you know, it’s OK to not be OK type deal. I’ve embraced that type of mentality. Not ashamed that I go through depression, anxiety.
“I know I’ve helped people out in the past just through my social media DMs, people messenger me and that’s I think part of I can use my platform to continue to help with things like that.”
An honest conversation about mental health struggles.
According to Data Golf, Alejandro Tosti is the favorite to win. The Argentinean has finished T-7, T-10, T-22 and solo fourth in his last four Korn Ferry starts. On top of his success at this level, Tosti is three-for-three making the cut on the big tour this year, with his best finish coming at the Mexico Open where he tied for 10th. He’s still searching for his first win.
As for the golf course, Holston Hills is a par-70 track that measures 7,218 yards. HHCC was founded in 1927 and was designed by the famed Donald Ross.
The last two winners of the Visit Knoxville Open reached 20 under, so birdies — and a lot of them — will be needed to have any shot of winning the title.
If you live in the area and are interested in attending the event, daily tickets are available as well as week-long badges. You can purchase tickets online here.
The Volunteer State proves that nine holes can be enough with Sweetens Cove and the Course at Sewanee.
Golfweek’s Best is willing to buck tradition when it comes to the top public-access layouts in Tennessee, as two of the three highest ranked layouts are just nine holes.
Sweetens Cove, which has built a loyal following online and on its untraditional tee sheet, comes in at No. 1. Located about halfway between Nashville and Atlanta in tiny South Pittsburg, the design by the firm of King-Collins offers fresh twists on classic architectural features across its nine holes. It has created massive interest in a flat floodplain between mountains, proving that golfers are more than willing to travel to find a good time.
Likewise, the Gil Hanse-redesigned Course at Sewanee is a can’t miss in Tennessee despite being just nine holes. Perched atop a mountain at the University of the South, several holes feature long views over a valley while various tees allow the nine holes to play entirely differently on subsequent loops. Sewanee comes in at No. 3 on Golfweek’s Best 2022 public-access list for Tennessee.
Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.
(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960 (c): Classic course, built before 1960
Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.
Greyson Sigg, who opened with a 61 on Thursday, fired a final-round 66 to earn his first professional win.
Stephan Jaeger will have to wait at least another week to try to earn that PGA Tour promotion as Greyson Sigg had other plans.
On Sunday, at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open, Jaeger opened the final round with a three-shot lead over Sigg and then birdied his first hole. A win would’ve been Jaeger’s third on the circuit, and that would’ve earned him his Tour card. The last player to earn his PGA Tour card via the three-win promotion was Wesley Bryan in 2016. In all, 11 players have done so.
If Jaeger is to be the 12th, it will come at a later date.
Sigg, who opened the week with a 61, fired a final-round 66 and snagged the victory at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee, the first professional win for the 26-year-old University of Georgia product. His previous best finish was a solo second in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship last August.
Sigg is one of 12 players featured in the CBS show called “One Shot Away,” which is produced by PGA Tour Entertainment. It tracks players chasing after a PGA Tour card during the 2021 portion of the combined Korn Ferry Tour season. KFT players who finish in the top 25 at the end of the season also earn a promotion to the PGA Tour.
Greyson Sigg plays his shot from the 10th tee during the Final Round of the Visit Knoxville Open at Holston Hills Country Club on May 16, 2021 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Jaeger was also looking to tie Jason Gore’s record for most wins—with seven—on the circuit but managed an even-par round of 70 as he closed with a bogey on the 17th hole and a par on the par-5 finishing hole.
Seth Reeves shot a 61, matching Sigg’s first-round fireworks. Reeves had 10 birdies and a bogey in his final round round to finish solo third at 17 under. Max Greyserman and Harrison Endycott finished tied for fourth a 16 under.
The Korn Ferry Tour next travels to Blue Hills Country Club in Kansas City for the AdventHealth Championship.
Stephan Jaeger got hot down the stretch and finds himself in the lead at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open.
Stephan Jaeger improved on his Thursday 6-under 64 with a Friday 8-under 62 to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open.
Jaeger, a six-time winner on tour, is looking for his second victory of the season after claiming last month’s Emerald Coast Classic in a playoff against David Lipsky.
Hot on Jaeger’s heels at Holston Hills Country Club, a Donald Ross design, is Kyle Reifers, who shot a 6-under 64 to take the early clubhouse lead, but now sits in second place at 13 under. Reifers, 37, last won on tour in 2006 — when it was the Nationwide Tour — at the Chattanooga Classic, where he defeated Brandt Snedeker in a playoff.
After tying the course record on Thursday with a 9-under 61, Greyson Sigg is third at 11 under after a second-round 68. Harrison Endycott shot a second straight 65 to climb into solo fourth. Carl Yuan and Trey Mullinax are T-5 at 9 under.
Jaeger started steady and got hot late to find himself flirting with 59 after a blistering back nine. The German made the turn at 3 under before birdieing six of his final nine holes. If not for his lone bogey of the day on the par-4 7th, Jaeger could have also tied the course record.
Scott Stevens, a Monday qualifier for the event, rose into the top-10 with a second-round 65.
