Tag: Korn Ferry Tour

Masters champion Mike Weir, 14 other past PGA Tour winners highlight KFT return

Led by 2003 Masters champ Mike Weir, 15 players who have combined to win 30 PGA Tour events will be in the field at the Korn Ferry Challenge

Led by 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir, 15 players who have combined to win 30 PGA Tour events will be in the field for next week’s Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass, which will mark the return of the Korn Ferry Tour to Dye’s Valley.
The Korn Ferry Challenge is one of two high-level events that mark the return of professional golf since The Players Championship was canceled after one round on March 13. The PGA Tour is playing the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.
The 72-hole tournament begins on Thursday. Fans will not be allowed on the course except perhaps to watch from their properties that border the playing area and there will be no live TV. The field of 156 players will be chasing a $600,000 purse, with $108,000 going to the winner.
Weir, an eight-time PGA Tour winner who has been plagued with injuries since 2011, is one of five players in the field who have won multiple PGA Tour events, only to lose their status and drop to the Korn Ferry Tour. The others are four-time winners Robert Allenby and Sean O’Hair, and two-time winners Ted Potter Jr., and Fabian Gomez.
Among the other Tour winners are David Lingmerth of Ponte Vedra Beach, Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, and international veteran Alex Cejka.
Lingmerth, Cejka and O’Hair are notable in that they all led or had a share of the 54-hole lead in The Players Championship, at the TPC Sawgrass Players Stadium Course. Lingmerth was in a three-way tie with Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia in 2013 (Lingmerth shot 72 in the final round and Woods won), Cejka had a five-shot lead entering the final round in 2009 (Henrik Stenson won with a closing 66 as Cejka plummeted with a 79) and O’Hair led Phil Mickelson by one shot in 2007 (Mickelson won after O’Hair hit two balls into the water at No. 17).
In addition to Lingmerth, other area players in the field are Chris Baker (Jacksonville), Blayne Barber (Lake City), Sebastian Cappelen (Ponte Vedra Beach), Luke Guthrie (Jacksonville), Rick Lamb (St. Simons Island, Ga.), Sam Saunders (Atlantic Beach), Tim Wilkinson (Ponte Vedra) and Jared Wolfe (Nocatee).
Wolfe is sixth on the Korn Ferry points list and won his first tournament earlier this season in the Bahamas.
All six winners on the tour this season and the top-35 players on the points list at the time the tour was suspended are in the field, led by No. 1 Mito Perreira of Chile, a former Texas Tech player.
Eight Monday qualifiers will be added, four each from Palencia and Eagle Harbor.
The last time the Korn Ferry Tour played was March 1 when David Kocher won the El Bosque Mexico Championship.

Summer at TPC Sawgrass: Dye’s Valley course will be a mystery in the heat

It’s two weeks before the first day of summer and the Korn Ferry Tour is back in Ponte Vedra Beach for the first time in nearly five years.

There has been PGA Tour golf at the TPC Sawgrass in March and May, and the Korn Ferry Tour has played there in the fall.

But now it’s two weeks before the first day of summer and the Korn Ferry Tour is back in Ponte Vedra Beach for the first time in nearly five years.

What will hot weather golf be like for the 156 players who will begin preparing on Monday for the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass, at Dye’s Valley?

Like much about golf in Florida, it depends on what Mother Nature decides.

Dye’s Valley may be as difficult as the players make it when the first round begins on Thursday.

Between 2010 and 2015, when the Korn Ferry Tour had fall tournaments at the Valley (the former Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open and the Korn Ferry Tour Championship), high rough, narrow fairways, firm greens and dry, windy weather resulted in winning scores that were as high as 6-under, and no lower than 14-under, with an average of 10-under.

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But lighter wind and recent rain that have softened the playing surface could make it play a bit easier for those who hit the fairways, setting up relatively easy darts into greens that don’t have the undulation of the sister course on the other side of the property, the Stadium.

If the field has some rust to scrape off — and the last time the players experienced competitive golf was three months ago — it might result in missed fairways into some thick, tangled wet rough, making approach shots decidedly more difficult.

TPC Sawgrass director of agronomy Jeff Plotts said there’s not much he and his staff can do to toughen it up, especially if there is more rain prior to the first round — which is in the forecast.

“It was playing very firm up until last week,” he said. “Then we had some rain, got more humidity and it’s playing longer. That isn’t a problem for these Korn Ferry guys. They hit it so far and they’re always going full throttle. The guys who keep it in the fairway will have some great chances to score.”

Plotts said rules officials have told him to cut the rough at about 2 inches for the first round, then stow the mowers except for the fairways and greens. If there is rain after the first round, the rough will grow quickly and the weekend field will find it very hard to gouge shots out of the high grass and onto the greens.

Speaking of the putting surfaces, he said the plan is to get them rolling about 12 in the Stimpmeter, which is moderately fast. But the Valley course has relatively flat greens and players at this level don’t mind speedy putts when there isn’t much undulation.

Since Dye’s Valley doesn’t have the Precision Air system under the greens, they’re even further at the mercy of the weather.

Between Jan. 1 and May 23, Plotts said the course had 5.8 inches of rain. Since then, it’s sustained nearly 4 inches.

The only hope for some drying out is the days are getting as long as they get all year, and there will be more hours of sunshine to dry it out — provided there is some sunshine.

“They’re going to be throwing darts in there,” Plotts said.

The course will play to a par of 70, with Nos. 8 and 17, which are par-5s for resort play, converted to long par-4s. Even taking two reachable par-5s away from the players might not matter.

“I talked to a few of the local guys and no one is hitting more than a 7-iron into No. 17,” Plotts said.

Imagine how the players would be chopping up that hole as a par-5.

Plotts said he’s come to expect the unexpected this year when it comes to weather. March and early April were hotter than normal, and May cooler than usual, with a few nights when the temperatures flirted with the high-40s.

The extended forecast calls for temperatures in the low-to-mid 80s, with the rain chance between 30-40 percent on the days of competitive rounds.

“Not much in 2020 has been normal,” Plotts said with a touch of irony. “The guys might have a level of rust but they’re going to have some pent-up energy. Ten-under was a good score here in the fall and it might be pretty good next week.”

The other characteristic of Korn Ferry Tour events at the Valley course has been close decisions. Five of the six tournaments played at the Valley between 2010-2015 were decided by one shot or in a playoff.

The only margin greater than that was a two-shot victory for Chesson Hadley in 2013.

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Official World Golf Ranking to restart after Charles Schwab Challenge

After the PGA Tour season resumes with the Charles Schwab Challenge, the Official World Golf Ranking will resume.

The Official World Golf Ranking Governing Board announced Wednesday the group’s rankings will restart after June 14.

The PGA Tour is expected to resume June 11-14 with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The Korn Ferry Tour is also expected to resume the same week with the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass. The rankings are expected to resume on a weekly basis following the tournaments.

Rory McIlroy sat as the top-ranked male golfer during the break while Jin Young Ko earned the No. 1 spot on the women’s side. McIlroy is currently No. 2 on the Golfweek/Sagarin Professional Ranking behind Webb Simpson, while Ko retained her top ranking. The Golfweek/Sagarin Ranking continued to run throughout the COVID-19 break.

During the break, McIlroy — who jumped to No. 1 on the OWGR in February —won TaylorMade Driving Relief, a charity match for COVID-19 relief, with partner Dustin Johnson. The pair defeated Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff.

The first event back on the European Tour schedule after the pause due to COVID-19 is the British Masters at Close House Golf Club in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. The LPGA is expected to restart mid-July with the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, a team event in Midland, Michigan, July 15-18. European Tour and LPGA players, among other pros impacted by later season restarts, will be able to compete for ranking points until their seasons resume.

The OWGR was frozen March 15 due to COVID-19 and resulting postponements of the professional golf calendar.

With competition on other eligible tours won’t restart at the same time, many players will not have the opportunity to compete for ranking points until a later date. The averaging formula used in the calculation of the Ranking will help to mitigate any resulting impact, be it positive or negative to a player’s ranking.

“The upcoming resumption of play in the United States marks the welcome beginning of the recovery of elite men’s golf from the effects of the pandemic,” OWGR Board Chairman Peter Dawson said. “Many of our sport’s top players will be competing and this merits today’s announcement of the reactivation of the Ranking. The safeguards in the OWGR system alongside the continued recognition of the frozen Ranking will help players globally, and the Board will continue to monitor developments in these difficult times.”

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Vijay Singh withdraws from Korn Ferry Tour opener at TPC Sawgrass

After being met with criticism – and some shocking support – Vijay Singh has withdrawn from the Korn Ferry Tour’s opening event.

It appears crossover golf and MMA fans won’t get to experience Singh vs. Schnell in the octagon after all.

Vijay Singh caused quite a stir a few weeks back when the three-time major champion’s name appeared on the field list for the Korn Ferry Tour’s first post-pandemic event at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course June 11-14.

On Sunday, the PGA Tour confirmed Singh has withdrawn from the Korn Ferry Challenge. Golf Channel was first to report.

Singh riled up golf Twitter – Korn Ferry Tour pro Brady Schnell, in particular – with his initial decision to enter the KFT event. Being a lifetime PGA Tour member, The Big Fijian was eligible to enter the event because he wasn’t playing in the Tour’s return to play that same week at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Schnell called Singh a “turd” and “true piece of trash” for entering the KFT event. On the flipside, Singh received shocking support from Phil Mickelson and also David Duval. Schnell eventually apologized for his reaction.

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Korn Ferry Tour president Baldwin on restart: ‘It’s intense’

Getting ready to resume tournament golf on the Korn Ferry Tour next month won’t be quite as daunting as doing the same on the PGA Tour.

From a logistical standpoint, getting ready to resume tournament golf on the Korn Ferry Tour next month won’t be quite as daunting as doing the same on the PGA Tour.

But one area isn’t being compromised: the safety of players, caddies, tournament staff and volunteers as professional golf continues to ramp up during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The scale is a little bit different,” said Korn Ferry Tour president Alexandra Baldwin on Thursday of the preparations for the Korn Ferry Challenge at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley course June 11-14, the same week that the PGA Tour resumes its schedule with the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. “We’ll only have about 400 people on site [which includes 156 players and 156 caddies]. We won’t have a TV broadcast window [which would require around 100 more people on the course] and fans, so we can control it more.”

But the protocols for testing players, caddies and staff for the COVID-19 virus will be exactly the same at both sites and at future venues — including June 18-21 when the Korn Ferry Tour moves to the World Golf Hall of Fame King & Bear course.

“There won’t be any difference and there shouldn’t be any difference in the most important area,” said Andy Pazder, the chief tournaments and competitions officer for the PGA Tour. “We will adhere to the same protocols in a tournament city, the initial screening process, sheltering at the tournament hotel and enforcing the same social distancing.”

Baldwin said staging a 72-hole tournament with 156 players and keeping everyone as safe as possible “is a huge responsibility.”

She also pointed out that players on the Korn Ferry Tour, which is the main path to the PGA Tour, have been inactive longer and had played in fewer tournaments (six) than PGA Tour players (22) who last hit shots that counted in the first round of The Players Championship on March 13.

“We haven’t hit a tee shot since March 1 in Mexico,” she pointed out. “This is their livelihood and we recognize the importance of providing them with playing opportunities. They’re trying to put food on the table. But ensuring the health and safety of players, caddies, staff, the host organization and the communities is paramount and as much as we’re eager to play, we’re not going to do so unless we’re being safe and responsible.”

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The first four PGA Tour events and the first six Korn Ferry Tour events out of the gate will not allow fans or players’ families, and will be conducted with a minimum of volunteers and media. Players on both tours are being encouraged to use home testing kits before they leave for Fort Worth and Ponte Vedra Beach, but will still be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival.

“We hope the players use the home kits,” Pazder said. “I would want to know before I left whether I was positive or not.”

The Tour also is providing a host hotel for players to keep them in a “bubble.” It’s not required but the Tour is requesting in the strongest terms that players stay in those hotels.

Charter flights also are available between sites to keep players and caddies traveling together as much as possible — and minimizing their exposure to those outside the bubble — but to get on the charter flights they have to be tested again after playing in the third round on Saturday and will require a negative test to get on board the plane the following Monday.

Those players who are able to fly because of negative test won’t have to go through the initial test at the next tournament stop.

Even though the Korn Ferry events at the Valley Course and the King & Bear are at courses that wind through a residential area, Pazder said homeowners are still not allowed on the course and will be asked to retreat to their backyards if they stray too close.

However, he did acknowledge that many homes have good views of the course and as long as the residents and their friends stay within their property, the players probably wouldn’t mind hearing a few words of encouragement.

“If a few of them want to see what they can and cheer from their back patio, that would be great,” he said.

The Tour rolled out its plans to return during a May 13 teleconference. While it seemed ambitious to begin in less than a month, Pazder said the process has gone as well as he could have anticipated.

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“I am confident we’ll play golf,” he said. “There were things we were still working on that have come together very nicely. We’ve finalized all of our vendors for our testing plans at home and on-site testing, the Department of Homeland Security has granted waivers for pro athletes from all sports who live overseas to travel back to the U.S. from countries that were on a prohibited list and the state of Texas has repealed some of their travel restrictions, which actually were domestic. All of those things transpired since we did that [teleconference] and it has furthered our level of optimism.”

“Everything is proceeding,” Baldwin said. “It’s intense. We’re planning two new tournaments in weeks when it normally would take a year, and undertaking and implementing protocols we never realized we’d have to do on a golf course. We’ve crafted a plan that I think is logical, efficient and effective, but it’s new and we’re all adapting.”

And what will the golf look like?

Baldwin said she doesn’t expect much rust on the Korn Ferry Tour players.

“They’re competitors,” she said. “They want to return to their field of play. Let’s get the balls in the air.”

Four pro golfers, one house: Welcome to ‘The Dirty Meadow’

Four up-and-coming professional golfers all live in the same house in Dallas. Experience what life is like at “The Dirty Meadow.”

It’s not long after you walk in “The Dirty Meadow” – more on that later – that you realize it’s a golf-friendly house. Maybe 5-10 seconds.

“The hitting net in the living room now is a dead giveaway,” said Charlie Saxon.

The house in Dallas on Clover Meadow (hence the name, and because, why not?) is home to Saxon and his former Oklahoma Sooner teammates Max McGreevy and Grant Hirschman, as well as former Texas standout Scottie Scheffler. Former Drake University players Will McDonald and Drew Ison also live there.

With Scheffler on the PGA Tour and Saxon, McGreevy and Hirschman on the Korn Ferry Tour, the Dirty Meadow just might be the most talented golf house in America.

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Scheffler led last season’s Korn Ferry Tour Finals points list and the overall season points list, earning his PGA Tour card for the 2020 season and 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year honors. Saxon played his senior year at Oklahoma with McGreevy and Hirschman in 2014-15. The latter two went on to win the NCAA Championship with the Sooners in 2017.

The Dirty Meadow

So why Dallas? Depends who you ask.

Scheffler says it’s because the Sooners just couldn’t handle Oklahoma anymore. The Oklahoma boys disagree. Dallas is a bit warmer in the winter, and flying out of Oklahoma City meant a lot of connections through Dallas anyway.

The hitting net in the living room of The Dirty Meadow, featuring Grant Hirschman’s dog, Pal. (Photo: Grant Hirschman)

It all started when Scheffler and Hirschman graduated in 2018. The two had talked about moving to Dallas for a couple months. As Hirschman remembers, Scheffler didn’t respond for four months (if you ask Scheffler, Hirschman forgot about him and only texted him once).

Hirschman then reached out to Saxon and McGreevy, as well as McDonald and Ison. With half the group on the road playing golf, McGreevy and Ison did most of the house hunting. Scheffler got back in the picture and the house was theirs on May 1, 2019. It wasn’t until late last fall that the entire group was together under one roof. Even then Scheffler was still gone a lot on Tour. The group doesn’t even have a picture of the four of them all together.

Six people in one house can be a lot to handle, not to mention six fiercely-competitive professionals all in their 20s. That said, the group doesn’t get in many big fights, just small minute-long spats where they soon end up laughing.

McGreevy said the most difficult part of being quarantined together is they don’t really have a getaway, other than the golf course. In fact, they’re even worse when they’re together at the course.

“Most of our arguments occur when the four of us go play,” explained Hirschman. “We play so slow because we sit there and argue on the green and then we argue on the tee box and before we know it we’re holding up the entire golf course and we’re most likely the four best players on the golf course.”

The house agreed Scheffler was the one who talks the most trash on the course, with McGreevy adding “he’s probably made four birdies in a row, so it’s okay, but he likes to dig.”

Off the course, the guys are just as competitive. During their time in quarantine they’ve started playing board games. One game in particular, Sequence, gets rather heated. Especially with a little action. They might be professional athletes, but the pot isn’t anything Michael Jordan Last Dance-esque.

“That doesn’t fit the Korn Ferry Tour salary,” joked Saxon.

Life together on tour

While the comment was made in jest, it’s true at the same time. The life of a professional athlete isn’t always a glamorous one, especially for a young golfer trying to make his way up the ranks. It’s normally a long season on the Korn Ferry Tour, traveling week after week with less-than-stellar accommodations to small cities across the country, rarely getting to be home.

“It’s been nice to be at home, and even though being on the road is difficult at times, we all love it,” said Saxon. “We love the competition and the grind and I know we’re all missing it.”

Drew Ison caddying for Max McGreevy at the 2019 Macau Championship on the PGA Tour Series – China.

“The biggest benefit is just picking each other’s brains,” explained Hirschman. “We’ve all been through quite a bit and had our own personal experiences with golf and we can learn a lot from each other.”

Even as these four housemates told their story over the phone, their tight bond was clearly visible in the way they spoke about each other and interacted. Not a minute of conversation went by without a genuine laugh and jab at someone’s expense. The great thing about the Dirty Meadow men is their friendship carries over to the tour, even as competitors.

“On the road if you’re struggling it’s good to have buddies to bounce thoughts and feelings off of,” added Saxon.

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Q&A with Korn Ferry’s Dylan Meyer: Lots of fishing, lots of movies

This might be the first time since he first picked up a club that Dylan Meyer hasn’t been playing as much as golf as he would prefer. The Evansville native quickly became one of the bright young stars in the game over the past few years. After a …

This might be the first time since he first picked up a club that Dylan Meyer hasn’t been playing as much as golf as he would prefer.

The Evansville native quickly became one of the bright young stars in the game over the past few years. After a decorated career at the University of Illinois, Meyer turned professional in the summer of 2018.

It took off quickly with a six-figure payday at the U.S. Open following a Top 20 finish. Next came a Callaway sponsorship and several other successful tournaments. The future looked bright — and still does.

His first full year as a professional in 2019 was up and down, but Meyer was gearing up for a strong return this spring and summer. He finished tied for seventh in Mackenzie Tour Q School (PGA Tour Canada) to earn status there. But everything is on hold due to COVID-19.

Editor’s note: The following has been edited for clarity.

Since everything went down with stay at home orders, what have you been up to and where are you calling home base?

I had been in Florida since the beginning of December practicing and getting ready for the season that was upcoming. But with COVID-19, that has taken a back seat until we get an announcement of when we start again. I am back in Evansville now and that is where my home base has been since I turned professional.

When was the last time you played a professional round?

The last tournament round that I played in was Mackenzie Tour Q-School (in March).

Following Q-School, you earned status in Canada for the first six events. What was the plan for this spring? Any other look at golf stateside?

The plan for the spring was to play in a few Monday qualifiers for the Korn Ferry Tour until the season started in Canada at the end of May. Since everything has happened, all of that has changed. I may be able to do a few Monday qualifiers leading up to the Canada season, but I am just wanting to get the chance to play at this point in time.

You graduated from Illinois in 2018 following a very successful career (2017 Big Ten Player of the Year). You’re still a big Illini guy. What did you learn the most from your time on campus/the program and what do you miss the most?

I love Illinois and always will that’s for sure. What I learned the most from Coach (Mike) Small was how to approach the game as a professional. I grew as a person on and off the golf course which was a major impact on my life moving forward. I appreciate coach Small and everything he has done for me. I miss going out and competing each week with the guys and playing for the school I love.

What would be your dream golf foursome to play with and what course?

Steve Stricker, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. I would love to play at Augusta National with them.

Have you learned any new skills during the down time? Been able to catch up on Netflix/Hulu/etc. and the like?

I have not picked up any new skills, but I have been fishing a lot while I was down in West Palm Beach. I have had quite a bit of time to catch up on a bunch of movies and shows on all platforms. I have been really investing my time into “The Last Dance” every Sunday night.

The PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour have released a return schedule starting in June. Do you know when it will pick back up for you? What are you able to do now to stay sharp?

We have not received any updates on when the Canada season is going to start back up. Based on the timeline of everything I am hoping it is by the end of July since there are still four qualifying sites to be completed for this 2020 season. I have taken this time off to really take care of my body and get my mind in the right place entering the season. I will start practicing about a month or so before the season starts.

Kyle Sokeland is a sports reporter for the Evansville Courier & Press, part of the USA Today Network. Follow him on Twitter @kylesokeland.

Brady Schnell tweets apology for calling Vijay Singh a ‘true piece of trash’

One Korn Ferry Tour golfer apologized after tweeting insults at Vijay Singh for participating in a lower-level tour event.

Brady Schnell is sorry.

One day after Schnell tweeted he disapproved of Vijay Singh participating in the Korn Ferry Challenge by calling Singh “a true piece of trash” and a “turd” if he accepted money from the event, the 35-year-old Korn Ferry Tour golfer apologized.

“Yesterday I said some disrespectful things towards (Singh) and for that I am truly sorry!” Schnell wrote. “A different approach should have been taken in order to get my point across. I will learn from this and be better! I’m looking forward to getting back to work and playing some golf.”

In the string of tweets Thursday, Schnell said he was more than happy to tell Singh, 57, how he felt face-to-face about the former Masters champion taking a spot — and potentially money — from one of the lower-level circuit’s players. Schnell later deleted all tweets.

Singh did not publicly respond to Schnell.

David Duval was one of a few pros to speak in defense of Singh. When Duval asked for his reaction to Singh playing in the Korn Ferry Tour event, Duval said, “Why not? He gets to be at home and play a competitive event. What’s wrong with that?”

Duval compared the situation with Singh competing in a lower-level event to the use of a sponsor exemption.

“You don’t take a spot away from someone who doesn’t have one,” Duval said to Golfweek. “You either have a spot or you don’t. I’ve never agreed with the argument you’re taking away a spot. You’re either exempt or you’re not and if you’re not exempt you’re in the same boat as everyone else.”

Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass is expected to resume the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour season June 11-14 at Dye’s Valley Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

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Pro golfer calls Vijay Singh a ‘turd’ and ‘true piece of trash’ for entering Korn Ferry Tour event

Pro player Brady Schnell called Vijay Singh a “turd” and “true piece of trash” for a entering Korn Ferry Tour event.

Vijay Singh is taking his talents to … the Korn Ferry Tour?

When tournament golf returns, the 34-time PGA Tour champion and four-time PGA Tour Champions winner will tee it up at the Korn Ferry Challenge, June 11-14, according to the Monday Q Info Twitter account. Singh is considered a “life member” of the PGA Tour, but there is no eligibility category for that week’s Tour event, the Charles Schwab Challenge, since it is an invitational. (Some invitationals offer entry to life members, but the event at Colonial isn’t one of them.)

Brady Schnell, a player on the Korn Ferry Tour, isn’t too happy about that.

The 35-year-old took to Twitter to voice his displeasure with Singh being in the field, calling him “a true piece of trash” if he accepts money from the event. They aren’t just Twitter fingers, though. Schnell is more than happy to tell the 57-year-old Singh how he feels in person.

After being flooded with replies, Schnell explained his reasoning for calling out Singh, saying in a tweet that he was “just trying to protect the money AND valuable points for every player on the tour that needs them to move on to the PGA Tour. There is NO point to him playing.”

The 2018 Wichita Open winner wasn’t alone in criticizing Singh’s decision, and he wasn’t done calling him out, either. In response to Singh just taking “one spot” in the field, Schnell had quite the reaction.

Singh isn’t too active on social media, and as of the time of this post “The Big Fijian” has yet to respond. If he does respond, we can’t wait to see what Schnell says next.

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Korn Ferry Tour announces modifications, including wraparound 2020-21 season

The Korn Ferry Tour announced five fall events to the schedule that will be part of a one-time combined, wraparound 2020-21 season.

The Korn Ferry Tour has announced five fall events that will be part of a one-time combined, wraparound 2020-21 season.

The newly created 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour schedule will bridge two seasons and conclude with 25 PGA Tour cards awarded at the 2021 WinCo Foods Portland Open, with an additional 25 cards awarded at the conclusion of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Among them is a new event at Orange County National in Orlando, which will be the last event of the year, Oct. 8-11.

The four other added events were all on the original 2020 schedule but were postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus: the Lincoln Land Championship, Evans Scholars Invitational, Wichita Open and Savannah Golf Championship. Instead, they have been scheduled between Sept. 3 and Oct. 4, with no Korn Ferry event held during the week of the rescheduled U.S. Open (Sept. 17-20).

The announcement of a fall schedule comes after the PGA Tour announced last week that, due to circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation or postponement of 13 events from the 2019-20 Tour season, eligibility has been extended for exempt 2019-20 PGA Tour members for the 2020-21 season.

These adjustments mean the Korn Ferry Tour won’t have a graduating class in 2020; however, the Tour has established a performance benefit for the top 10 from the Korn Ferry Tour points list following the conclusion of the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Those players will be granted access into all PGA Tour events for the 2020-21 season.

With six events completed through the El Bosque Mexico Championship, the remaining 2020 schedule now consists of 23 events. Korn Ferry Tour events to be contested in 2021 as part of the combined 2020-21 schedule will be announced later this year.

“While we won’t have the opportunity to graduate a Korn Ferry Tour Class in 2020, we feel our reimagined wraparound schedule – with newly created playing opportunities – is the best solution to our season that has been disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin.

The restart to the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour season will begin with the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The event will be followed by a second event in Northeast Florida at The King & Bear Course at World Golf Village in St. Augustine. This new tournament takes the place of the Wichita Open Supporting Wichita’s Youth, which will move to one of the newly created fall dates.

“With the impact sustained thus far to our 2020 schedule, it was imperative that we strive to create new playing opportunities for our membership, including these four events that were not on our original schedule,” Baldwin said.

The Lincoln Land Championship in Springfield, Illinois, will move from the week of July 13-19 to one of the new fall dates, which leaves the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper in Springfield, Missouri, as the first of six events on the original 2020 calendar that will remain as scheduled through the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

In addition to the Lincoln Land Championship and the Wichita Open Supporting Wichita’s Youth, the Evans Scholars Invitational in Chicago, and the Savannah Golf Championship in Savannah, Georgia, were also rescheduled for the new fall season.

Revised 2020 Korn Ferry Tour Season schedule:

  • June 8-14: Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass, TPC Sawgrass (Dye’s Valley), Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
  • June 15-20: The King & Bear Classic at World Golf Village, The King & Bear GC at World Golf Village, St. Augustine, Florida (Saturday finish)
  • June 22-28: Utah Championship, Oakridge CC, Farmington, Utah
  • June 29-July 5: TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes, TPC Colorado, Berthoud, Colorado
  • July 6-12: TPC San Antonio Challenge at the Canyons, TPC San Antonio (Canyons Course), San Antonio, Texas
  • July 13-18: TPC San Antonio Championship at the Oaks, TPC San Antonio (Oaks Course), San Antonio, Texas (Saturday finish)
  • July 20-26: Price Cutter Charity Championship, Highland Springs CC, Springfield, Missouri
  • July 27-August 2: Pinnacle Bank Championship, The Club at Indian Creek, Omaha, Nebraska
  • August 3-9: WinCo Foods Portland Open, Pumpkin Ridge GC (Witch Hollow), North Plains, Oregon
  • August 10-16: Albertsons Boise Open, Hillcrest CC, Boise, Idaho
  • August 17-23: Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, Ohio State University GC (Scarlet Course), Columbus, Ohio
  • August 24-30: Korn Ferry Tour Championship, Victoria National GC, Newburgh, Indiana
  • August 31-September 6: Lincoln Land Championship , Panther Creek CC, Springfield, Illinois
  • September 7-13 : Evans Scholars Invitational, TBD, Chicago, Illinois
  • September 21-27: Wichita Open Supporting Wichita’s Youth, Crestview CC, Wichita, Kansas
  • September 28-October 4: Savannah Golf Championship, The Landings Club (Deer Creek), Savannah, Georgia
  • October 5-11: Orange County National Championship presented by Knight 39, Orange County Golf Center & Lodge (Panther Lake), Winter Garden, Florida

The Korn Ferry Tour is expected to resume play with at least the first four events closed to the general public while continuing to monitor the COVID-19 situation and follow the recommendations of local and state authorities in order to determine the most appropriate on-site access in each market. Decisions on fan attendance at all events thereafter will be dependent on available protocols that could be implemented to ensure the health and well-being for all involved.

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