Barjon won the no-cut, 72-hole Korn Ferry Tour Championship and now he’s getting a promotion.
Paul Barjon won the no-cut, 72-hole Korn Ferry Tour Championship on Sunday and now he’s getting a promotion.
In fact, he’s one of 30 golfers who locked up a 2024 PGA Tour card after the conclusion of the final KFT event of 2023.
Barjon shot 72-70-64-68 at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Indiana, to finish at 14 under and win by three shots over Fabian Gomez. Joe Highsmith and Mac Meissner tied for third at 10 under.
The KFT Championship was the 26th and final event of the 2023 season. Heading into the finale, 16 cards had already been locked up but there was intense battle for the remaining 14.
Barjon was among those chasing one of those 14 spots, as he started the week at No. 45 but his victory vaulted him all the way to No. 8.
Players who finished Nos. 31-60 on the KFT points list have earned exemptions to Final Stage of PGA Tour Q-School, where the top five finishers and ties will earn their 2024 PGA Tour card.
Tom Hoge and Seamus Power know they may have let a better chance at winning the tournament slip away.
Tom Hoge and Seamus Power have played well enough through three rounds of The American Express to be among the leaders at the tournament. But both Hoge and Power know they may have let a better chance at winning the tournament slip away Saturday afternoon.
“I would have liked a few more for sure, but there were quite a few tough holes out there,” Hoge said after a 4-under 68 that included just one birdie and no bogeys in his final 11 holes. “A couple tough par-3 that we had to deal with, a few tough tee shots, and there’s just enough wind and it’s moving around just enough that it was kind of tough to get the right yardage on all the approach shots coming in.”
With Hoge leading at 17 under and Power at 16 under in the clubhouse, they could only watch as Paul Barjon and Lee Hodges shot low scores on the tougher Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West on a breezy day to pass them up.
Playing together in the last group of the day at the Stadium Course, Hodges regained a share of the lead he had in the first round with an 8-under 64. Barjon shot 65, and the pair finished the day at 18-under 198. Hoge is alone in third at 199.
“It was tough early and (the wind) kind of died on our back nine a little bit,” said Hodges, who played his final nine holes in 6 under. “It was off and on, but it was a good wind for, like the easy holes were playing a little easier but the hard holes were hard. So you just had to make a couple pars and then get to those downwind holes.”
Hodges opened the tournament with a 62 at La Quinta, but was hitting the ball just as well Saturday, he said.
“It was a great day. Hit the ball really well. I know it was really nice to see some putts fall on that back nine,” Hodges said. “I made three nice putts in a row there from like 10 to 12. And then just kind of really hit some quality shots coming in to give myself some easy birdies.”
Playing side by side with Hodges, who is ranked 312th in the world to Barjon’s 313th, Barjon played the final nine holes Saturday in 4 under to get a share of the lead. A rookie on the PGA Tour, Barjon is looking for his first win on tour, as are six of the top 10 players on the leader board. Barjon also played his way into the final threesome Sunday, where he will play with Hodges for the fourth consecutive day.
Paul Barjon plays his shot from the ninth tee during the third round of the American Express golf tournament at Peter Dye Stadium Course. Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
“It was great playing with Lee again for the third day. He played really good the first day, really kind of set the tone by making pretty much everything he looked at on the green,” Barjon said. “So that’s always good to see and just kind of get inspired by that and trying to make as many putts as we could the last three days and we made quite a few. So we’re going to try to keep it going tomorrow.”
The tricky back nine at La Quinta Country Club and trickier winds that hit the tournament Saturday prevented Hoge and Power from separating themselves from the field late in the day.
Taking advantage of the early scoring holes on the front nine at La Quinta, Hoge was 4 under through seven holes Saturday and Power was 6 under through six holes. But Hoge was just 1 under in his closing 11 holes and Power was even through his last final 12 holes to finish at 16 under and alone in fourth place.
“It was an interesting round. It was very fun on the front there,” Power said. “It was one of those rounds you just kind of made everything I looked at for an hour and a half. But, yeah, had a little bit of a hiccup there, three-putted 9 from really nowhere at all and didn’t take advantage of 11 or 13.”
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That allowed other golfers playing on the tougher Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West to stay in touch with the leaders. Six golfers, including 2017 American Express champion Hudson Swafford and former British Open champion Francesco Molinari, are at 15 under with one round to play. The others are Harold Varner III, Harry Higgs, Lanto Griffin and Cameron Young.
Some of the biggest names in the field failed to take advantage of the relatively high scoring among the leaders at La Quinta. Patrick Cantlay, who led the second round at 14 under, finished at that number with an even-par round on the Stadium Course. World No. 1 Jon Rahm did shoot a 67 at the Stadium Course, but he is 13 under and within striking distance of less-experienced players.
The top 10 players heading into the final day include six players looking for their first-ever PGA Tour victory.
With one round remaining in the 2022 American Express golf tournament, the leaderboard includes a lot of names that are probably new to even avid golf fans.
That’s okay, and not altogether surprising. Six of the last 15 champions here had never won a PGA event before a victory in the desert.
So with that in mind, here is everything you need to know about the contenders at the top of the leaderboard. There are 10 players at 15-under or better.
Of this group, there is one major champion, one former champion in the desert, three international players, three players playing this event for the first time, and six players looking for their first career PGA Tour win.
Paul Barjon (-18)
Age: 29
From: Born in Bordeaux, France; resides in Fort Worth, Texas
College: TCU
Number of PGA Tour wins: Zero
Best finish at this event: First appearance
Current World Golf Ranking: 313
Notable: With a win, Barjon would be the seventh international winner in the tournament’s 62-year history. It marks the first time the desert’s golf tournament would have back-to-back international winners as Si Woo Kim of South Korea won last year.
Lee Hodges (-18)
Age: 26
From: Born in Huntsville, Alabama, resides in Athens, Alabama
College: UAB and Alabama
Number of PGA Tour wins: Zero
Best finish at this event: First appearance
Current World Golf Ranking: 312
Notable: Hodges is from an athletic family. His cousin, Logan Stenberg, is an offensive lineman in the NFL for the Detroit Lions (as of 2021).
Tom Hoge (-17)
Tom Hoge tees off on hole one during the third round of The American Express at the La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022.
Age: 32
From: North Carolina, but resides in Fargo, North Dakota
College: TCU
Number of PGA Tour wins: Zero
Best finish at this event: Tied for 6th in 2020
Current World Golf Ranking: 115
Notable: For starters, his name is pronounced exactly like the word Hoagie. This is the seventh time Hoge has played here and he missed the cut, four of the previous six, so this effort on these courses is a bit of a surprise.
Seamus Power (-16)
Age: 34
From: Tooraneena, County Waterford, Ireland
College: East Tennessee State
Number of PGA Tour wins: 1 (2021 Barbasol Championship)
Best finish at this event: Tie for 11th in 2018
Current World Golf Ranking: 49
Notable: Power won the Barbasol event last year on the sixth playoff hole over J.T. Poston. In doing so, he became the fifth player from the Republic of Ireland to win a PGA event, joining Pat Doyle, Peter O’Hara, Padraig Harrington, and Shane Lowry.
Lanto Griffin (-15)
Age: 33
From: Born in Mount Shasta, California, resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
College: VCU
Number of PGA Tour wins: 1 (2019 Houston Open)
Best finish at this event: Played twice and missed cut both times
Current World Golf Ranking: 117
Notable: Once on the Web.com Tour, Griffin won an event after making the cut on the number, the only time that has ever happened on that tour.
Harry Higgs (-15)
Harry Higgs tees off on the 13th hole of the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West during the American Express in La Quinta, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022.
Age: 30
From: Born in Camden, New Jersey, lives in Dallas, Texas
College: SMU
Number of PGA Tour wins: Zero
Best finish at this event: Played here once (2020) and missed the cut
Current World Golf Ranking: 141
Notable: He’s not nervous when the bright lights are on. Higgs has only played in one major tournament in his career, the 2021 PGA Championship, and he finished tied for fourth.
Hudson Swafford (-15)
Age: 34
From: Born in Tallahassee, Florida; resides in Sea Island, Georgia
College: University of Georgia
Number of PGA Tour wins: Two (2017 CareerBuilder Challenge, 2020 Puerto Rico Championship)
Best finish at this event: Winner in 2017
Current World Golf Ranking: 166
Notable: Hudson Swafford won this event in 2017, notably edging out Adam Hadwin, whose week included a 59 at La Quinta Country Club.
Cameron Young (-15)
Age: 24
From: Born in Scarborough, New York; resides in Jupiter, Florida
College: Wake Forest
Number of PGA Tour wins: Zero
Best finish at this event: First appearance
Current World Golf Ranking: 134
Notable: Cameron Young is the only player currently on the PGA Tour whose last name begins with a Y.
Francesco Molinari (-15)
Francesco Molinari of Italy walks on the 14th hole during the third round of The American Express at the Stadium Course at PGA West on January 22, 2022, in La Quinta, California. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Age: 39
From: Born and lives in Turin, Italy
College: University of Turin
Number of PGA Tour wins: Three (2018 Quicken Loans, 2018 British Open, 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational)
Best finish at this event: Tied for 10th in 2015
Current World Golf Ranking: 249
Notable: Molinari is one of 13 major champions in the field at The American Express this week. He won the 2018 British Open, outlasting a star-studded group of chasers that included Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, and Xander Schauffele.
Harold Varner III (-15)
Age: 31
From: Born in Akron, Ohio; resides in Charlotte, North Carolina
College: East Carolina
Number of PGA Tour wins: Zero
Best finish at this event: Tied for 18th in 2019
Current World Golf Ranking: 95
Notable: Varner does not have a PGA Tour win, but he does have a win on the European Tour. He won the Australian PGA Championship in 2016.
Paul Barjon is finally a Korn Ferry Tour winner after prevailing on the third hole of a playoff at the Huntsville Championship.
After two extra holes at the end of the Huntsville Championship, it was time for Paul Barjon to pull out the fireworks. The native of New Caledonia (a French territory in the South Pacific) was in a three-way tie at the end of regulation with Billy Kennerly and Mito Pereira, and on the third playoff hole – The Ledge’s par-5 10th – Barjon sealed the title with a well-timed eagle.
Barjon poured in a 20-footer for the win, his first on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The 28-year-old has now played 25 events in this 2020-21 super season. This is his sixth top-10 finish. He has finished with at least a share of second three times this season.
When the chips are down …@TCUMensGolf alum Paul Barjon rises up. 🚀
At the Ledges, Barjon, who played college golf at TCU, posted rounds of 65-67-64-69 to reach 15 under and a share of the lead.
Kennerly, who shot a final-round 63 to get into the playoff, dropped out after a bogey on the second playoff hole. Barjon needed every bit of the eagle, considering that Pereira made birdie on that final extra hole.
In his only other Korn Ferry Tour playoff, at the 2020 El Bosque Mexico Championship, Barjon lost to Chad Ramey. This evens the score.
For Barjon, a victory would likely earn him a place in the U.S. Open.
Paul Barjon carded seven birdies en route to a 66 and he and Lee Hodges are tied atop the leaderboard after Saturday’s third round of the WinCo Foods Portland Open presented by KraftHeinz.
For Barjon, a victory would likely earn him a place in the U.S. Open. Because of COVID-19 and the lack of U.S. Open qualifiers, the top five on the regular-season points list at the end of this week will earn a spot into this year’s major at Winged Foot.
Barjon currently ranks seventh, but a victory would likely give him enough points to leapfrog his way into the major. Currently ahead of him, in order, are Davis Riley, Will Zalatoris, Taylor Pendrith, Dylan Wu, Mito Pereira and Jared Wolfe.
“Obviously, it’s in the back of my mind,” Barjon said. “Playing a major, the U.S. Open, the toughest one out of the four, definitely would mean a lot. That would be a great experience in my opinion.”
Barjon, who hails from France and played collegiately at TCU, has jumped into the race for one of the five spots through a big showing during consecutive tournaments in San Antonio. He finished T-3 in the TPC San Antonio Challenge at the Canyons and then T-2 the next week at TPC San Antonio Championship at the Oaks.
Meanwhile. Hodges followed Friday’s 64 with a solid 68, making a birdie on No. 18, and is tied with Barjon at 11 under. Anders Albertson is one stroke behind.
Paul Barjon jumped 7 spots on the leaderboard Saturday @PortlandOpen.
