Tag: Victoria National

Here is everything you need to know for the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Championship

25 more players will earn their way to the PGA Tour this weekend.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The thrilling finish to the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour season takes place this week with the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance.

This will be the 10th year Victoria National Golf Club has hosted the second tier to the PGA Tour. Following a change in 2019, it is also the final stop on tour with PGA cards on the line by the end of the week.

It is always an exciting four days of golf played by some of the best in the country. Here is what you need to know for this year’s event.

What is at stake?

The Korn Ferry Tour Championship is the third and final event of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, with the second set of 25 PGA Tour cards being awarded at the conclusion of the tournament.

Nine players have already crossed the 210-point threshold the Korn Ferry Tour is currently using as its fail-safe number for players to finish inside The Finals 25, leaving 16 available PGA Tour cards this week.

MaCabe Brown / Courier & Press

The schedule

The tournament started Thursday morning and will continue through Sunday with first-round tee times scheduled from 6:50 a.m. to 2 p.m. According to weather.com, the forecast calls for temperatures in the low 80s with only Saturday showing possible rain.

Golf Channel will have live coverage of the first two rounds from 10 a.m. to noon ET. The final two days are scheduled to be shown on tape delay: 8-10 p.m. on Saturday) and 7-9 p.m. on Sunday.

Are tickets available?

Last year, the event was restricted to athletes and essential personnel. That isn’t the case for the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

Tickets are still available for purchase through tourchampulf.com/tickets/. Among those listed are daily hospitality suites with amenities. A weekly general admission ticket is $40 and daily admission ticket is $20.

The Field

There are several players to keep an eye on this week.

Defending champion Brandon Wu returns with a chance to make history. No player in the 32 years of the Korn Ferry Tour has successfully defended the Tour Championship. Wu shot a 7-under 65 in the final round last year to win by one shot at 18 under.

MaCabe Brown / Courier & Press

He isn’t the only past champion of the event with Matt Every (2009) and Tom Lewis (2019) also in the event. The field is also headlined by 19 members of The 25, including five of the top 10 in the points standings. There are 72 past Korn Ferry Tour winners with 98 total wins, led by Tommy Gainey and Adam Svensson with three apiece.

There are also 21 past PGA Tour winners including Aaron Baddeley, Sean O’Hair and Camilo Villegas.

While 25 Korn Ferry Tour players already earned their PGA Tour cards through the regular season, a separate points list for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals determines the The Finals 25. The player who earns the most points during the three Finals events (excluding those from the regular season) will earn fully exempt status on the PGA Tour for the 2021-22 season, as well as an invitation to The Players Championship.

Here is the top 10 going into the Tour Championship: Bronson Burgoon, Aaron Rai, J.J. Spaun, Vincent Whaley, Callum Tarren, Lucas Herbert, Matthias Schwab, Scott Gutschewski, Alex Smalley and Sahith Theegala.

MaCabe Brown / Courier & Press

Victoria National Golf Club

The Tom Fazio-design is listed as the 47th best golf course in America, according to Golf Digest. It has also considered one of the toughest stops on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Victoria National was ranked among the top-three six consecutive seasons from 2013-18, and it was the No. 1-ranked toughest course in 2015, 2016, and 2018. A par 72, scores have been higher the past two years after previously hosting a Tour event in late April or early July.

Even playing under different conditions, the course remains brutal for those not playing well. The final stretch on the back nine is considered among the toughest closing holes on Tour.

Follow Courier & Press sports reporter Kyle Sokeland on Twitter @kylesokeland.

Dormie Network: One membership, six clubs, zero assessments

In a landscape when many clubs are struggling, it’s nearly unheard of for a club to not apply maintenance fees to members. With each new facility or renovation come even more assessments, and the fees can add up to the point that continuing …

In a landscape when many clubs are struggling, it’s nearly unheard of for a club to not apply maintenance fees to members. With each new facility or renovation come even more assessments, and the fees can add up to the point that continuing membership may no longer make fiscal sense.

Breaking yet another mold, Dormie Network, a nationwide network of top-ranked private destination golf clubs, has pledged that full member privileges include no assessments. An easy promise to make if there are no plans to expand access or improve facilities, but the network has already made significant improvements to each of its six clubs, with plans for major capital improvements in 2021.

The network’s portfolio, as of 2020, includes Ballyhack in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Roanoke, Virginia; Hidden Creek on the Jersey Shore; Top 100 Victoria National in Newburgh, Indiana; off-the-grid ArborLinks in Nebraska City, Nebraska; namesake Dormie Club just outside Pinehurst, North Carolina; and Briggs Ranch set in the Hill Country of San Antonio, Texas.

A network like this one naturally draws golf purists, but the improvements made and ongoing are often focused on the experience outside of play: each facility is designed with unmatched hospitality in mind.

Standout renovations and new construction include a complete renovation of ArborLinks’ clubhouse in true prairie style, a new wine room at Ballyhack to complement the club’s vino program and tasting menu, and expansion of Victoria National’s putting green to nearly double the size at 15,000 square feet. A slew of new cottages at Briggs Ranch and Dormie Club has converted both clubs into true stay-and-play destinations, and Hidden Creek will also quadruple lodging in 2021 in the form of three new mansion-style lodging houses.

Improved facilities help Dormie not just compete with the traditional country club model but surpass it with seasonal chef-prepared cuisine, specialty cocktails and sommelier-chosen wine, and a standard of at least 60 beds on site. With plans to expand to as many as a dozen clubs covering all regions of the country (and potentially international locales as well), Dormie Network increases member value each year with additional travel opportunities and amenities. 

Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, Dormie Network is under single ownership and provides full membership access to each club with no greens fees, carts fees, annual assessments, or reciprocal play arrangements. With a membership that encourages travel and camaraderie in an exclusive yet comfortable atmosphere, every club will feel like your home club. Learn more at dormienetwork.com/golfweek.