The PGA Tour will be offering improved Korn Ferry Tour status in 2020 for players who finish inside the top five on each of their three international tours.
The PGA Tour board approved the measure on Nov. 18 after a June vote from the PGA Tour Policy Board that authorized a shuffling of priority ranking order and categories to give these players more starts starting next season.
“We have done extensive research, and we’ve looked at the International Tour players’ performances on the Korn Ferry Tour. It became very clear that these three Tours have been producing so many good players that we had to improve their access into Korn Ferry Tour tournaments,” said Rob Ohno, PGA Tour Senior Vice President for International Tours.
The PGA Tour says that 14 of the top 25 players on the Korn Ferry Tour regular season points list had significant experience on one of the three tours.
Since the three international tours were born in 2012, the top five players on the money list earned some status on the Korn Ferry Tour. However, after the leading money winner on each of the three tours, the players ranked second through fifth earned poor status compared to the money winner. While the Tour did not yet announced specifically where these players will land on the pecking order, the better status will certainly mean more playing opportunities.
In 2020, all three tours will be moving to a points-based system to determine the top five finishers who will earn Korn Ferry Tour status.
The Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada and the PGA Tour Series China have already ended their seasons. PGA Tour Latinoamerica ends its season with the Shell Championship at Trump National Doral in the first weekend of December.
