TPC Colorado Golf Course PGA Tour University Places Top Five Collegiate Golfers in TPC Colorado Korn Ferry Tour

PGA TOUR University Places Top Five Collegiate Golfers in TPC Colorado Korn Ferry Tour

Austin Eckroat finished No. 3 in PGA TOUR University. (Taylor Crosby/PGA TOUR)

By Shelley Widhalm for TPC Colorado

Five elite golf players don’t have to work their way into the professional ranks this year, getting a straight shot at the Korn Ferry Tour’s TPC Colorado Championship through the new PGA TOUR University.

“This is a really cool, unique opportunity that historically has never been had, ” said Brendan von Doehren, senior director of tournament and membership affairs for the PGA (Professional Golfers’ Association) TOUR in Ponte Verda Beach, Fla.

The PGA TOUR University is a program and a division within PGA TOUR founded June 1, 2020, that provides top collegiate golf players (NCAA Division I) with direct access to professional golf. The inaugural class finished at the end of May with the top players awarded varying levels of playing access to tours operated under the PGA TOUR umbrella.

“It provides an opportunity for the best college players and golfers to have a start in professional golf, ” von Doehren said. “We think this is going to be transformational for our business as well as the greater game of golf. ”

NCAA Division I collegiate golfers across the nation can compete for one of 450 spots in the PGA TOUR University during their senior year of college. They are eligible for the PGA TOUR University Ranking List when they complete four years of college or three years through early graduation.

“The PGA TOUR University has its ranking system, which ranks all 450 players in the country, ” von Doehren said.

The top ranked players are selected based on their performance at college events and are drafted into the program, similar to how college basketball players are drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA).

At the end of their senior year, players ranked in the top five slots have the opportunity to compete in the TPC Colorado Korn Ferry, which this year is July 5-11 at TPC Colorado at Heron Lakes in Berthoud. The tour is a developmental tour to land a spot to compete in the PGA TOUR, the main organizer of professional men’s golf tours.

The five TPC Colorado qualifiers are

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Kevin Yu opened up the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by SYNNEX Corporation with a 5-under 66. (Taylor Crosby/PGA TOUR)

among the top 15 players who received membership in the Korn Ferry after competing in the stroke play at the NCAA Championship, a 72-hole event May 31 at Greyhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. Their ranking gave them Korn Ferry Tour membership and exempt status into all open, full-field events through the season, as well as this year’s Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament at the conclusion of the season.

Players ranking 6th to 15th receive membership into one of PGA’s international tours, including the Forme Tour, the PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the PGA Tour Series. Those tours are developmental tours for the Korn Ferry—the top five players in Forme place in the Korn Ferry the following year.

“(Forme’s) a starter tour, like Triple-A Baseball, ” Doehren said, explaining that the tour gives players an avenue to develop their skills and boost their ranking in professional sports. “We’re taking those players straight from college and putting them on the Korn Ferry and Forme tours. ”

Prior to the PGA TOUR University, amateur players qualified for professional opportunities in several ways. They could attend a qualifying school, receive sponsorship exemptions into tournaments that serve as invitations, and place in a Monday qualifier, a stroke play golf tournament held the Monday before a professional tournament that gives top players an entry.

The top 15 players in the PGA TOUR University bypass all of those steps right into professional sports, where they could make several hundred thousand in the purse for one game.

“We are providing direct access to these players’ first jobs, ” von Doehren said. “It’s like an apprenticeship in other jobs. This is an apprenticeship to a fulltime job. ”

Before, players did not have that guarantee and could be an apprentice for years on end, von Doehren said

“This is now that guaranteed access, ” von Doehren said.