Dreams became a reality on Monday for the 25 players who earned their PGA Tour card for the 2019-20 season via the three-week Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
While their destination was ultimately the same, each took a unique road to the Tour. Scottie Scheffler had a dominant year on the Korn Ferry Tour, picking up two wins and 10 top-10 finishes in twenty starts. For others, it’s been a long year – or eight – to make it to the show. In fact for two players, it came down to the final hole of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
Here are some of the best stories from those who earned their Tour cards this week.
Brutal miss
Imagine missing your dream by less than a point.
Doug Ghim
Ghim entered the week 29th in the standings. After the week of play at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, the former Texas standout needed a par on his final hole of the day and the 1,224th hole of his Korn Ferry season.
“I’ve never felt nerves like that before. … to have it all come down to one putt is pretty surreal,” Ghim said after his round.
Not only did Ghim earn his par, he did it the hard way, with an epic sand save.
D.J. Trahan
Ghim making par on his final hole was difficult. What if he had to make birdie?
That wasn’t a “what if” scenario for Trahan, it was his situation. And the 38-year-old made it look easy.
On the 432-yard par-4 18th hole, Trahan painted the fairway off the tee and went pin-seeking with his approach, setting up the birdie he so desperately needed.
“When I finished I was not inside the top 25, so I was just going to go take a shower,” Trahan said in an interview with Golf Channel after his round, noting he tried not to look at the scoring. “Then I was told that players out on the course could effect my point total, so I stayed an watched.”
Trahan turned pro in 2003 and spent the 2004 season on the then-Nationwide Tour (now Korn Ferry). He made his PGA Tour in 2005 and won his first event at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic in 2006, an alternate event to the WGC-American Express Championship. His second Tour win came in 2008 at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
The Clemson graduate has held conditional status on Tour the last seven years, but next season will be the first time since 2012 he has held full status on Tour.
Joseph Bramlett
Bramlett turned pro after graduating from Stanford and earned his PGA Tour card via Qualifying School in 2010. That next season he made just twelve of 25 cuts, finishing 196th on the 2011 money list. He lost his Tour card and hasn’t made it back since. Until Monday.
After battling severe back injuries for the better of the last five years, Bramlett will be back on Tour for the first time since 2011 after his T-26 finish at 7-under at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
Tom Lewis
The Englishman has spent the majority of his career across the pond on the European tour. Lewis has two wins in 187 starts in Europe and earned European Tour Rookie of the Year honors in 2011.
This last week at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship was his first-ever start on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Not only did he lock up a Tour card, he won the whole thing. Lewis won by five shots after a final-round 7 under to win at 23 under overall.
