Johnny Keefer has become just the third player to win both the Jack Nicklaus Award as the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year and the Korn Ferry Tour Rookie of the Year in the same season.
The 24-year-old Maryland native had a stunning campaign, winning the Veritex Bank Championship and NV5 Invitational along with two runner-up finishes among several more in the top 10.
Those achievements helped ensure he finished top of the Points List to earn his first PGA Tour card.
Along the way, he broke a 13-year Korn Ferry Tour record for single-season scoring average, previously held by Luke Guthrie, finishing with a 67.95 average as he met the challenge of his debut season following graduation from the PGA Tour Americas head-on.
The double achievement means that Keefer is now in very good company alongside the other two players to have won both awards in the same year.
The first was Sungjae Im in 2018, who has gone on to claim two PGA Tour titles.
A year later, Scottie Scheffler matched the South Korean’s feat, and the rest is history, with the World No.1 now established as the dominant force of his era with 19 PGA Tour wins and three-quarters of the way to the career Grand Slam.
Whether Keefer, who averaged over 320 yards off the tee in 2025, goes on to achieve similar success in his PGA Tour career remains to be seen, but his rapid rise suggests he has the bit firmly between his teeth.
Keefer reached the PGA Tour Americas thanks to taking the final place in the 2024 PGA Tour University Ranking while at Baylor University.
In his first season as a professional, he won the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open along with four runner-up placings as he finished top of the Fortinet Cup standings to make his way onto the Korn Ferry Tour.
The year also brought his maiden PGA Tour appearance, where he performed admirably, placing T13 at the Procore Championship, demonstrating he is unlikely to be overawed by the step up that awaits him.
In December 2024, Keefer also played in the final stage of PGA Tour Q-School, although he finished T14 when only the top five and ties earned PGA Tour cards.
In the end, thanks to his stunning rookie season on the Korn Ferry Tour, the wait for his card was less than a year.
Among the challenges Keefer will face in 2026 is an appearance at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, while he has also secured a place in the US Open at Shinnecock Hills, both by virtue of his position at the top of the Korn Ferry Tour Points List.
Other Korn Ferry Tour graduates who will be plying their trade on the PGA Tour next season include Neal Shipley, Christo Lamprecht and Adrien Dumont de Chassart.
