The Korn Ferry Tour season reached its conclusion last week, as 20 players secured a PGA TOUR card for 2026.

Prognosticating who will do well and who will struggle is a fool’s errand. Every season, there are surprises in either direction. Tim Widing finished fifth on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List a year ago and was a popular pick for further success. He’s currently 209th in the FedExCup. Meanwhile, Aldrich Potgieter was 29th on the Points List, the second-to-last player to earn a TOUR card, and is the current favorite for Rookie of the Year.

So instead of predicting future success, let’s analyze which of the 20 graduates will be the most compelling to follow as they jump from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA TOUR.

1. Johnny Keefer

Johnny Keefer narrowly slipped into the PGA TOUR pipeline, but he’s left no doubt of his merit since then.

Keefer topped the Fortinet Cup points list in 2024 after he was the last player to receive any status through the 2024 PGA TOUR University program, quickly dispelling any notion he didn’t belong. His domination continued on the Korn Ferry Tour, where Keefer won twice this year and once again led the season-long points race.

That has earned Keefer plenty of worthy hype. The Baylor graduate climbed all the way to No. 51 in the Official World Golf Ranking despite playing only three career PGA TOUR starts. If he receives any sponsor exemptions during the FedExCup Fall, Keefer could potentially qualify for the Masters before his rookie year has begun.

The 24-year-old displayed an incredibly well-rounded game in his lone Korn Ferry Tour season, finishing fourth in Total Driving, boasting an average distance of 320 yards. He ranked 15th in greens in regulation, second in scrambling, and 10th in putting average.

Keefer has succeeded at every level of pro golf and has done so rather quickly. Will there be any learning curve on TOUR or will Keefer’s torrid pace continue?

2. Neal Shipley

It doesn’t take much to imagine what Neal Shipley can do on the PGA TOUR. He’s already displayed it in limited opportunities. The low amateur at the 2024 Masters and U.S. Open, Shipley has made nine cuts in 12 TOUR starts. His best finish was a T6 at last year’s ISCO Championship.

Despite the success in pro events, Shipley wasn’t a standout collegiate pro, finishing 48th in the 2024 PGA TOUR University. That forced Shipley to start at the bottom and work his way up, qualifying for the Korn Ferry Tour after a strong stint on PGA TOUR Americas and quickly parlaying an exemplary Korn Ferry Tour season into his TOUR card.

Shipley very nearly earned himself early entry into the remainder of TOUR events this season, coming close to a Three-Win Promotion that would’ve earned him immediate status on TOUR (instead, he will wait until the start of 2026 like the rest of the Korn Ferry Tour graduates). Shipley won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour and finished tied for third on two occasions, the last coming in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance.

How Shipley fares with a full TOUR schedule is among the biggest storylines of this graduating class. The Ohio State product, highlighted on Netflix’s Full Swing earlier this year, displayed an infectious personality with a game to match the hype. Yet not every highly anticipated prospect shines right away on TOUR. Which bucket will Shipley fall into?

3. Christo Lamprecht

Christo Lamprecht is hard to ignore. Be it his remarkable power (Korn Ferry Tour leader in Driving Distance), his impressive resume (former amateur world No. 1) or the simple fact that he stands an extraordinary 6-foot-8 (tallest on TOUR), the gangly South African draws a lot of eyes.

That will certainly be the case as Lamprecht begins his PGA TOUR career. The Georgia Tech alum finished ninth on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List in his first full year on the circuit, quickly acclimating and thriving in pro golf. Lamprecht nearly earned his card straight from college last year, but finished second to Michael Thorbjornsen in PGA TOUR University. Lamprecht boasts similar potential to Thorbjornsen, who is starting to find his footing on the PGA TOUR. Lamprecht won the Amateur Championship in 2023, finished as the low amateur at The Open Championship in 2023 and broke the Georgia Tech single-season scoring record.

“He’s the best I’ve seen in 40 years off the tee and he’s that good around the green, too,” Lamprecht’s coach at Georgia Tech Bruce Heppler told PGATOUR.COM last year.

There aren’t many people built like Lamprecht. That will make him worth watching, no matter how he fares in his rookie season on the PGA TOUR.

4. Adrian Dumont de Chassart

The definition of a post-hype sleeper, Adrian Dumont de Chassart will return to the TOUR with much less fanfare than he did two years ago, when he was the reigning Korn Ferry Tour Rookie of the Year and won twice in only a handful of starts to his name. But Dumont de Chassart should be viewed as more than a fringe TOUR player destined to bounce between circuits. Only 25 years old, the former Illinois standout led the Korn Ferry Tour in birdie average in 2025, showing every ounce of that firepower in a record-setting victory at the Compliance Solutions Championship, where his winning score of 33-under 251 marked the lowest 72-hole score relative to par in Korn Ferry Tour history.

Dumont de Chassart’s lone season on TOUR in 2024 was hampered by a wrist injury that forced swing tweaks that destroyed his consistency. He missed more cuts than he made, finished 139th in the FedExCup and returned to the Korn Ferry Tour. Healthy again this year, Dumont de Chassart’s game returned. The Belgian recorded more top-10s than missed cuts and clinched his TOUR card with that historic performance in Oklahoma.

With a year of TOUR experience under his belt and as much potential as any of the incoming Korn Ferry Tour graduates, Dumont de Chassart should have a better understanding of how to succeed on the highest level.

5. Kensei Hirata

Kensei Hirata did not win in his lone season on the Korn Ferry Tour, but the 24-year-old has already proven to be a prolific winner in his young career.

Hirata has six career Japan Golf Tour wins, including four in 2024 alone. That earned him the Japan Golf Tour Rookie of the Year honors and placed him in heady company. He was the third-youngest to win four times on the Japanese Tour, only reaching the feat later than Ryo Ishikawa and Hideki Matsuyama.

If that’s any indication of Hirata’s talent, he will be a compelling watch as a PGA TOUR rookie.