Finals update: Five players with most at stake Sunday at Korn Ferry Tour Championship

Last fall, Aldrich Potgieter battled through PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, earning guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts via medalist honors at Second Stage. By January, he was the youngest winner in Korn Ferry Tour history at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, and by February, he became the youngest player to shoot 59 in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard.

Now, this week, at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance, the South African is on the verge of one more impressive accolade: a PGA TOUR card.

Did we mention he’s only 20?

Potgieter entered this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship at No. 26 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List (the top 30 at the end of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship earn PGA TOUR status for 2025). When he teed off Saturday morning, he was projected 29th. At 11 a.m., after enduring a brutal quadruple bogey on the 12th hole (Potgieter’s third of the day), he had dropped to projected 32nd.

And yet, by the end of his round, Potgieter had clawed his way back to 30th, sitting right on the bubble for a TOUR card — just three points above Doc Redman (No. 31) and six points ahead of Sam Bennett (No. 32).

Thus lies the volatility of the Korn Ferry Tour Points bubble, one of which Potgieter has become well acquainted this week.

“One hole you're inside, the next you're outside,” Potgieter said of the top-30 bubble after his third-round, 5-over 77 at French Lick’s Pete Dye Course. “You look at the leaderboard, think you’re somewhere and then you're not there anymore. It changes so much.”

Still, Potgieter embraces the challenge. “I'm interested in it,” he said. “I think a lot of good pressure can come from it … I want the pressure to know what I need to do. I don't want to go up to hole 17 and have to ask where I stand.”

And pressure there will be. Potgieter finished the day in a tie for 61st in the 74-man field. Bennett closed in a tie for 53rd while Redman sits in solo second, just one shot behind leader Zach Bauchou, who also moved into the projected top 30 after starting the week at 35th on the Points List. Birdies, eagles, bogeys and double bogeys will decide it all, as any one hole can adjust the bubble and the careers that hang in the balance.

But Potgieter is ready for it, prepared to turn pressure into opportunity.

Here are four more players with their careers on the line come Sunday.

Zach Bauchou (No. 35, projected No. 13): At the halfway point of the week, Bauchou seemed to be pulling away from the field. He fired rounds of 68-66, taking a four-stroke lead into Saturday, highlighted by back-to-back chip-in eagles on the 14th hole. Coming into this week, Bauchou needed roughly a fourth-place finish to secure his TOUR card, and he was well within that range. But then things began to level out. Bauchou shot a 1-over 73 on Saturday, his worst round of the week by five strokes, and only retained the solo lead thanks to a closing birdie. He now faces a tightly packed field; nine players are within four strokes of him.

Doc Redman (No. 57, projected to No. 31): Redman knew heading into this week that it was likely win-or-bust. As things currently project, a solo-second finish would leave him just short of the top-30 mark by less than three points. Winning in the most competitive 74-man field on the Korn Ferry Tour is no small feat, but he’s almost there. Although his hopes seemed to dwindle with a double bogey at the par-5 seventh Saturday, the 26-year-old kicked it into gear on his back nine, carding two late birdies and missing a 12-foot putt on the 18th that would have put him in a tie with Bauchou. With 18 holes left, Redman still has a shot to put it together and come out on top.

Sam Bennett (No. 30, projected to No. 32): Starting the week inside the critical 26-30 range on the Points List, where five players were separated by less than 10 points, Bennett’s week has been as turbulent as Potgieter’s. At various points, he has been as high as 26th and as low as 32nd. A Saturday 73 saw Bennett struggle to keep pace with those around him on the bubble. With only an eight-point gap between him and Noah Goodwin (No. 29), the Texas A&M alum has 18 more holes to try and create some magic and finish inside the top 30.

Daniel Summerhays (No. 38, projected to No. 33): The 40-year-old veteran pro is battling for a return to the PGA TOUR, where he has made 215 career starts. Having spent recent years as a high school teacher before earning Korn Ferry Tour starts at the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament, Summerhays has spent the past few years on the Korn Ferry Tour. He needed at least a two-way T3 to finish inside the top 30 and now finds himself in a four-way tie for third, 29 points behind Potgieter. A strong Sunday finish is crucial to his hopes of reclaiming a TOUR card.