LECOM Suncoast Classic: Pre-tournament notes, storylines, more

The 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season resumes following a one-week break with the LECOM Suncoast Classic, the eighth event on the Tour's 26-event schedule. This year marks the seventh playing of the LECOM Suncoast Classic, with each iteration contested at Lakewood National Golf Club's Commander Course.

Past champions of the LECOM Suncoast Classic include three-time Korn Ferry Tour winner Scott Gutschewski (2023) and three players who finished in the top 70 of the 2024 FedExCup Fall standings: Mark Hubbard (2019), Andrew Novak (2020) and Byeong Hun An (2022).

Last season, Tim Widing defeated Patrick Cover and Steven Fisk on the second hole of a playoff to capture his first Korn Ferry Tour victory. Widing followed his win at the 2024 LECOM Suncoast Classic with a victory at the 2024 Veritex Bank Championship, which propelled him to a No. 5 finish on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List and his first PGA TOUR card.

In addition to Widing, seven other players who finished in the top 10 and ties at last year's LECOM Suncoast Classic earned PGA TOUR membership at the season's end: Steven Fisk (T2), Noah Goodwin (T4), Kris Ventura (T4), Jackson Suber (T6), Isaiah Salinda (T8), Frankie Capan III (T8), and Mason Andersen (T8).

Key storylines

• The field includes seven PGA TOUR winners who have combined for nine career victories, highlighted by Sangmoon Bae and Andrew Landry, who each own two PGA TOUR titles.
• The field includes 45 Korn Ferry Tour winners with 64 total wins, led by Robby Shelton with four career victories. All seven winners from this season are in the field.
• Scott Gutschewski is the lone past champion of the LECOM Suncoast Classic in the field this week. A three-time Korn Ferry Tour winner, Gutschewski claimed the 2023 LECOM Suncoast Classic title at 46 years, 6 months and 22 days old, becoming the 10th-oldest winner in Korn Ferry Tour history.
• Four players in this week's field are inside the top 200 of the Official World Golf Ranking: No. 115 Kensei Hirata, No. 155 Johnny Keefer, No. 163 S.H. Kim and No. 195 Justin Suh.
• Sixteen-year-old amateur Miles Russell will make his first start of the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season at the LECOM Suncoast Classic via sponsor exemption. Russell made his Korn Ferry Tour debut at the 2024 LECOM Suncoast Classic, where he became the third-youngest player to compete in a Korn Ferry Tour event, the youngest to make a cut, and the youngest on record (since 1983) to record a top-25 finish on either the Korn Ferry Tour or PGA TOUR at 15 years, 5 months, 20 days of age.
• Seventeen-year-old professional Blades Brown, who finished T41 at the Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club in his Korn Ferry Tour debut and became the ninth-youngest player to make the cut in Korn Ferry Tour history, is in the field via a sponsor exemption. Prior to his Korn Ferry debut, Brown made four PGA TOUR starts in 2025, highlighted by a T34 finish at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld.

Tournament facts

• Course: Lakewood National Golf Club (Commander Course) (par 71, 7,133 yards)
• Field: 156 players

• 2024 winner: Tim Widing
• Purse: $1 million (winner: $180,000)
• Scoring records:
  • Low 18-hole score: 59, Mac Meissner (2023/Round 2)
  • Low 36-hole score: 126, Kevin Dougherty (2023)
  • Low 54-hole score: 194, Kevin Dougherty (2023)
  • Low 72-hole score: 262, Mark Hubbard (2019)
• Playoffs: Three; last in 2024 (Tim Widing defeated Patrick Cover and Steven Fisk)