The Korn Ferry Tour Finals serve as one of golf’s highest-pressure proving grounds: a four-week crucible of pressure and possibility, where ambition meets attrition. Twenty PGA TOUR cards hang in the balance, but the road to them is anything but simple.

This is the game distilled to its most unforgiving form. For some, the Finals represent the culmination of years of grinding toward a lifelong dream. For others, they are a desperate fight to keep that dream alive. The top 156 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List begin the journey at the Simmons Bank Open, yet only 75 will reach the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship – and with it, a chance to ascend to golf’s highest competitive stage.

With the margins razor-thin and futures on the line, here’s what (and who) to know as the four-week series gets going this week in Tennessee.

Breaking down the numbers: What’s at stake

For 2025, the math realities are tougher than ever. Eligibility changes at the PGA TOUR level – most notably the 2026 threshold for full status shrinking from the top 125 to the top 100 – have trickled down to intensify the gauntlet awaiting Korn Ferry Tour hopefuls. The benchmark for PGA TOUR cards has contracted from 30 players to just 20, but the pressure doesn’t end there. Survival within the top 75 is equally consequential: Those who reach the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at French Lick Resort secure fully exempt membership for 2026, while Nos. 76-100 earn conditional status. Fall beyond that, and the path forward is uncertain at best.

Points no longer reset for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals (a 2023 change), making the race cumulative from January through October. Every point since January matters, and the margins are impossibly thin: In 2024, just 16 points separated No. 30 Noah Goodwin from No. 31 Sam Bennett, the line between a TOUR card and another year of waiting.

The fields will also dwindle as the Finals progress. A total of 156 players are eligible for this week’s Simmons Bank Championship, while only 144 will make it to next week’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. The third event (Compliance Solutions Championship) will have a 120-man field, while the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship will have 75 players and will not feature a 36-hole cut.

The three-victory chase

Johnny Keefer, Neal Shipley and Austin Smotherman each own two Korn Ferry Tour victories this season, positioning themselves on the cusp of the vaunted Three-Victory Promotion, which earns immediate PGA TOUR membership, effective for the FedExCup Fall.

Few players entered 2025 with more attention than Keefer and Shipley. Keefer, the current Points List leader, has carried over his dominance from 2024, when he topped the PGA TOUR Americas’ season-long Fortinet Cup to earn Korn Ferry Tour membership. Shipley, meanwhile, burst onto the global stage by finishing low amateur at both the Masters and the U.S. Open in 2024 – the first to do so since Viktor Hovland in 2019 – cementing his reputation as one of golf’s brightest young talents.

History underscores the stakes. Just last year, Matt McCarty parlayed his three-win promotion into a fall victory at the Bank of Utah Championship in just his third start as a PGA TOUR member. For Keefer, Shipley and Smotherman, that kind of leap is within reach, and the next four weeks could change the trajectory of their careers forever.

Battle for No. 1

Immediate promotion isn’t the only prize on the table. Keefer, Shipley and Smotherman are also locked in a secondary race: the battle for the coveted No. 1 spot on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List, which carries its own cachet and career-shaping benefits. The season’s top finisher earns exemptions into both the 2026 U.S. Open and THE PLAYERS Championship – two of the game’s grandest stages, and a launchpad few rookies are afforded.

Keefer currently holds a 227-point advantage over Shipley, with Smotherman still within range, trailing by 217 more. Six players in total have already surpassed the 1,300-point threshold, four of whom have been declared #TOURBound, but the volatility of the Finals – where winners collect 600 points instead of the standard 500 – ensures the top of the board is anything but secure. Supremacy here doesn’t just crown the Korn Ferry Tour’s best: It can redefine a rookie’s entire trajectory before they even begin their campaign on TOUR.

Familiar faces seeking momentum change

Bennett and Alistair Docherty, the two “last men out” in 2024, once again find themselves teetering on the edge – but of a very different kind. A year ago, they were contending for PGA TOUR status, narrowly missing the 30-player threshold. Now, both hover perilously close to losing their Korn Ferry status, as battles shift from dreams of promotion to fights for survival.

Bennett slipped to No. 31 after Braden Thornberry’s victory in last year’s finale, making him the only player to tumble outside the top 30 during the week. At the time, it felt like a temporary setback – a talented young player needing only a little more time to assemble the pieces. But Bennett’s 2025 season has unraveled: He's posted just six made cuts in 22 starts, with a lone top-25 finish in May that has him buried at 134th on the Points List. Once heralded as a rising star, the 2022 U.S. Amateur champion now faces the sobering prospect of not only missing the PGA TOUR but losing his Korn Ferry Tour status altogether – a startling reversal for a player of his pedigree.

Docherty’s struggles are less severe but no less urgent. Sitting 62nd in the Points List and coming off three consecutive missed cuts, he too, must summon something extraordinary to make a push for a TOUR card. His resume suggests he can: Last year, he finished T11 and T2 in the final stretch of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to nearly vault himself inside the line, but with the graduation threshold cut from 30 to 20, the window of opportunity has shrunk considerably.

Names on the cusp

Several familiar names hover near the cusp of PGA TOUR status, each with their own redemption arc in play. Past PGA TOUR members Hank Lebioda (fifth in the Points List), S.H. Kim (sixth) and Pierceson Coody (ninth) currently sit in strong positions inside the top-20 threshold, while towering South African Christo Lamprecht, winner of The Amateur Championship and low amateur at the 2023 U.S. Open, holds steady at 12th. Just outside are Adrien Dumont de Chassart (21st) and Justin Suh (22nd), both former TOUR players eyeing a return.

Also adding to the intrigue is 18-year-old Blades Brown, who turned professional without status but parlayed a handful of Monday qualifiers into Special Temporary Membership for the 2025 season. Now sitting 75th on the Points List, Brown straddles the line for full Korn Ferry Tour status in 2026. A strong surge in the Finals could not only lock in his place for next year but – with some magic – even propel him into the conversation for a PGA TOUR card.

With an elevated points distribution and a 36-hole cut for the first three events, volatility is all but assured, with plenty of movement imminent as players battle not only for TOUR cards but for the trajectory of their careers.

In the end, the Korn Ferry Tour Finals will do what they always do: expose the razor-thin line between triumph and heartbreak. Twenty players will emerge with PGA TOUR cards, ready to step into golf’s brightest arena. For the rest, opportunity on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2026 may be an option, but the road to the PGA TOUR grows longer.