FRENCH LICK, Ind. — Over the last year, Johnny Keefer has made a habit of climbing leaderboards and now, he’s closing in on Tiger Woods.

The 24-year-old heads into this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance as the No. 1 player on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List, capping a meteoric rise through the developmental ranks. After topping the PGA TOUR Americas standings in 2024, Keefer could now go back-to-back as the leading man on another circuit, but that’s not the only history within reach.

Keefer enters French Lick Resort with a season scoring average of 67.79, the exact same official average number Tiger Woods posted during his record-setting PGA TOUR campaigns in both 2000 and 2007.

If Keefer can shave even a fraction off that figure this week on the demanding Pete Dye Course, he’ll set a new benchmark of the lowest season-long official scoring average in the combined history of the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour.

The interesting wrinkle here is that the PGA TOUR’s official scoring average stat is weighted, which takes the stroke average of the field into account. Whereas the Korn Ferry Tour’s preeminent scoring average stat is actual, meaning the player's unadjusted scoring number.

We are comparing the two official scoring average stats for both circuits here, because if you were to compare both actual scoring averages, Keefer already has Woods clipped at 67.79 to 68.17 (2000). In fact, Keefer is also on pace to beat the all-time actual scoring average record for both tours set by Scottie Scheffler this past season at 67.99.

That’s rarified air.

Woods’ 2000 season is widely regarded as the greatest in golf history: nine wins in 20 starts, including two majors, with four runners-up and just three finishes outside the top 10. Seven years later, he matched his own record, winning seven times in 16 events, including the PGA Championship and TOUR Championship, and again averaging exactly 67.79 for the season.

For Keefer, the parallels are startling.

In 22 Korn Ferry Tour events this season, he’s tallied two victories, two runners-up and five additional top 10s. Should he finish atop the standings Sunday, he’ll secure spots in the 2026 U.S. Open and THE PLAYERS Championship. Only Austin Smotherman has a mathematical chance to overtake him.

It’s a staggering rise for a player who, just over a year ago, was sweating out the PGA TOUR University rankings. Keefer entered the 2024 NCAA Championship outside the coveted top 25 but finished T11 at Omni La Costa, sneaking in at No. 25, the final position to earn a PGA TOUR Americas card.

“If I finished one shot worse, I could’ve theoretically been playing APTs (All Pro Tour events) right now,” Keefer said that day.

Instead, he headed north to Canada and torched PGA TOUR Americas. In just 10 starts, Keefer notched one win, four runners-up and four additional top-six finishes, easily topping the points race. He also led the circuit in scoring average at 66.00 through 35 rounds.

That success catapulted him into a full Korn Ferry Tour season, and he’s responded with consistency, precision and poise beyond his years. He even cracked the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking, earning a start in his first major at the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

Now, back on a Dye masterpiece that demands control and creativity, Keefer faces one last challenge, one that could etch his name alongside golf’s greatest.