The PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica are merging to form a circuit that will be called the PGA Tour Americas. It will have a season divided by two swings – South America and the Great White North – which offer at least 10 spots on the Korn Ferry Tour.
“We talk all the time about wanting to identify and provide access to the best players in the world,” said Alex Baldwin, president of the Korn Ferry Tour, who now oversees all pathways to the PGA Tour – PGA Tour Americas, PGA Tour University and Q school.
“It’s an extremely competitive environment,” she said. “We have a fantastic opportunity to bring the best of these two tours together.”
Still to be determined is the 16-tournament schedule for both regions in 2024, which will run from February through September, as well as the size of the purses.
The fields will be populated by the top 60 players from this year’s PGA Tour Latinoamerica and PGA Tour Canada season. More places will be available in the early stages of Q-School this fall.
The Latin American swing runs from February to May and the top 60 players earn status for the North American swing.
Before the second swing begins, there will be another Q school at the PGA Tour Americas. These graduates will advance along with #6-20 from PGA Tour University. The rest of the fields are filled with open qualifications, sponsor exceptions and others in a priority list.
A cumulative score for both swings will determine which 10 players advance to the Korn Ferry Tour. In addition, the top two Latin American swing finishers and the top three Canadian finishers will receive conditional status unless they finish in the top 10 overall.
Conditional status means they are exempt from the Korn Ferry Tour until the first priority list reordering.
Those 15 players will also be dropped into the final phase of Q-School – five tickets will be offered to the PGA Tour – and the next two dozen will go straight into phase two.
The Canadian Tour has been a more popular testing ground over the decades, a starting point for the likes of Mike Weir, Steve Stricker and Mackenzie Hughes. The PGA Tour acquired both tours in 2012 and will now merge them into one starting in 2024.
“The ecosystem is expanding, but we are creating opportunities,” Baldwin said. “Every time you serve and play for something, that’s part of your growth, your development, your experience so you can compete at a high level.”
BLOOMING ROSE
Rose Zhang won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and kept rolling right away. The runner-up from Stanford won the Pac 12 championship with a record score (12 under 204) for a seven-shot win (another record).
It was her sixth win of the season. If she wins her last two tournaments — the NCAA Regionals and the NCAA Championship — she would tie Lorena Ochoa’s record for wins in one season (8) and one career (12).
When it comes to women’s amateur world rankings, Zhang is second to none.
Last week, Zhang broke the record with her 136th week at No. 1 in the world, breaking the mark previously held by Ireland’s Leona Maguire. The record for men is 87 weeks by Keita Nakajima of Japan.
Zhang won the Mark H. McCormack Medal for Leading Women’s Amateur Golfer in 2020, 2021 and 2022 – only Maguire and Lydia Ko are three-time winners of the award.
Her wins include the ANWA, 2022 NCAA title, 2021 US Girls Junior and 2020 US Women’s Amateur. Zhang also has a 6-1-2 record in two Curtis Cup appearances.
She is expected to turn pro after the NCAAs. Zhang will have direct access to Q-Series qualification under a new LPGA policy that exempts the world’s No. 1 amateur rankings player according to the NCAAs.
LIV AND THE OWGR
Each week shows the effect when LIV golfers do not receive world ranking points.
A year ago there were now 19 players in the Saudi-funded circuit that ranked in the top 50 in the world. Now there are only six, and only one of them – British Open champion Cameron Smith in 8th place – in the top 25.
The US Open and British Open are a month away from using world rankings to disqualify players – top 60 for the US Open, top 50 for the Brits. The hardest hit seem to be Mito Pereira (No. 55) and Harold Varner III (No. 61), who would certainly end up in the top 60 if they didn’t get a top finish at the PGA Championship.
NELLY’S VIDEO
For someone who estimates she has 6,000 videos of her swing on her phone, Nelly Korda says she really isn’t that technical with her golf.
During her formative years she had a coach behind her who would let her know if she was in all the right places. Alone, she turns to her cell phone. And she seems to turn to it often.
“When you’re alone — which I am mostly when I’m practicing — it’s hard to know if a shot was good and a shot wasn’t in my position because every day you feel different,” she said. “That’s why I’m so obsessed with video. It’s just to check if I’m actually getting the positions I want.”
How many?
“So many videos on my phone, it’s disgusting,” she said. “If people knew how many swing videos I have on my phone and if I had to ask my dad to film that many swings, he would boycott every exercise I did.”
She put the number at 6,000.
“Maybe more,” Korda said. “I’ll go through a training session and I’ll probably take 20 or 30 videos until I really like it and then play those. But I’ve been told I have to stop, or I’ll just have to delete them all and keep the one I want.”
NO SNEAK PREVIEW
Justin Thomas was the only American to play at the French Open ahead of the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in 2018, compared to seven players who made up the European team.
The Italian Open in Marco Simon, venue of this year’s games, is next week and neither side’s top players are leaving. For PGA Tour members from both sides of the Atlantic, a trip to Italy would mean missing out on a $20 million event at the Wells Fargo Championship. Also, the PGA Championship is two weeks later.
US captain Zach Johnson doesn’t see this as a problem as he understands the value of the PGA Tour.
“The more times you get your feet on the site, great,” he said. “But I have some plans in place that will allow the team to get used to a golf course that they are unfamiliar with.”
Europe still has plenty of players scheduled for the Italian Open who have Ryder Cup hopes such as Victor Perez, Thorbjorn Olesen, Robert MacIntyre and Danish twins Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard.
DIVOTS
Twelve players who made it at the Mexico Open last year are now at LIV Golf. They include Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz, the two highest-ranking players from Mexico. … Max Homa has missed the cut for consecutive weeks, the first time since the US Open and Travelers Championship in 2021. He was partnered in New Orleans with fellow Cal resident Collin Morikawa. … Lilia Vu is the first player with multiple wins on the LPGA Tour this year.
STAT OF THE WEEK
Seven Americans and seven Europeans have won singles titles on the PGA Tour this year.
LAST WORD
“I just don’t really know how to do anything else, so I have a much better chance of making money from this than anything else.” – Spencer Levin, after his first Korn Ferry Tour victory at age 38 , about what kept him going.
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