Korn Ferry Tour to award 40 cards for 2028 — but not identical status

The 2027 Korn Ferry Tour schedule, published October 21, comprises 25 events in seven countries and 15 US states. The bigger change concerns opportunity rather than geography: the season will award 40 cards for the new PGA Tour structure beginning in 2028.

The top ten on the final points list will enter the PGA Tour Championship Series. The next 30 players, starting at No. 11 and not otherwise exempt, will gain PGA Tour Challenger Series membership. Forty cards therefore do not mean forty identical places at the top level.

The PGA Tour announced its two-series model in June. Championship Series will be the upper tier, with Challenger Series providing the main promotion route. The Korn Ferry Tour calendar now connects the preparatory 2027 season with that change a year later.

Chile provides one calendar change. On October 23, its national federation announced the merger of Chile Classic with the historic Abierto de Chile. The resulting 97th Scotiabank Abierto de Chile will take place at Santiago’s Prince of Wales Country Club, a familiar professional venue hosting a new chapter.

The Chilean competition is scheduled for March 4–7, with a $1 million purse. It follows events in Colombia, Panama and Argentina in the published schedule. Argentina’s Visa Open will be held at Olivos Golf Club, maintaining a consecutive Latin American stretch.

College graduates will join the Korn Ferry Tour during the season. Those finishing second through tenth in the final 2027 PGA Tour University ranking receive membership for the remainder of that season after the NCAA Championship. This is a separate entry route, not automatic Championship Series access.

For comparison, the top twenty in the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour standings earned PGA Tour cards for 2027. The new forty belong to the next qualifying cycle and two different series. They should not be applied retrospectively to the season that has already concluded.

Austin Hitt demonstrated how much a finale can change in 2026. He arrived 22nd in the standings, won the championship and climbed to sixth, earning his first PGA Tour card. In the new cycle, such a jump will also affect the level of access earned.

Sources: PGA Tour; Korn Ferry; Chilean Golf Federation.

Photo: Carlos Figueroa Rojas / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.