You’ve heard from Tiger and Rickie and J.T and D.J. and the other big names cooling their jets, waiting for the PGA Tour to return.
They have their return date, June 11 in Fort Worth. Will any of them show up then?
But there’s another group, a sort of forgotten group in this sports-desolate landscape that has been dragged to a painful halt by the Corona Virus pandemic. There’s another group that may be even happier now that they also have a return date.
They are the Korn Ferry Tour players — the hopefuls, the guys laboring in the PGA Tour’s feeder tour if you will.
One of them is Kevin Roy. You may not recognize the name unless you’re from upstate New York. He’s from Syracuse, son of Jim Roy, who spent his collegiate days in Tampa at the University of South Florida then logged some years on the PGA Tour and has made some Champions Tour starts. But Jim spent most of his years in business in and around Syracuse.
Kevin is a Korn Ferry rookie with his eyes on a PGA Tour card, same goal as the rest of them on the circuit. This shutdown has been a big blow to that tour. It had 12 events canceled or postponed. “We were supposed to be back May 18 in Chicago but you knew that probably wasn’t going to happen,” Roy pointed out. He’s spent a great deal of time working out during the shutdown. “I have a friend who had to shut down his gym but he turned his garage into a workout studio. And I’ve been biking 12 miles a day around Tampa.”
When we caught up with Kevin, he had just played a round at the TPC Tampa Bay in just north of two hours. Good news for him is that golf in Tampa and the rest of Florida was given the nod to continue by the state’s governor. “I’m not one of those guys who can beat hundreds of balls on the range,” Roy said. “I’d rather be out on the course playing and working on my game that way. I don’t have the attention span to hit a lot of balls on the range. It’s also tough to practice when you don’t know the return date. Now that we do, I can get a routine going.”
It’s also been tough to plan without a re-start date and now, like the regular tour guys, the Korn Ferry fellas have their place and date. “June 11, up there at the Dye Valley course,” Roy said, you could hear the good news in his voice. “That’s nice to know, hopefully they stick to that. I haven’t played that course but my dad has and we’ve spoken about it,” he said of the other course up at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, home of tour headquarters. That’s where they’ll get back to business. The Jacksonville beaches have opened, so things are progressing.
Roy fared well at the KF Tour School, he finished high enough to get at least eight starts guaranteed and he started well enough to rank No. 40 in the current points standings.
The key number for Roy and the rest is 25. The top 25 at the end of the regular KF season earn tour cards for next season and then there’s the three event playoffs that include their Tour Championship in Newburgh, Indiana on August 27.
What Roy and the others face is a really compressed schedule. They started with two events in the Bahamas then went to Panama, Columbia, back in Florida at Lakewood Ranch then down to Mexico. Those first six events made it hard to adjust. “The travel is one thing, the ball was flying far in Columbia, no where compared to that in Florida then going far again in Mexico. Made it tough to adjust,” Roy said.
What is in store now are just eight events before the three playoff events. “I will need to play well in at least two of them to put myself in position,” Roy said of the coveted top 25.
In the playoffs, they’ll bring in regular PGA Tour guys who didn’t make the FedEx top 125 list and throw them in the mix.
Not a lot of events to make a move.
The “no fans” part of the PGA Tour’s return is no big deal to the Korn Ferry Tour.
“In most places, Thursdays and Fridays, we’re pretty much out there with not that many people around,” Roy confirmed.
It’s not the major leagues but in places like Wichita, Farmington, Utah, Springfield, Illinois and Omaha, to name a few, the good folks in those smaller towns might be able to bust out and watch these up-and-comers perform.
Beats the heck out of Golf Channel re-runs.
Revised Korn Ferry Tour Schedule:
5 Comments
baxter cepeda
This definitely is not for the fans.
As much as I want these guys to resume, if every minor league everything restarts ASAP we will never solve this problem.
It’s not popular but they should cancel the Korn Ferry much longer than June, probably for the year.
A Japanese scientist Is quoted on ESPN today saying the Olympics in the summer of 2021 will still be too risky. The Olympics are the greatest athletes in the world, while the Korn Ferry are not even the top tier of their sport, more like the third of fourth tier really.
I watch minor league golf here and there but I’m not sure I prefer it over GC reruns of top tier guys doing top tier things.
The fact the Korn ferry gets no fans is the reason to wait longer. No one cares. But many people do care about non essential business increasing risks.
Mr Monahans has already made some questionable decisions, mainly trying to continue the Players.
Tim Finchem is in the Hall now, a result of aggressive work to get golf to where it is.
Ironically the current Commish needs to do the opposite: get less aggressive; More patient on resuming; especially minor league golf.
As difficult as not resuming is for any commissioner (or leader), it is what is separating the good ones from the bad ones these days.
Unfortunately by continuing to be too aggressive in returning, golfs commissioner is adding fuel to the belief golf is out of touch.
No golf fans want that.
Tom Edrington
I believe by mid-May, the landscape of everything will change with more things open that we can assume at this moment; More fair to wait and see.
baxter cepeda
I understand tom and I’m hopeful too.
But I still wish everyone was more patient.
All you hear in sports is how soon can we get back.
Why not make sure it’s safe before planning restarts; Instead of only focusing on restarting?
The issue is this issue is a marathon of marathons in a time of 3 second, goldfish like attention spans.
Imo We need to stay focused on beating this thing but sadly most leaders today cannot…unless Of course they have insurance; then they are mighty quick to cancel, aka the Open.
Tom Edrington
They’re already talking about opening retail; South Carolina will open the entire state on May 1……Wal-Mart is open under the guise of its food component but also has HUGE retail component, which gives it unfair advantage over other retail stores that have been forced to close…..just an example.
baxter cepeda
2 wrongs don’t make a right.