England’s Tom Lewis secured a PGA Tour card for 2020 with a superb five-stroke victory at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in Evansville, Indiana – the season-ending event on the PGA Tour’s satellite Korn Ferry Tour.
A total of 25 cards were available for players teeing it up in a three-event final series and Lewis, who missed the first two events, earned his card by finishing in second place in the Finals Points list after earning 1000 points for his win.
Lewis only became eligible to play in the event after he finished 11th at The Open, which helped him finish 196th in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup standings. Places in the Korn Ferry Final events went to those players who finished the regular PGA Tour season between 126th and 200th and the players on the Korn Ferry Tour who missed out on a PGA Tour card via their end of season ranking.
The 28-year-old from Welwyn Garden City had never previously played an event on the Korn Ferry Tour and now faces the choice of either playing in some early season PGA Tour events (the 2020 season begins on September 12) or focussing on improving his Race to Dubai ranking (48th) with plenty of events still remaining on the 2019 European Tour schedule before the DP World Tour Championship in November.
“We’ve got some good events coming up in Europe,” said Lewis, who is the defending champion at the Portugal Masters on October 24. “I’m looking forward to looking at my schedule. It’s going to be a good problem to have. It’s always been a dream of mine to play on the PGA Tour. Obviously I’ve achieved some good things on the European Tour and hopefully I can achieve better things on the PGA Tour. I’m looking forward to the year I’ve got ahead, just to see what the future brings.”
Korn Ferry Finals: Final standing
- Matthew NeSmith (1,018 Finals points)
- Tom Lewis (1,000)
- Brandon Hagy (700)
- Kramer Hickok (661)
- Fabian Gomez (633)
- Viktor Hovland (620)
- Brendon Todd (505)
- Beau Hossler (482)
- Ben Taylor (417)
- Anirban Lahiri (358)
- Grayson Murray (333)
- Tyler Duncan (283)
- David Hearn (283)
- Bronson Burgoon (281)
- Chris Baker (263)
- Robert Streb (257)
- Tom Hoge (247)
- Cameron Percy (243)
- Hank Lebioda (203)
- Rob Oppenheim (196)
- Cameron Davis (193)
- Joseph Bramlett (189)
- Doug Ghim (188)
- DJ Trahan (186)
- Richy Werenski (186)