Six-time PGA Tour winner Hunter Mahan believes his former employers are potentially missing out on a handful of the top in-form college players via an overly-restrictive promotion pathway.
Since the PGA Tour University scheme changed its offering from a Korn Ferry Tour to a PGA Tour card in 2022, just one golfer per season has been able to depart college directly for the top US-based circuit, with the next best four now handed a Korn Ferry Tour card plus a place in the second round of PGA Tour Q-School.
Players six to 10 in the PGA Tour U rankings earn conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour for the remainder of the current season only as well as being exempt into the second stage of the KFT’s Q-School for the subsequent campaign.
But, for a man who spent more than a decade competing on the PGA Tour before turning his talents to coaching, Mahan wonders if Jay Monahan and co. are missing a trick by not creating a wider and more seamless transition between college and the elite pro game.
From the 42-year-old’s point of view, too many players have their positive momentum halted by having to duke it out on either the Korn Ferry Tour or European Tours before finally progressing to join many of the world’s absolute best.
Hunter Mahan won six times on the PGA Tour
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The former University of Southern California and Oklahoma State University golfer pointed to American Football’s method of ensuring that fans are continuously engaged in certain characters’ stories by promoting whoever is good enough right out of the gate.
Speaking exclusively to Golf Monthly, Mahan said: “I think college players, should they really have to go to the Korn Ferry Tour for the amount of time that they sort of need to? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Should they just be allowed on tour?
“I’ve always been sort of a proponent of… a few guys should just be able to get their card and get on tour. The tour has the university rankings and everything. I think we have plenty of metrics to figure out who the best players are, and getting those guys cards – I think – should be easy for them to work out.
“I don’t see why they’re making it tougher for them to get on tour if you’re a college player or whatnot. I would want to get those guys on tour as fast as possible and I want to…
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