Seeking Status: Bennett on the Bubble as the PGA Tour Awaits the Next 30

The professional life of the golfer competing at the game's highest levels is determined by his "status," and where that status allows that player to compete. Status is earned, and it determines where and for how much money he is has the opportunity to play for. 

Each entry into a professional event provides a player another opportunity to allow his play to determine the quality of future opportunities.

 Every stroke played can make the difference between playing in future events or being pushed aside by players who played in fewer strokes. 

Points. Standings. Rankings. Categories. Reshuffles. Monday Qualifying. Sponsor Exemptions. 

Each week, the world of professional golf changes, a weekly re-ordering of itself based on the previous week's results. Each week, every player's place in the professional game changes, sometimes drastically, sometimes barely at all.

And, at no event across the world of professional golf can a player's status change more than at this week's Korn Ferry Tour Championship, where the opportunity play in 2025 PGA Tour events is the prize.  Welcome to professional golf's equivalent to MLB's League Championship Series for a shot at the World Series or the NFL's Conference Championships with a Super Bowl berth on the line. 

This is what professionals play for, what they show up for again and again, taking one beating after another, remaining confident that the next day could be the day that changes the arc of a career, and maybe even a life. That day could come Sunday in French Lick, Indiana.

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Sam Bennett, who burst onto the professional scene as an amateur at the 2023 Masters Tournament, sits on the proverbial bubble when the Korn Ferry Tour Championship gets underway Thursday, with each of the 74 players teeing it up having a shot at a 2025 PGA Tour card. 

Bennett, the 2022 U.S. Amateur champion, finds himself No. 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list, in a virtually tie with Trevor Cone (No. 29) with 788 points, with 13 of the 30 2025 PGA Tour cards remaining up for grabs. 

The pair are in a five-way logjam on the KFT points list along with Noah Goodwin, Aldrich Potgieter and Kaito Onishi, the fivesome within five points of one another after 25 KFT events with 72 holes left to play over the 7,667-yard, Pete Dye-designed French Lick Golf Resort in southern Indiana. 

The 24-year-old Texas A&M alum from Madisonville, TX, opened the 2023 Masters with back-to-back, 4-under-par 68s and was third after 36 holes, four shots back of second-round leader Brooks Koepka. Bennett's 136 total was the best score after two rounds by an amateur at the Masters since Ken Venturi back in 1956.

With Hank Leboida sitting at No. 75 with a season total of 359 points, and 600 points available for winning the KFT Championship, there is not a player out of the PGA Tour card picture. Currently, Trent Phillips goes into the Championship as the player on the outside looking in at No. 31 with 745 points, 43 behind Bennett.

"Only 30 guys get to fulfill their dream, and half of them will be without a job for the next year," said Ryan Gerard, one of the 17 players already designed as Tour Bound on PGATour.com.  "You've got to go out there and perform; otherwise you might not have a job."

Another interesting KFT Championship variable will be the absence of the tour's No. 1 player, Matt McCarty, who has already clinched the No. 1 position thanks to a 651-point advantage over No. 2 Max McGreevy. More points to go around for everybody else. 

McCarty earned his PGA Tour card six weeks ago through the KFT Tour's Three-Victory-Promotion, recording his third victory of 2024 by two shots at the Albertsons Boise Open. McCarty is scheduled make his first start courtesy of that card Thursday at the PGA Tour's Sanderson Farms Open in Mississippi.

In addition to the rest of the 30 PGA Tour cards being handed out, positions 31-60 on the Points List after the KFT Championship will be exempt into the Final Stage of the PGA Tour Q-School, where 2025 PGA Tour cards will be awarded to the top five finishers and ties.

Cue up the mathematicians. Scoreboard watchers unite.

Jeremy Paul, at No. 22 with 920 points, holds a 165-point cushion advantage over No. 31, and with  

only the first three KFT Championship finishers able to earn more than 150 points, appears to be a mathematical certainty to reach card status. 

The same goes for No. 23 Kris Ventura and his 858-point total holding a 113-point cushion over No. 31 with only first five Championship finishers able to earn 120 points or more. 

Things begin getting tight at No. 24, where Ricky Castillo, holds 55-point edge over the 31st position. The 23-year-old University of Florida product appears mathematically vulnerable with the first 20 finishers earning 55 points or more in the final tournament on the 2024 KFT schedule.

The sincerely crazy scoreboard watching begins at No. 26, where the next five players are separated by eight points - Noah Goodwin (26th with 796 points), Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa (27th with 795), Kaito Onishi of Japan (28th with 793), Trevor Cone (29th with 788) and Sam Bennett (30th with 788).

These five players arrive at the Championship each looking to regain sharper form earlier in the year, as their combined 15 playoff starts have yielded only three top-10 finishes.  

Potgieter has missed back-to-back cuts, by 2 and 7 shots respectively, since finishing T10 at the first of KFT's four-tournament playoffs, the Albertsons Boise Open in August. 

In January, Potgieter became the youngest winner on either the PGA or Korn Ferry Tour since Ralph Guldahl won the 1931 Santa Monica Open, winning The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club at age 19 years, 4 months, 11 days.

Goodwin, a 24-year-old from Dallas playing his second year on the Korn Ferry Tour, comes into the Championship off a T7 two weeks ago at the Simmons Bank Open - his best finish since a T3 at the Price Cutter Charity Championship in July. 

However, the Southern Methodist alum had missed the cut four times in his previous five events prior to Simmons Bank. Goodwin finished 110th on the KFT points standings in 2023. 

Onishi, who won for the first time on the Korn Ferry Tour back in June, has made three consecutive cuts in the playoffs, with his best finish a T12 at the Simmons Bank Classic three weeks ago. 

The 25-year-old who played his college golf at the University of Southern California finished 100th on the KFT points standings in 2023. 

Cone, who finished 174th in the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup standings in 2022-23, enters the Championship off a missed cut by one shot two weeks ago, but did record a T10 and T12 in the first two KFT playoff events. 

The 31-year-old Virginia Tech alum who has two wins in 121 career KFT starts has seven T12 or better finishes in his last 13 KFT events to his credit, dating back to June. 

Bennett played his best golf back in July, posting back-to-back T3s at the NV5 Invitational and Price Cutter Charity. He's been grinding lately, making the cut in three of his last four outings without finishing better than T30 in that stretch.

PLAYERS TO WATCH AT THE KORN FERRY TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

Ryan Gerard (11): The 25-year-old from Raleigh, NC, posted T3 & T7 finishes in the first two KFT playoff events, has six T16 or better finishes in his last 11 starts, and has made the cut in 19 of his 25 starts in his first KFT season.

Taylor Dickson (12): The 31-year-old veteran of 98 KFT starts who has won two KFT events this season posted a T11 in last start at the Nationwide Childrens Hospital Classic. The Winthrop University product from Gastonia, NC, has made 7 consecutive cuts, a streak starting with a T3 finish at the Price Cutter Championship in July.

Brandon Crick (33): The 36-year-old  KFT vet from McCook NE, fired a final-round, 8-under-par 62 to finish T12 at the Simmons Bank Open three weeks ago, and has made the cut in four of his last five KFT events, a streak that started with a T3 at the Pinnance Bank Championship in early August. 

Carter Jenkins (37): The 29-year-old from Raleigh, NC, comes into the Championship off a T2 at the Nationwide Childrens Hospital Championship two weeks ago, his fifth T8 or better finish in 21 starts this year. The 6-foot-4, 180-pounder who ranks third on the KFT in greens-hit-in-regulation this season finished 34th on the KFT points list a year ago. 

Cole Hammer (66): The 25-year-old University of Texas product who finished No. 5 in the PGA Tour University class of 2022 fired rounds of 67-68-69 to finish T13 to move from the outside into the Championship. After posting a pair of T10 finishes in February and March, Hammer needed his fourth Top-25 finish of the season to recover from a stretch that saw him miss the cut in eight of nine starts from April through July. 

Davis Shore (71): The lanky University of Alabama product finished T17 at National Childrens Hospital Championship two weeks ago for his fourth top-20 finish of the year, continuing a playoff push after a T26 and a T72 in the first two KFT playoff events. 

The 6-foot-2, 150-pounder who was a top-rated prospect out of high school only to be derailed by injuries at Alabama, Shore has made 12 of 21 cuts so far in this, his first year on the Korn Ferry Tour that's seen him rank 24th in putting and 26th in driving accuracy this year in KFT events.

Fabian Gomez (79): The 45-year-old who has bounced back and forth between the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry tour the last few years, posted his best finish of 2024 with a T3 at the Simmons Bank Open three weeks ago, and followed that up with a T35 last week.