Starting with this year’s seniors in the Class of 2023, the top five players in the final PGA TOUR University Ranking will receive additional performance benefits that extend through the 2024 season, the PGA TOUR announced Monday.
The PGA TOUR Policy Board approved changes that will annually provide an 18-month runway in professional golf for the top collegians.
- In addition to earning PGA TOUR membership for the 2023 season (announced in November 2022), the No. 1 player in the final PGA TOUR University Ranking will earn PGA TOUR membership in 2024 and will be subject to reshuffles (in the category with the Previous Season’s Leading Finisher on the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai and Korn Ferry Tour Points List).
- For the remainder of 2023 and through 2024, players finishing Nos. 2-5 will have no limit to the number of PGA TOUR events he plays as a nonmember and no limit to the number of sponsor exemptions he receives.
- For juniors, sophomores and freshmen who earn PGA TOUR membership via PGA TOUR University Accelerated – in addition to earning PGA TOUR membership upon the conclusion of the college golf season (announced in November 2022), they will also earn PGA TOUR membership for the following season and will be subject to reshuffles (in the category with the Previous Season’s Leading Finisher on the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai and Korn Ferry Tour Points List, and the No. 1 player in the final PGA TOUR University Ranking).
The previously announced benefits will continue to be offered. Players finishing Nos. 2-5 will be exempt on Korn Ferry Tour for the remainder of the 2023 season, and they are exempt into Final Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry.
Players finishing 6th through 10th will earn conditional membership on Korn Ferry Tour and will be exempt on PGA TOUR Canada in 2023, and players finishing 11th-20th will be exempt on PGA TOUR Canada. Players finishing 6th-20th will be exempt into Second Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School.
Also previously announced – the top 20 players in the final PGA TOUR University Ranking will compete against each other for Korn Ferry Tour membership in 2024. Of the players finishing 2nd-20th, the three players with the highest combined point total (FedExCup and Korn Ferry Tour points, “PGA TOUR University Total Points”) accumulated in events played on the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour in 2023 will be exempt on Korn Ferry Tour in 2024.
Below is an overview of performance benefits for the top 20 players in PGA TOUR University.
| PGA TOUR U | 2023
PGA TOUR* |
2023
Korn Ferry Tour* |
2023
PGA TOUR Canada |
2023
Q-School |
2024 |
| 1st | Exempt | Exempt | – | ^ | PGA TOUR – Subject to reshuffle |
| 2nd-5th | Unlimited exemptions | Exempt | – | Final Stage | PGA TOUR – Unlimited exemptions;
Korn Ferry Tour – Member; PGA TOUR Americas – Exempt (through LA Swing) |
| 6th-10th | – | Conditional | Exempt | Second Stage | PGA TOUR Americas – Exempt (through LA Swing) |
| 11th-20th | – | – | Exempt | Second Stage | PGA TOUR Americas – Conditional (through LA Swing) |
* PGA TOUR University Total Points to determine three exempt players for Korn Ferry Tour in 2024.
^ Because the No. 1 player is exempt on PGA TOUR for the remainder of the 2023 season and for 2024, he no longer needs to compete in PGA TOUR Q-School in 2023.
Texas Tech’s Ludvig Aberg recently won the Big 12 Championship for the second year in a row, and he is currently No. 1 in both the World Amateur Golf Ranking and PGA TOUR University Ranking with just two events remaining in the college season.
The final PGA TOUR University Ranking will be announced May 29 following the conclusion of stroke play at the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The No. 1 player in PGA TOUR University will make his professional debut at the PGA TOUR’s RBC Canadian Open (June 8-11), while five alumni will debut the same week at the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greer, South Carolina.
Players earning PGA TOUR Canada membership will begin their pro careers at the Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist in Victoria, British Columbia, June 15-18.
