Tom Lewis wins Korn Ferry Tour Championship

Sep 03, 2019: Tom Lewis carded a final-round 65 to win by five strokes at the Korn Ferry Tour’s season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance. Lewis joined 24 other players in earning 2019-20 membership through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

India’s Shubhankar Sharma finished at T46. Sharma carded three birdies, two bogeys and an eagle in the final round to score three-under-69 to close with four-under-284 total.

The Korn Ferry Tour awarded the first set of 25 PGA TOUR cards for the 2019-20 season at the conclusion of the WinCo Foods Portland Open presented by KraftHeinz in August, with a second set awarded this week after the conclusion of the Finals.

University of Texas alum Scottie Scheffler earned the top spot on both The Finals 25 and the combined points list after a T7 finish on Monday, in addition to his win and T11 finish over his previous two starts. The 23-year-old earns fully exempt status on the PGA TOUR during the 2019-20 season as well as an exemption into the 2020 PLAYERS Championship. Scheffler becomes the first player to top both lists since Chesson Hadley in 2017.

“It’s great to be able to play in THE PLAYERS next year,” said Scheffler, who finished with 10 top-10s and two wins in 20 starts this year. “I have some family close by in Jacksonville so it will be nice to have them come out to the event. It’s awesome to be able to compete against one of the best fields in golf, and becoming fully exempt, to be able to set my schedule, that’s huge.”

Lewis lapped the field after two separate strings of three birdies in a row during the final round. After collecting birdies at the third and fifth, countered by a bogey at the sixth, Lewis tacked on six more from Nos. 8-10 and 15-17. His 29 birdies this week was five more than anyone else in the field.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play on the PGA TOUR,” said Lewis, who finished T11 in the 2019 Open Championship. “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.”

While Lewis wrapped up a dominant performance, several other players provided dramatic finishes coming down to the final putt. Local legend Chris Baker, who grew up in Brownstown, Indiana, saved par on the 72^nd hole to earn his first PGA TOUR card after more than a decade as a professional. The par save came after a double bogey at the penultimate hole to put his status in doubt. Doug Ghim, the low amateur at the 2018 Masters Tournament, got up and down out of a greenside bunker to claim his first PGA TOUR card.

D.J. Trahan and Richy Werenski tied for the 24^th spot, securing the final available cards with 186 points in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Justin Harding finished 26^th in The Finals 25, just 0.125 points behind Trahan and Werenski.

Four of the 25 players who secured their PGA TOUR cards solely through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals will be rookies during the 2019-20 season. The top 25 are:

The Finals 25	Hometown	Finals Points	College
1. Matthew NeSmith*	North Augusta, S.C.	1,018	South Carolina
2. Tom Lewis*	Welwyn Garden City, England	1,000	–
3. Brandon Hagy	Santa Monica, Ca.	700	Cal
4. Kramer Hickok	Austin, Tx.	661	Texas
5. Fabián Gómez	Chaco, Argentina	633	–
6. Viktor Hovland*	Oslo, Norway	620	Oklahoma State
7. Brendon Todd	Pittsburgh, Pa.	505	Georgia
8. Beau Hossler	Mission Viejo, Ca.	482	Texas
9. Ben Taylor*	London, England	417	LSU
10. Anirban Lahiri	Pune, India	358	–
11. Grayson Murray	Raleigh, N.C.	333	Arizona State
12. Tyler Duncan	Columbus, Ind.	283	Purdue University
13. David Hearn	Brampton, Canada	283	University of Wyoming
14. Bronson Burgoon	The Woodlands, Tx.	281	Texas A&M
15. Chris Baker*	Brownstown, Ind.	263	Iowa State
16. Robert Streb	Chickasha, Okla.	257	Kansas State
17. Tom Hoge	Statesville, N.C.	247	Texas Christian
18. Cameron Percy	Chelsea, South Africa	243	–
19. Hank Lebioda	Orlando, Fl.	203	Florida State
20. Rob Oppenheim	Salem, Ma.	196	Rollins College
21. Cameron Davis	Sydney, Australia	193	–
22. Joseph Bramlett	Stanford, Ca.	189	Stanford University
23. Doug Ghim*	Des Plains, Il.	188	Texas
24. D.J. Trahan	Atlanta, Ga.	186	Clemson University
24. Richy Werenski	Springfield, Ma.	186	Georgia Tech

*=PGA TOUR rookie in 2019-20

The 25 players from the Korn Ferry Tour Finals will join the 25 players from the Regular Season points list on the PGA TOUR. The 25 from the Regular Season are below:

The 25	Hometown	Total Points	College
1. Scottie Scheffler	Dallas, Tx.	2,935	Texas
2. Xinjun Zhang	Guangdong, China	2,047	N/A
3. Robby Shelton	Birmingham, Ala.	1,816	Alabama
4. Harry Higgs*	Dallas, Tx.	1,491	Southern Methodist
5. Lanto Griffin	Blacksburg, Va.	1,414	Virginia Commonwealth
6. Mark Hubbard	Denver, Colo.	1,410	San Jose State
7. Ryan Brehm	Mt. Pleasant, Mich.	1,397	Michigan State
8. Kristoffer Ventura*	Oslo, Norway	1,383	Oklahoma State
9. Henrik Norlander	Stockholm, Sweden	1,327	Augusta State
10. Zac Blair	Saint George, Utah	1,272	Brigham Young
11. Bo Hoag*	Columbus, Ohio	1,243	Ohio State
12. Nelson Ledesma*	Tucuman, Argentina	1,212	N/A
13. Rhein Gibson	Edmond, Okla.	1,142	Oklahoma Christian
14. Chase Seiffert*	Panama City, Fla.	1,026	Florida State
15. Mark Anderson	Beaufort, S.C.	979	South Carolina
16. Scott Harrington*	Portland, Ore.	977	Northwestern
17. Michael Gligic*	Kitchener, Ontario, Canada	920	N/A
18. Sebastian Cappelen*	Odense, Denmark	905	Arkansas
19. Vincent Whaley*	Atlanta, Ga.	902	Georgia Tech
20. Rafael Campos*	Guaynabo, Puerto Rico	869	Virginia Commonwealth
21. Vince Covello*	Atlantic Beach, Fla.	826	North Florida
22. Michael Gellerman*	Edmond, Okla.	806	Oklahoma
23. Maverick McNealy*	Stanford, Calif.	796	Stanford
24. Tyler McCumber	Ponte Vedra Beach, Fl.	791	Florida
25. Tim Wilkinson	Palmerston North, New Zealand	775	St. Peters

The 50 players are ranked, in alternating fashion from each points list, following the conclusion of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. This order will be used to determine priority entry into PGA TOUR events for the upcoming season, which opens the week of September 9-15 with A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.