Korn Ferry Challenge tees off golf’s restart at TPC Sawgrass

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After a hiatus of more than three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korn Ferry Tour will return to competition Thursday-through-Sunday with the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass. The tournament – contested without fans on the Dye’s Valley Course – will mark the seventh event of the Regular Season. The tournament will kick off the first of two straight weeks of Korn Ferry Tour competition in Northeast Florida, with The King & Bear Classic at World Golf Village in St. Augustine slated for June 17-20.

After competing on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica in 2019, Chilean Mito Pereira leads the points list thus far behind the strength of a win at the Country Club de Bogotá Championship and two additional top-five finishes. Other 2020 winners in the top five include former University of Alabama standout Davis Riley, University of Maryland product David Kocher and Wofford College alum Andrew Novak. Dylan Wu rounds out the top five after finishing top 30 in each of his six starts.

Local Korn Ferry Tour players in the field include 2020 Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at Baha Mar champion Jared Wolfe, Ben Kohles, Tyson Alexander and Justin Hueber. The event will feature several PGA TOUR members including locals David Lingmerth, Sam Saunders, Alex Cejka, Sebastian Cappelen and Chris Baker, as well as 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir and four-time TOUR winners Robert Allenby and Sean O’Hair. Overall, 15 former TOUR winners are in the field with 31 past victories among them.

The Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass will restart the Tour’s 2020 season, which will now combine with the 2021 season due to the number of tournament cancelations. The newly created 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour schedule will conclude with 25 PGA TOUR cards awarded at the 2021 WinCo Foods Portland Open presented by KraftHeinz, with an additional 25 cards awarded at the conclusion of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

With six events completed through the El Bosque Mexico Championship by INNOVA, the remaining 2020 schedule – subject to change – now consists of 23 events. Korn Ferry Tour events to be contested in 2021 as part of the combined 2020-21 schedule will be announced later this year.