Golf: Rafa aims to regain his card on PGA Tour

Dubai - Rafa will compete in the final two of the three events on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals

Dubai resident Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain finished 170th on the 2020–2021 FedExCup Standings with 205 points which resulted in his failure to earn enough money and points to retain his PGA Tour playing privileges.

This week sees 124 qualifiers advance to play – Louis Oosthuizen has not entered – in the first of three FedExCup playoff events, The Northern Trust at New Jersey.

The golfers will be playing for a total purse of $9.5 million. The event will also determine the top 70 of the FedExCup rankings that will progress to next week’s BMW Championship.

Just lower down the pyramid of world golf, the top 25 players (The 25) on the development tour of the PGA Tour, is the Korn Ferry Tour.

Following the conclusion of the regular season-ending Pinnacle Bank Championship, the players gained promotion and their 2021–2022 PGA Tour Cards.

Each event boasts a prize fund of $1 million and features a 36-hole cut to the top-65 players and ties.

Each Korn Ferry Tour Finals event awards 1,000 points to the winner, and the standard Regular Season Points structure – 500 points to the winner – is doubled accordingly.

Players who earn spots in The 25 via the Regular Season compete in the Finals to potentially better their spot on the PGA Tour Priority Ranking, which alternates between members of The 25 and The Finals 25.

This additional Mini-Order of Merit opportunity has essentially replaced the old Qualifying School model with the PGA Tour preferring to opt for longer season form to gain precious entry to the top level of the PGA Tour.

Rafa will compete in the final two of the three events on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

He is taking this week off, as he did last week, for personal reasons as his wife Sofia is expecting their second child.

“We only withdrew Rafa from this week’s Albertsons Boise Open yesterday (Monday). Rafa is a family man at heart and wants to be present for the birth of his second child,” said Richard Rayment, Rafa’s manager and Dubai resident.

Also, some familiar names will look to gain their 2021–2022 PGA Tour privileges. And these players are Tom Lewis of England, Peter Uihlein of the US, Robert MacIntyre of Scotland, Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa, Lucas Herbert of Australia, Aaron Rai of England, Kurt Kitayama and Matthias Schwab of Austria.

David Lipsky of the US finished eighth on the 2020–2021 Korn Ferry Tour and has already been guaranteed his card.

Rafa’s next event on the European Tour schedule is the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

A glance at the current Race to Dubai standings shows Rafa in 54th place from his seven qualifying events so far, primarily as a result of his fourth-place finish earlier this year at the $8 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

There is still plenty at stake for golfers on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour and hopefully, this backstory of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals helps educate us all on how the players gain both season long playing privileges as well as other playing opportunities.

For further information on the Korn Ferry, Tour Finals visit www.PGATour.com