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Korn Ferry Tour announces new restart schedule and additional fall slate for 2020-'21 season

May 04, 2020
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Steve Dykes

The Korn Ferry Tour released its revamped schedule on Monday for the remainder of the 2020 season, highlighted by the addition of a fall slate.

The tour was halted in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic after playing just six events. Like the PGA Tour, it is targeting June 8 for its restart date, and it will resume play with a new event, the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass. A total of 17 events will be played for the remainder of the year. The 23 total tournaments from '20 will be combined with as-yet-unannounced events in 2021 to comprise a wraparound 2020-'21 season.

The news comes a week after the PGA Tour announced it would not be handing out 25 new Tour cards to the Korn Ferry's top performers or 25 membership spots from the Korn Ferry Playoffs. Instead, the Tour says it is establishing performance benefits to those who finish in the top 10 of the Korn Ferry points list at the end of the year, including eligibility for opposite-field events. The battlefield promotion, for those who win three times in a year on the Korn Ferry circuit, remains.

“While we won’t have the opportunity to graduate a Korn Ferry Tour Class in 2020, we feel our reimagined wraparound schedule—with newly created playing opportunities—is the best solution to our season that has been disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin. “We greatly appreciate the support of our tournaments, title sponsors and Player Advisory Council in getting to this point. As we’ve said on several occasions, we will resume play only when it is deemed safe to do so by leading health authorities and government agencies and our tournaments do not negatively impact the critical efforts in the healthcare world and our communities.”

Some of the notable changes in the KFT schedule include:

—The aforementioned Korn Ferry Challenge, followed by another new event at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla.

—Back-to-back events at TPC San Antonio in July.

—A new autumn part of the schedule. Following the Korn Ferry Tour Championship that concludes on Aug. 30, four previously postponed events—the Lincoln Land Championship, Evans Scholars Invitational, Wichita Open and Savannah Golf Championship—will be played. Additionally, another new competition, the Orange County National Championship, which will serve as the season-ending event and finishes on Oct. 11.

Similar to the PGA Tour's fan policy, the first four KFT events will be closed to the general public.

“As we look toward a return to golf, the health and safety of everyone associated with the Korn Ferry Tour and our communities will remain our No. 1 priority,” said Baldwin. “With the impact sustained thus far to our 2020 schedule, it was imperative that we strive to create new playing opportunities for our membership, including these four events that were not on our original schedule.”