PGA Tour status on the line for 2 heralded seniors at men’s NCAA Championship

There will be extra incentive for 19 players when the men’s NCAA Championship begins Friday at Omni La Costa Resort in California. While there are 30 teams competing, the PGA Tour University Rankings will be finalized on Monday after the completion of 72 holes of stroke play. The top 25 players in those rankings will earn various status or exemptions on affiliated PGA Tours for the remainder of the year.

Nineteen of the current top 25 are in action at La Costa.

The biggest prize is PGA Tour status, which only Stanford senior Michael Thorbjornsen or Georgia Tech senior Christo Lamprecht can earn. The No. 1 player in the PGA Tour U rankings will earn membership for the rest of 2024 and all of 2025.

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Top-ranked Thorbjornsen will earn tour status if he finishes in a two-way tie for 10th place or better. Lamprecht must win the NCAA’s individual championship and Thorbjornsen needs to finish worse than the two-way tie for 10th place.

Those who finish in positions 2-5 in the rankings will earn membership on the Korn Ferry Tour for the rest of this year and are fully exempt into the final stage of PGA Tour Q-School this fall.

North Florida’s Nicholas Gabrelcik is fifth in the rankings. In order to remain in that position, and not slide down to the next category, he needs to finish 14th place or better.

Farther down the list, players who finish Nos. 6-10 in the rankings will earn conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour for the rest of this year. Those who finish 6-25 and are fully exempt on PGA Tour Americas for the rest of 2024. They’re also exempt into the second stage of Q-School.

The PGA Tour will update its university rankings after each round of the NCAA Championship so players will be able to track where they stand each day.

PGA TOUR UNIVERSITY RANKINGS
1: Michael Thorbjornsen, Stanford
2: Christo Lamprecht, Georgia Tech
3: Austin Greaser, North Carolina
4: Matthew Riedel, Vanderbilt
5: Nicholas Gabrelcik, North Forida
6: William Moll, Vanderbilt
7: Frederik Kjettrup, Florida State
8: Cole Sherwood, Vanderbilt
9: Gustav Frimodt, TCU
10: Michael Brennan, Wake Forest
11: Mats Ege, East Tennessee State
12: Sampson-Yunhe Zheng, Cal
13: Ben Lorenz, Oklahoma
14: Karl Vilips, Stanford
15: Jonas Baumgartner, Oklahoma State
16: Herman Wibe Sekne, Purdue
17: Dylan Menante, North Carolina
18: Maxwell Moldovan, Ohio State
19: Ryggs Johnston, Arizona State
20: Canon Claycomb, Alabama
21: Petr Hruby, Washington
22: Bryce Lewis, Tennessee
23: Santiago De la Guente, Houston
24: John Marshall Butler, Auburn
25: Ben Van Wyk, Georgia