Second life on Korn Ferry Finals: UNF graduate Phillip Knowes moves on to Boise after top-10
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Former University of North Florida golfer Phillip Knowles had two flights booked last week while playing the Korn Ferry Tour Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha, Neb.
One was for Idaho for this week's Alberton's Boise Championship, the first leg of the Korn Ferry Finals.
The other was back to Jacksonville if Knowles didn't make the top-75 on the Korn Ferry eligibility list to qualify for the Finals.
He's enjoying that fresh mountain air in Boise, thanks to a tie for 10th at the Club at Indian Creek.
“I [had] two flights booked,” Knowles told pgatour.com. “One’s headed to Boise, one’s headed to Jacksonville. That’s the bottom line. This is a crazy week in golf. There’s a lot riding on it, and careers are at stake.”
Knowles was tied for the lead through 54 holes but finished with a 71. Had he won, he would have earned a spot among the top-25 on the regular season points list and earned his PGA Tour card for 2022-23.
Current golf tours: FedEx Cup playoffs head to Delaware for BMW Championship
But Knowles could have sunk even lower. Had he finished below No. 75, he would have been able to play no golf for three months and his reward for a long season would have been a bye to second-stage Korn Ferry qualifying.
Knowles also gets a second chance, thanks to the Finals format.
He rose from 87th on the points list and if he finishes among the top-25 in Finals points he will get his Tour card, albeit with a bit less conditional status when the season starts in mid-September.
Watch: Phillip Knowles birdie his final hole in Omaha
After Boise, the Tour moves to Columbus, Ohio for the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship and to Newburgh, Ind., for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
The finals purses increase to $1 million, with $180,000 to the winner. Knowles has earned $86,168 for the season, and last week was his first career top-10,
Knowles began the season with conditional status and missed four cuts in a row at one point. But he's made nine of his last 10, and the last five in a row, with three finishes in 26th or better.
Other area residents in the Korn Ferry Finals are points leader Carl Yuan, a native of China now residing in Jacksonville, Bolles and Florida graduate A.J. Crouch and Jacksonville resident Chris Baker.
LIV members sinking fast
A glance at the World Golf Rankings in early June, before the first LIV Golf event, and this week, show how desperate LIV CEO Greg Norman is to have the 54-hole, no-cut events be recognized for world ranking points.
Almost all of the suspended PGA Tour members who have bolted for LIV Golf have dropped in the rankings, since they have been able to play only in the U.S. Open and the British Open since LIV Golf began on June 9 in London.
It's crucial for LIV players because they are suspended from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and other than those with a past champions exemption, their only access to majors is through their world ranking — which requires a top-50 for the British Open and top-60 for the U.S. Open.
The Masters (top-50) and the PGA (top-100) have yet to weigh in on whether it will allow LIV players to compete.
The highest-ranked LIV Golf player at the time the Series began was Dustin Johnson, who has fallen from 15th in the world to 21st. He remains the highest-ranked LIV Golf player.
Abraham Ancer has dropped from 19th to 23rd, Brooks Koepka from 20th to 25th, Louis Oosthuizen from 21st to 29th and Patrick Reed from 26th to 49th.
Other drops have been even steeper. Phil Mickelson has sunk from 72nd to 104th, Sergio Garcia from 57th to 71st and Branden Grace from 123rd to 139th.
Because of the complex two-year revolving system, with good and bad performances falling off, three LIV Golf members have actually improved their world ranking. Charl Schwartzel has risen from 126th to 121st, Charles Howell III has gone from 193rd to 190th and Henrik Stenson from 241st to 176th.
But that won't last long, with more tournaments — and more opportunities to play in ranked events — passing with each week.
Even if the World Ranking Board eventually begins offering points for LIV events, they will be playing catchup ball for some time. It has usually taken between one-to-two years for tours to get approved for world ranking points.
In the meantime, the LIV members will be dropping with each weekly ranking.
Mitchell joins PAC
St. Simons Island, Ga., resident Keith Mitchell has been added to the PGA Tour Players Advisory Council, along with Max Homa, Brandt Snedeker and Kevin Streelman for the remainder of 2022.
Home and Snedeker are filling positions vacated by Koepka and Graeme McDowell when they jumped to LIV Golf. In a separate election to replace Paul Casey, who also went to LIV Golf, Mitchell and Streelman tied for the most votes, and both players have been added to the PAC, which has increased in size from 16 members to 17.
The PAC advises and consults with the PGA Tour Policy Board and commissioner Jay Monahan. PAC members also are elevated to the Policy Board.
Mitchell, 30, is in his fifth Tour season and is 38th on the FedEx Cup standings entering this week's BMW Championship.
The Tour also announced that Patrick Cantlay will join the Policy Board as a fifth player-director. Beginning next year, the board will have an equal number of player-directors and non-player directors for the first time.
Other area residents on the PAC are Billy Horschel, Russell Knox and Trey Mullinax.
Biden to serve as honorary chair
President Joe Biden will be the honorary chairman of the 2022 Presidents Cup Sept. 20-25 at the Quail Hollow Club.
President Biden will continue the streak of U.S. Presidents serving as honorary chairmen of the international match-play event between the U.S. and an International team. Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford have also served.
International honorary chairmen have been Australian Prime Ministers Scott Morrison (2019), Julia Gillard (2011) and John Howard (1998), Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2007), South Korean President Park Geun-hye (2015) and South African President Thabo Mbeki (2003).
PGA TOUR
Event: BMW Championship, Thursday-Sunday, Wilmington (Del.) Country Club.
At stake: $15 million purse ($2.7 million and 2,000 FedEx Cup points to the winner).
Defending champion: Patrick Cantlay.
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 3-7 p.m.; Saturday, 12-3 p.m.; Sunday, 12-2 p.m.); NBC (Saturday, 3-6 p.m.; Sunday 2-6 p.m.).
Area players entered (FedEx Cup rank): Billy Horschel (22), Brian Harman (23), J.T. Poston (25), Keith Mitchell (39), Trey Mullinax (41).
Notable: The second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs is in the Mid-Atlantic for the second year in a row. Last year Cantlay defeated Bryson DeChambeau with a birdie on the sixth playoff hole at Caves Valley in Maryland. … The top-30 in points advance to the Tour Championship next week at East Lake in Atlanta. … Cameron Smith of Ponte Vedra Beach, who is third on the points list, withdrew because of a hip injury. He is third in points and is guaranteed to make East Lake. … Will Zalatoris replaced Scottie Scheffler in first place with his victory in the FedEx St. Jude Championship last week.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
Event: Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, Friday-Sunday, En-Joie Golf Club, Endicott, N.Y.
At stake: $2.1 million purse ($315,000 to the winner).
Defending champion: Cameron Beckman.
TV: Golf Channel (Friday, 8-10 p.m.; Saturday, 7-9 p.m.; Sunday, 5-7 p.m.).
Area players entered: David Duval, Fred Funk, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh.
Notable: Beckman birdied his first five hole on the back nine and went on to shot 68 and beat Ernie Els by one shot.
KORN FERRY TOUR
Event: Alberton’s Boise Open, Thursday-Sunday, Hillcrest Country Club, Boise, Id.
At stake: $1 million purse ($180,000 to the winner).
Defending champion: Greyson Sigg.
TV: Golf Channel (Thursday, 8-10 p.m.; Friday, 10-12 p.m.; Saturday, 9-11 p.m.; Sunday, 8-10 p.m.).
Area players entered: Chris Baker, Jonas Blixt, Jonathan Byrd, A.J. Crouch, David Lingmerth, Doc Redman, Jared Wolfe, Carl Yuan.
Notable: The first leg of the Korn Ferry Finals begins with the top-75 players from the season-long points list and PGA Tour players who finished from No. 126-200 on the FedEx Cup points list. … Sigg shot 65-65 on the weekend and defeated J.J. Spaun and Aaron Rai by one shot. … PGA Tour members who dropped down to the Korn Ferry Finals include Harry Higgs, Camilo Villegas and Satoshi Kodaira.
Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: UNF's Phillip Knowes moves on to Boise after first Korn Ferry top-10
