In a dramatic finale that saw PGA TOUR cards hang in the balance until the final putt, Braden Thornberry captured his first PGA TOUR card with a 6-under 66 in the final round of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance. Thornberry finished at 9-under to edge out Brian Campbell, Alistair Docherty and Doc Redman, who finished in a three-way tie for second. With the victory, Thornberry vaulted to No. 16 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List with the top 30 at the conclusion of play declared #TOURBound and earning full PGA TOUR status for the 2025 season. The Fred Haskins Award winner during his time at Ole Miss was the only player to move within the top 30 this week and knocked Sam Bennett into 31st as the first odd man out.
Thornberry, a Korn Ferry Tour member for the past three seasons, found himself among four players who had PGA TOUR cards on the line when the final group headed to the 18th tee. Entering the week at 51st in the Points List, he needed a solo-second finish to move into the top 30. After posting the clubhouse lead at 9-under, he simply had to wait and hope, knowing an eagle or birdie from Campbell or an eagle from Redman on the reachable par-5 18th hole would have jeopardized his positioning.
“It’s amazing,” Thornberry said tearfully after he was declared #TOURBound. “I played good all year and just hadn’t quite got it to work out for me. For this to all come together today is just special … A lot of stuff hasn’t gone my way over the past five years or so. To finally have something go my way and play well at the right time is amazing.”
A former No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, the 27-year-old made his PGA TOUR debut as an amateur, finishing T4 as a sponsor exemption at the 2016 FedEx St. Jude Championship, the highest finish by an amateur on TOUR since Lee McCoy’s solo-fourth at the 2016 Valspar Championship. He won the 2018 Mark H. McCormack Medal while at the University of Mississippi, where he set a school record with 11 career wins and earned individual medalist honors at the 2017 NCAA Championship
He has failed to break through on the Korn Ferry Tour after his promising amateur career, however, recording Points List finishes of No. 101 as a rookie in 2019, No. 57 in 2020-21 and No. 109 in 2022. With back-to-back finishes of T4 and T12 at the first two Korn Ferry Tour Playoffs events (Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, respectively), Thornberry played his way into the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, and now he has played his way into the PGA TOUR, where he’ll make his member debut in the 2025 season.
SOURCE: PGATOUR.COM
