Patrick Fishburn ended up two shots short in his second chance to qualify for the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 season.
Fishburn, a 30-year-old golfer from Fremont High School and BYU, needed about a top-30 finish in the Korn Ferry Tour Championship to earn a PGA Tour card, via cumulative points in the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Fishburn (67-67-76-69) tied for 39th place at Victoria National Golf Club in southern Indiana. He finished 28th in the Finals, with 25 players graduating.
When he missed a 10-foot birdie attempt on his last hole Sunday, Fishburn appeared to have fallen out of the top 25 by one stroke. As it turned out, he missed by two shots, so that putt itself won’t haunt him between now and January, when his third Korn Ferry Tour season starts. Regardless, he would love to have joined Utah high school graduates Tony Finau and Zac Blair for the PGA Tour schedule that begins this week in Napa, Calif.
Fishburn could have gained PGA Tour membership in the second-to-last week of the KFT regular season by winning the Utah Championship in early August at Oakridge Country Club. He bogeyed No. 17, then birdied No. 18 to tie for second place in Farmington, one stroke behind Andrew Kozan.
In the KFT Finals, Fishburn tied for 37th place in Boise, Idaho, and tied for 22nd in Columbus, Ohio, before giving himself a great shot at moving up with his 67-67 start in Indiana. But he played Saturday’s front nine in 5 over par, and couldn’t make up enough ground despite playing the last 27 holes in 4 under.
Fishburn made six birdies and three bogeys Sunday, including two bogeys on par-5 holes. Having started his round on the back nine, he birdied Nos. 4 and 6 to get inside the top-25 projection temporarily. He had birdie chances on the last three holes – especially, the par-5 No. 9, where his second shot with an iron from the middle of the fairway came up short of the green.
In the Finals, Fishburn was competing with other golfers who finished between Nos. 26 and 75 in the KFT season standings and players from Nos. 126-200 on the PGA Tour. Two former winners of the Utah Championship, Nicholas Lindheim (2016) and Brice Garnett (2017), will return to the PGA Tour after finishing in the Finals’ top 25.
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