(Pictured: Dylan Menante, winner of the Tulum Championship in Mexico/PGA Tour)
By Chris Lang
The Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by Virginia’s Richmond Region is coming to VSGA member club The Federal Club in October.
The top 60 players on the Korn Ferry Tour points list following the third playoff event of the season – The Compliance Solutions Championship in Oklahoma – advance to a four-round no-cut final event at the Glen Allen club. The KFT Championship is scheduled for Oct. 8-11 and all four rounds will be televised by Golf Channel. The top 20 finishers earn 2027 PGA Tour cards.
Interested in volunteering?
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How the Korn Ferry Tour Finals work
The VSGA will take a monthly look at the PGA Tour’s top developmental circuit to prepare members for whom they might see at The Federal Club come October.
Who has won so far?
Nine events are in the books.
After starting the season abroad, the KFT made its U.S. debut in late March. The rest of the schedule will be contested on U.S. soil.
Your 2026 winners:
- The Bahamas Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island (Jan. 11-14): Taylor Dickson
- The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club (Jan. 18-21): Ian Holt
- The Panama Championship (Jan. 29-Feb. 1): Ian Holt
- Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard (Feb. 5-8): James Nicholas
- 119 Visa Open presented by Macro (Feb. 26-March 1): Alistair Docherty
- Astara Chile Classic presented by Scotiabank (March 5-8): Doc Redman
- Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club (March 26-29): Davis Lamb
- LECOM Suncoast Classic (April 2-5): Jeremy Gandon
- Tulum Championship at PGA Riviera Maya (April 16-19): Dylan Menante
The next three events
- Colonial Life Charity Classic, The Woodcreek Club, Elgin, S.C. (May 14-17)
- Visit Knoxville Open, Holston Hills CC, Knoxville, Tenn. (May 21-24)
- UNC Health Championship, Raleigh CC, Raleigh, N.C. (May 28-31)
The Top Five
Ian Holt | Points: 1,216.993 | Rank: 1
A 30-year-old from Kent State, Holt finished 42nd in points last year but has gotten off to a fantastic start this season. One more victory earns him an automatic PGA Tour promotion. He competed on the KFT in 2023 (150th in points) and 2019 (two starts, two MCs). Holt played hockey for eight years growing up.
Alistair Docherty | Points: 893.534 | Rank: 2
Born in Saint John in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, Docherty played collegiately at Cal State Chico. Docherty, 32, has played in 83 KFT events and earned his first victory this season. He’s made five PGA Tour starts (two made cuts) and finished tied for second at the 2024 PGA Tour Myrtle Beach Classic. Like Holt, Docherty grew up playing hockey, but injuries and lack of size led him to a career in golf.
Jeremy Gandon | Points: 733.013 | Rank: 3
Born in France, the 29-year-old Gandon played college golf at Kansas State before turning pro in 2019. After opening the season with two MCs in the Bahamas, he got on track with a T4 in Panama. He was ranked 26th on the KFT points list after the Club Car Championship but shot into the top 5 with a win at the LECOM Suncoast Classic in which he posted three straight 65s after opening with a 67. It was his second win in two full seasons on Tour.
Davis Lamb | Points: 641.298 | Rank: 4
A 28-year-old from Bethesda, Md., Lamb played college golf at Notre Dame and turned pro in 2021. A win at the Club Car Championship moved him from 38th to 3rd on the KFT points list, though he missed the cut in the next two events. Lamb won the 2019 Maryland Open and is a fanatic of the New York Times crossword, even if he rarely finishes a puzzle.
Doc Redman | Points: 615.988 | Rank: 5
Followers of regional junior golf will remember Redman, who played for Team Carolinas in the Virginias-Carolinas Junior Boys Matches in the mid-2010s. Redman also defeated Virginia’s Mark Lawrence Jr. in the semifinals of the 2017 U.S. Amateur before ousting Doug Ghim in extra holes in the final match. Redman has plenty of PGA Tour experience, making 125 starts and carding six top-5 finishes. Yes, Doc is his real first name.
Five more names to watch
Dylan Menante | Points: 604.281 | Rank: 6
After starting his career at Pepperdine, Menante transferred to North Carolina, reportedly because he wanted to play at a school with a college football team. Showing just how much wins mean on this tour, Menante moved from 74th to 6th on the points list with his recent victory in Mexico, in which he shot 70-67-69-63. An inconsistent player with flashes of excellence, Menante has twice as many MCs (four) as top 10s (two) this year. But when he gets hot, watch out.
Blades Brown | Points: 566.048 | Rank: 10
One of the nation’s most talented junior golfers, Brown bypassed college golf and turned professional in 2024. Still just 18, Brown has made the cut in three of his four PGA Tour events this season and played in the final group with Scottie Scheffler at The American Express in January. He finished third at the Puerto Rico Open. His best path to full-time PGA Tour status, though, is likely through the KFT, and he’s moved from 73rd to 10th on the points list in the last month. Fun fact: Blades’ mother Rhonda made the first 3-pointer in WNBA history, playing for the New York Liberty in 1997.
Norman Xiong | Points: 311.517 | Rank: 26
Much was expected of Xiong after a stellar career at the University of Oregon, but it’s taken some time to materialize. He’s won twice on the KFT, once each in 2022 and 2023, and he has one top 10 in 37 PGA Tour starts. He’s hanging around the top 30 mostly because of a second-place finish at the Astara Golf Championship in February. Since then, he’s slid in the rankings thanks to two MCs and two finishes in the 60s. Xiong won the Junior PGA Championship in 2016.
Cole Hammer | Points: 292.683 | Rank: 27
Another former college standout, Hammer played four seasons at Texas and reached No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking in 2019. He earned his KFT by finishing fifth in the PGA Tour University rankings in 2022. Professional success has been slow to come. This season, he’s sandwiched a pair of T4 finishes around two MCs. He has enough talent to get going during the summer and threaten the top 20.
Justin Hastings | Points: 277.458 | Rank: 30
Hastings burst onto the scene in 2025 by winning the Latin America Amateur, earning him a trip to the Masters. Born in the Cayman Islands, Hastings played well enough at San Diego State to earn top-5 status in the PGA Tour University rankings, giving him a KFT card for 2026. He was ranked as high as No. 7 after the season’s third event but has slipped down the rankings after missing five straight cuts. He has the talent to turn it around, and the next few events will tell the story of his season.
Local flavor
Past State Open of Virginia champion Lanto Griffin is trying to keep his career alive, playing a mix of PGA Tour and KFT events at age 37. He’s made five starts and no cuts on the PGA Tour this season, but his one start on the KFT yielded a top-25 finish, leaving him 93rd on the points list. He’ll at least have a chance of regaining status through the KFT as the season progresses.