A cool $1 million will be on the line for the PGA Korn Ferry Tour’s Price Cutter Charity Championship presented Dr Pepper in the 2023 season, Tournament Executive Director Jerald Andrews announced on Thursday.
“The purse increase makes it even clearer that the Korn Ferry Tour is the highest level of professional before its standouts reach the PGA Tour,” Andrews said. “Our tournament has long seen an elite level of play the past 31 years, and our purses have been among the best. This takes it to an entirely new and exciting level.”
The Korn Ferry Tour originally slated the purse increases for the 2021 season after being approved by the Policy Board in March of 2020 but were delayed a year due to expenses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including testing and health and safety implementation.
“The Korn Ferry Tour continues to play a massive role in delivering a pipeline of future stars to the PGA TOUR on a consistent basis,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin. “Today’s announcement is another step in ensuring the Tour will continue to attract the best young talent while providing higher-quality playing opportunities for the entire membership.”
This year’s PCCC is set for July 16-26, with the pros playing July 22-25 at Highland Springs Country Club. The purse is $600,000, with the champion to take home $108,000.
The increases come across the board over the 2022 and 2023 seasons, with set minimums for regular season events, the regular season finale, and the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
Korn Ferry Tour regular-season purses will increase by 66.7 percent from 2021 to 2023, rising by $150,000 to a minimum of $750,000 in 2022 before hitting the $1 million minimum in 2023.
“It shows the TOUR’s commitment to the Korn Ferry Tour,” said Korn Ferry Tour Player Advisory Council chairman Scott Langley. “The game has always been a meritocracy, but it’s nice to see that that good play will be rewarded a little bit more over the course of a season.”
The three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which in 2021 includes the Albertsons Boise Open (Boise, Idaho), the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship (Columbus, Ohio) and the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance (Newburgh, Indiana), currently have purses of $1 million. In 2023, the purse for all three Korn Ferry Tour Finals events, where another 25 PGA TOUR cards are awarded at the conclusion of the third event, will move to $1.5 million.
When founded in 1990 as the Ben Hogan Tour (1990-92), the Korn Ferry Tour featured a total purse of $3 million across 30 total events, averaging $100,000 per tournament. The PCCC was among those events.
The Korn Ferry Tour’s mission is to identify and develop golf’s next stars, preparing them to compete and win on the game’s biggest stage. Since 2013, the Korn Ferry Tour has provided 50 PGA TOUR cards annually.
Each season, the top 25 players secure PGA TOUR cards via the Korn Ferry Tour’s regular season and an additional 25 players secure promotion through the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. With more than 550 PGA TOUR titles and 24 major championships, Korn Ferry Tour alumni make up over 75 percent of the PGA TOUR’s current membership.