The path to the PGA Tour is not as straightforward as the path to the top of other professional sports, there are many ways to get there. Below explains the different PGA tour affiliates and how players work their way up to the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour Latinoamérica and the Mackenzie Tour (formerly PGA Tour Canada) serve as 2 developmental professional golf tours that feed players into the Korn Ferry tour. The Latinoamérica tour is conducted all across South and Central America and runs roughly November to June, while the Mackenzie Tour events are held throughout Canada and occurs June-September. Both tours provide equal opportunities to advance to the next level, the Korn Ferry Tour. At the end of each season the highest ranked players in each tours point ranking system will be rewarded with the opportunity to compete on the Korn Ferry tour.

Q school is not an academic journey but rather a 72-hole qualifying tournament. There are approximately 4 Q-School locations each year for both the Latinoamérica and Mackenzie Tours. Players are eligible to play in only 1 Qualifying school per year on both the Latinoamérica and Mackenzie Tours. The top finisher at each site will be exempt for the entire and not subject to reshuffle*.  

 Players who finish  placing second (2^nd) through twelfth (12^th) at each site will receive exempt status up to the reshuffle*.

Finishers placing thirteenth (13^th) to fortieth (40^th), including ties, will receive conditional status and will be eligible for the reshuffle*.

*A reshuffle will take place after a certain number of events, as determined by PGA TOUR Latinoamérica/Mackenzie (approximately after the first half of the season), based upon each player’s position on the current points List.

The Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament is the premier way to gain status on the following year’s Korn Ferry Tour.  Each year, several worthy players take their shot at advancing through pre-qualifying, First Stage and Second Stage at various sites across the country all leading up to Final Stage. 

Each “Stage” is a separate 72 hole golf tournament in which only the top players advance to the next stage. Players who advance to Final Stage are assured a Korn Ferry Tour card for the following season, and the top 40 finishers (and ties) at Final Stage are assured a healthy number of starts in the first part of the following Korn Ferry Tour season.

Once a member of the Korn Ferry tour, the Top-25 finishers in the Korn Ferry Tour’s season long Points List will be awarded a PGA Tour card and will be fully exempt for the following PGA Tour season.