Michael Thorbjornsen is already a member of the PGA Tour. Precisely since yesterday, just at the moment when the individual phase of the NCAA grand final ended and it was confirmed that he is the new champion of the PGA Tour University ranking. Such a distinction is accompanied by the PGA Tour card for the remainder of 2024 and the entire year of 2025.
Although he missed the cut at the Nationals, which are being held at the Omni La Costa North Course in California, the withdrawal due to back problems of the second-placed, Christo Lamprecht, as well as the advantage he already had accumulated during the season, has been enough to proclaim himself champion. He succeeds Ludvig Aberg in the winners’ list. The Swede knew how to take full advantage of the privilege offered by the PGA Tour University, he is already a winner of the American circuit after his victory in last year’s RSM Classic.
Thorbjonsen, trained at Stanford like Tiger Woods or Rose Zhang, will be able to enter all PGA Tour tournaments from now on, except for the Designated ones, for which he will have to qualify. Born in Ohio, five days after the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, his record is already very strong. He won the US Open Junior in 2018 and played the US Open at Pebble Beach the following year. At just 17 years old he made the cut, becoming the second youngest to achieve this feat since World War II. In addition, he finished fourth in the Travelers Championship in 2022.
In addition to Thorbjornsen, Lamprecht, Austin Greaser, Matthew Riedel and Nicholas Gabrelcik, ranked from second to fifth in the PGA Tour University, get the Korn Ferry Tour card until the end of the 2024 season, as well as a direct invitation to the final of the PGA Tour school this year. Meanwhile, those ranked between sixth and tenth place get a conditional card from the Korn Ferry Tour, full rights of the PGA Tour Americas and exemption for the penultimate phase of the School. Finally, those ranked between eleventh and 25th also get the full card of the PGA Tour Americas and direct access to the second phase of the American School.
Remember that the PGA Tour University is a ranking aimed at golfers who are in their last year of University and who, therefore, complete the cycle of studies. Thus, the Spaniard Josele Ballester, the most outstanding of ours on the other side of the Atlantic, does not appear in this ranking because he still has one more year at Arizona State University. The best Spaniards this year in this classification have been Javier Barcos, ranked 59th, Albert Boneta, ranked 63rd and Samuel Espinosa, ranked 102nd.
As for the NCAA Nationals, the Spanish performance has not been particularly good. Barcos, Boneta and Montojo, the three participants, were left out of the cut after the third round. The champion of the Nationals has been the golfer from Singapore of Georgia Tech, Hiroshi Tai. He finished with a total of -3 and a one-stroke advantage over Tyler Goecke, Luke Clanton, Jackson Koivun, Gordon Sargent, Max Herendeen and Ben James.
