From Korn Ferry Tour

Last fall, Aldrich Potgieter battled through PGA Tour Q-School presented by Korn Ferry, earning guaranteed Korn Ferry Tour starts via medallist honours at Second Stage. By January, he was the youngest winner in Korn Ferry Tour history at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club, and by February, he became the youngest player to shoot 59 in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event at the Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard.

Now, this week, at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, the South African is on the verge of one more impressive accolade: a PGA Tour card.

Did we mention he’s only 20?

Potgieter entered this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance at 26th on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List (the top 30 at the end of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship earn PGA Tour status for 2025). When he teed off Saturday morning, he was projected 29th. At 11am, after enduring a brutal quadruple bogey on the 12th hole (Potgieter’s third of the day), he had dropped to projected 32nd.

And yet, by the end of his round, Potgieter had clawed his way back to 30th, sitting right on the bubble for a Tour card — just three points above Doc Redman (31st) and six points ahead of Sam Bennett (32nd).

Thus lies the volatility of the Korn Ferry Tour Points bubble, one of which Potgieter has become well acquainted this week.

“One hole you’re inside, the next you’re outside,” Potgieter said of the top-30 bubble after his third-round, five-over 77 at French Lick’s Pete Dye Course. “You look at the leaderboard, think you’re somewhere and then you’re not there anymore. It changes so much.”

Still, Potgieter embraces the challenge. “I’m interested in it,” he said. “I think a lot of good pressure can come from it… I want the pressure to know what I need to do. I don’t want to go up to hole 17 and have to ask where I stand.”

And pressure there will be. Potgieter finished the day in a tie for 61st in the 74-man field. Bennett closed in a tie for 53rd while Redman sits in solo second, just one shot behind leader Zach Bauchou, who also moved into the projected top 30 after starting the week at 35th on the Points List. Birdies, eagles, bogeys and double-bogeys will decide it all, as any one hole can adjust the bubble and the careers that hang in the balance.

But Potgieter is ready for it, prepared to turn pressure into opportunity.