It wasn’t a great week for Dean Burmester in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio, as he ground his way to a share of 46th on four-under-par for the week. But the points he gained for that hard work took him over the line in his quest for a PGA Tour card, and that was almost as sweet as a win.
The Korn Ferry Tour used a fail-safe threshold of 220 points to declare a player ‘Tour-bound’ after last week’s tournament in Boise. Based on a large contingent of players playing well in Columbus, the Korn Ferry Tour has moved the threshold to 210 points.
With back-to-back top-11 finishes at the Genesis Scottish Open and the Open Championship, Burmester accrued enough non-member FedExCup points to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. The married father-of-two has long held aspirations of competing at the PGA Tour level, and with strong play across the last two weeks, the 33-year-old has made that dream a reality.
Burmester opened the Finals with a share of fourth last week in Boise, and he recalls walking off the 18th green on Sunday in upbeat spirits, almost like he had won the tournament, despite finishing one stroke shy of a play-off. He knew he was on the verge of a dream. With a made cut in Ohio, final-round 69 and T46 finish, he has cemented his spot in The Finals 25.
Burmester comes from an athletic family; his dad played professional cricket and his mom was a highly accomplished amateur golfer. He began dabbling in golf as an elementary schooler but didn’t start to consider it a realistic career pursuit until age 17, when he won the first tournament he entered, breaking 70 to do so. He turned pro at age 20, earned Sunshine Tour status through Q-School and commenced a steady upward progression.
Now he’s headed to the PGA Tour.
“Man, it’s a long road from where I came from,” reflected Burmester after the final round in Columbus. “A junior taking up the game fairly late; always played when I was younger, and my parents just dragged me to the golf course on holidays, playing 72 holes a day. Now I get goosebumps thinking about where I’m headed to, the number one tour in the world and best job in the world. I’m just excited.”
