NEWBURGH, Ind. — Richy Werenski made a late charge and earned his PGA Tour card for next season in the process.
The South Hadley native birdied the 15th and 16th holes at Victoria National Golf Club en route to a tie for seventh at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, Monday.
Werenski finished with a 3-under 69, his third straight round in the 60s. He followed an even-par 72 in the first round with a 66 and 69, respectively.
Werenski’s strong finish moved him from a tie for 53rd to a tie for 24th in points on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Top 25. The top 25 earn PGA Tour cards for the 2019-20 season, which starts next week.
Werenski qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals by finishing 126th on the FedEx Cup points list. The top 125 earn tour cards.
Tom Lewis of England has a card as well.
Lewis, who narrowly qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals with his tie for 11th at the British Open, closed with a 7-under 65 for a five-shot victory.
“I didn’t know what to expect this week,” Lewis said. “To shoot the scores I did this week was amazing.”
The Korn Ferry Tour Championship was the last of three events that comprise the Finals series, which offers PGA Tour cards to the leading 25 players who did not have playing privileges for the upcoming season. Twenty-five others previously had earned tour cards from the regular season on the developmental tour.
Lewis, a European Tour member, did well enough at the British Open and a pair of World Golf Championships to be the equivalent of No. 196 in the FedEx Cup. Players from 126th to 200th in FedEx Cup are eligible for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
He was in Europe during the opening two Finals events, and skipped the European Masters in Switzerland to compete in the last one, and it paid off in a big way.
“I’m chuffed,” said Lewis, who first gained notoriety with a share of the 18-hole lead in 2011 British Open as an amateur. “A win is a win. Hopefully, I can go on and create more opportunities for myself on the European Tour and out here now.”
The next PGA Tour season starts Sept. 12-15 at The Greenbrier.
Fabian Gomez, a former PGA Tour winner from Argentina, closed with a 66 to finish second and move into the top 25 who earned cards.
The biggest moment belonged to Doug Ghim, a former U.S. Amateur runner-up. He made an 8-foot par putt on the final hole for a 72 to tie for 19th, giving him just enough points to finish inside the top 25. If he had missed, he would have lost out on a card.
“I never felt nerves like that before,” Ghim said. “I had said the only way I would be devastated was if I had a putt to make it and I didn’t make it — and that thought occurred,” Ghim said. “To have a putt to make it is wild, and even wilder is to have it go in.”
Chris Baker, who grew up in Indiana and spent an entire decade on small tours, finally earned a PGA Tour card with a tie for fourth.
The heartache belonged to Justin Harding of South Africa, and there wasn’t much he could do about it.
Harding, who won five times over the past two years in Europe, Asia and South Africa, was in 13th place in points going into the final event and then missed the cut. He kept dropping and still looked to be safe inside the top 25 until a chain-reaction set of circumstances that came down to three players who already had secured cards.
It ended with Lanto Griffin standing over a 5-foot birdie putt on the final hole. If he made it, Griffin would have tied for sixth. He missed it, which meant he stayed in a six-way tie for seventh with Werenski and D.J. Trahan. That tie for seventh moved Werenski and Trahan ahead of Harding in the final standings.
“I couldn’t lock it up on my own,” Harding said on Twitter. “Unfortunately, I have to let the other guys decide my fate.”
He ended his tweet by saying he would take a break and get ready for the rest of the European Tour season and hoped to be seen on the PGA Tour early next year. He already is assured of being in the Masters because he tied for 12th in his debut at Augusta National.