Former PGA Tour winner leads 6 players to earn cards at Q-School

Lanto Griffin played “bored” this week.

On Wednesday, after his second straight year on the PGA Tour, he was told there would be no status on the Korn Ferry Tour, but by Sunday none of that mattered.

Griffin shot a final round of seven-under 63 at Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass in PGA Tour Q-School to earn medalist honors and his PGA Tour card for the 2025 season. Five more players will join him as six golfers finished the week at four under or better with the top five players and the links earning membership in PGA Tour.

It’s Griffin’s first worldwide win since his rookie season on the PGA Tour, when he triumphed at the 2019 Houston Open, but his game had slipped over the years.

After a run of consistent success, he finished in the top 100 of the FedEx Cup points list three years in a row before a back injury sidelined him in the summer of 2022.

His comeback in 2023 and 2024 resulted in just one top-10 and lost full-time status on the PGA Tour, but that’s not what angered him this week at Q-School.

Griffin played out of the defending champion category last season and won 22 starts, but still finished 158th in the Fall FedEx Cup standings, well short of the 125th mark needed to keep his card for 2025.

Then on Wednesday, he learned he would have no guaranteed start on the Korn Ferry Tour next season if he wanted to regain his card that way.

“That email on Wednesday night that I wasn’t even guaranteed to start the Korn Ferry Tour, that was — it upset me, it upset me,” he said Sunday. “So that was a little thing — you know, me and my mental coach have talked about playing with a chip on our shoulder, being an athlete. It doesn’t really matter what it looks like. Yeah, that was the goal coming out here this week and to compete as much as I can.”

On Sunday evening, as he spoke to the media, the mission was accomplished.

After three rounds at Sawgrass Country Club and Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass, Griffin walked away Sunday, starting the day tied for eighth and climbing the leaderboard to finish three shots ahead of anyone else.

“I think when your back is against the wall you just have to do it – you have no choice,” he said, “Obviously it could have gone the other way this week for me, but my focus was good.

“Today was big for my confidence. I have a lot of confidence in my game, but I haven’t won since my back surgery. Today on the back nine, your mind is racing at a million miles an hour. You can make three bogeys and still get in, it’s like I haven’t won a tournament since ’19, it’s been five years.

“You know, it would be really nice to win the Q-School, and to be able to win the Q-School with 156 really good players on two tough golf courses is a huge achievement for me and I’m super proud of that .”

Here are the five other players who will join Griffin on the PGA Tour in 2025

Hayden Buckley: He had been on the PGA Tour for the past two seasons but dropped out of the Top 125 after recording just two top-10s in 2024.

Takumi Kanaya: A seven-time Japan Tour winner who has already played in 11 major championships. He was a former amateur world No. 1 and was ranked 49th in the 2022 Official World Golf Ranking.

Alejandro Tosti: PGA Tour debutant in 2024, who made headlines for some of his big (and bold) shots.as well as some of it antique less than pink.

Will Chandler: Will be a PGA Tour rookie in 2025 and shoot a final-930 on Sunday to earn a spot. Advance from the second phase of Q-School after logging just 10 Korn Ferry Tour events this season and nine PGA Tour Canada events in 2023.

Matthew Riedel: Former Vanderbilt University standout who graduated this spring and earned Korn Ferry Tour status through PGA Tour Q-School. This also put him straight into the final stage of Q-School this week.

Notables who failed to qualify

Nick Watney
Adrien Dumont de Chassart
SY No
Austin Smotherman
Tommy Gainey
Christo Lamprecht
Pierceson Coody
Doc Redman
Hank Lebioda
Austin Cook
James Nicholas
Robby Shelton
Sangmoon Bae
Justin Suh
Joseph Bramlett
Carl Juan
Reavie’s
Sean O’Hair
Norman Xiong

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