PGA Tour Minor League Gets a Weird New Name

The NBA has the G League. Major League Baseball has Minor League Baseball. The National Football League has college football. And now, the PGA Tour has the Korn Ferry Tour. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?

The PGA Tour announced that, starting today, the Web.com Tour will henceforth be known as the Korn Ferry Tour. The developmental tour (essentially the minor league to the PGA Tour) will operate the same way its predecessor did, with the top 50 players — 25 from the regular season points list and 25 from their three-event playoff system — getting all-important PGA Tour membership. But, there’s something about that name that doesn’t elicit a championship feeling.

Korn Ferry is, according to its website, a “global organizational consulting firm.” If you, like me, had never heard of them before, get ready to hear plenty about them moving forward, because, in addition to being the title sponsor for the minor-league tour in the U.S., they’re also an official PGA Tour marketing partner.

This tour has become famous among the general population for giving sponsors exemptions to the likes of Steph Curry and Tony Romo in the past, though to golf fans they’re famous for giving guys like Jason Day, Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and others their start. Now those players will come through the Korn Ferry Tour, which sounds weird now, and will for as long as they’re the sponsor.