The Korn Ferry Tour's New Name ... and All Its Old Names
"Korn Ferry Tour" is the name now used for the PGA Tour's developmental circuit, the second-level tour for men's professional golfers in the United States. In other words, the Web.com Tour is now renamed to the Korn Ferry Tour.
Previous Names of the Korn Ferry Tour
The PGA Tour established an official developmental tour beginning in 1990 — a tour that non-PGA Tour members could play in hopes of moving up to the big tour.These are the names (which really just means title sponsors) that circuit has had over the years:
- Ben Hogan Tour — 1990-93
- Nike Tour — 1993-99
- Buy.com Tour — 2000-2002
- Nationwide Tour — 2003-2012
- Web.com Tour — 2012-June 2019
- Korn Ferry Tour — June 2019-
From Web.com Tour to Korn Ferry Tour
The name change had unusual timing: It happened right in the middle of what had been the 2019 Web.com Tour season. The PGA Tour made the announcement on June 19, 2019:
"The PGA Tour and Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY) announced today a 10-year agreement making the Los Angeles-based, global organizational consulting firm the Umbrella Sponsor of the newly named Korn Ferry Tour."In replacing Web.com, Korn Ferry’s sponsorship takes effect June 19 and extends through the 2028 season. The Korn Ferry Tour will continue to award PGA TOUR membership to the Tour’s 50 leading players, including the top 25 from the Regular Season points list and the top 25 from the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals points list."
To be clear, nothing changed in 2019 about the way the PGA Tour operates its developmental tour — only the name changed.
What Is Korn Ferry?
But what is a Korn Ferry? As noted in the quote above, Korn Ferry is a "global organizational consulting firm." But what does that mean? Quoting again from the PGA Tour announcement:
"Korn Ferry develops and coaches 1.2 million people a year, puts someone in a new job every three minutes and has worked with companies to evaluate and assess nearly 70 million professionals. The firm has offices in more than 50 countries and 8,500 employees."Korn Ferry works with clients to design their organizational structures, roles and responsibilities. The firm helps them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward, develop and motivate their workforce. Korn Ferry also helps professionals at all levels navigate and advance their careers."
