The former PGA Tour winner leads 6 players to earn Q-School cards

Lanto Griffin played “angry” this week.

On Wednesday, after his second year off the PGA Tour, he was told he would not qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour, but on Sunday nothing mattered.

Griffin shot a final round of one-under 63 on the Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass at the PGA Tour Q-School to claim the medals and his PGA Tour card for the 2025 season. Five other golfers will join him as six golfers finished the week at four-under or better and the top five players and ties earned PGA Tour membership.

It was Griffin’s first international win since his rookie season on the PGA Tour, when he won the 2019 Houston Open, but his game had fallen off in recent years.

After a strong run in which he finished in the top 100 FedEx Cup points list three years in a row before a back injury ruled him out in the summer of 2022.

His comebacks in 2023 and 2024 resulted in top 10 finishes, and cost him a full-time position on the PGA Tour, but that’s not what upset him this week at Q-School.

Griffin played in the playoffs this past season and earned 22 starts, but ended up finishing 158th in the FedEx Cup Fall, a way short of the top 125 marks needed to keep his card in 2025.

On Wednesday, he learned that he will not be sure when he will start on the Korn Ferry Tour next season if he wants to get that card again.

“That email on Wednesday night that I wouldn’t confirm that the Korn Ferry Tour was starting, that was — it pissed me off, it pissed me off,” he said Sunday. “So that was a little bit—you know, my mental coach and I have been talking about playing with a chip on your shoulder, being an athlete. It doesn’t really matter what it looks like. Yeah, that was the goal to come out here this week and compete as hard as I can.”

On Sunday night, 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 departed Sunday, starting the day in eighth place and moving up the leaderboard to finish three shots ahead of anyone else.

“I think when your back is against the wall you just have to—you don’t have a choice,” he said, “Obviously it could have gone differently 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 I had back surgery. Today after nine your mind is running a million miles an hour. You can make three bogeys and you’re in, it’s like I haven’t won a tournament since ’19, it’s been five years.

“You know, it would be great to win the Q-School, and to be able to win the Q-School with 156 really good players on two very strong golf courses is a big accomplishment for me and I’m very proud of that.”

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

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

Takumi Kanaya: The seven-time Japan Tour winner has already played in 11 major tournaments. He was the World No. 1 former and ranked as high as No. 49 in the Official World Golf Ranking in 2022.

Alejandro Tosti: A PGA Tour player in 2024 who made headlines for some of his big (and bold) shots, as well as some of his less-than-rosy antics.

Will Chandler: He will become a PGA Tour rookie in 2025 and fired a final nine-par 30 Sunday to earn a spot. It advanced from the second round of Q-School after cutting just 10 events on the Korn Ferry Tour this season and nine events on the PGA Tour Canada in 2023.

Matthew Riedel: The former Vanderbilt University standout graduated this spring and earned a spot on the Korn Ferry Tour through the PGA Tour Q-School. That also put him in 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
Doctor Redman
Hank Lebioda
Austin Cook
James Nicholas
Robby Shelton
Sang Moon Bae
Justin Suh
Joseph Bramlett
Carl Yuan
Chez Reavie
Sean O’Hair
Norman Xiong

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