The risk of relegation to the PGA Tour of two Olympic medalists

At Tokyo 2020, Sabbatini won a silver medal and Pan won a bronze medal. But when they return to the PGA Tour after this victory, both face a big challenge in their careers – the risk of second-place Korn Ferry Tour (KFT), if not a good performance in the Wyndham Championship.

The event concludes the regular program of the 2020-2021 PGA Tour season, and also determines a new season membership card for the top 125 on the FedEx Cup scoreboard. In the race to keep the place, the two Tokyo 2020 HC owners are in the “floating” group – Sabbatini is 141st while Pan is at 120th place.

And so, Sabbatini needs at least fifth place overall Wyndham to participate in the PGA Tour 2021-2022 season starting in mid-September this year. Same goal, but Pan breathes easier than his colleague – need to be 60th or higher.

If they fail, they will have to fight for relegation in the grand finals, including three events of the Korn Ferry Tour (KFT) Finals in three consecutive weeks right after Wyndham. This series of prizes is open to competitors from the 126-200 FedEx Cup and the top 75 KFT, with the new season PGA Tour tickets awarded to the top 50 finalists.

Failure to achieve this result, Sabbatini and Pan are still “reluctant doors” to stay in the most attractive arena in the world because they can only be used once. With Sabbatini is the privilege of being in the top 50 PGA Tour prize money through all time – 29th with $ 35,193 million or the “300 cut through” mode. Meanwhile, Pan gets one more season from the 2019 RBC Heritage title.

Finishing 36 holes Wyndham on August 13, Sabbatini stood at T2 with a score of -10 and four strokes from the top of the table, and Pan was at T56 (point -3).

On the last day of Tokyo 2020 golf on August 1, Sabbatini finished second with 61 strokes – breaking the Olympic record of 18 holes, while Pan hit the old ceiling of 63 strokes set by Matt Kuchar at Rio 2016.

Quoc Huy