Johnny Keefer’s chances of qualifying for his first Masters next April just received a nice boost.
Keefer, this year’s Korn Ferry Tour points winner, cracked the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in his career last week, but this week’s three-spot slide showed that he’d need at least one world-ranked start to grab that top-50 exemption into Augusta National at year’s end. Enter next week’s World Wide Technology Championship, where Keefer will compete as a sponsor exemption.
While the Masters got rid of its exemptions for PGA Tour fall winners, a win for Keefer in Mexico would move him safely inside the world’s top 50.
There also are opportunities for Keefer to earn sponsor exemptions into the last two PGA Tour events of the fall, the Butterfield Bermuda Championship and RSM Classic, and Keefer could also Monday-qualify for both if he doesn’t score an invite. He could find some place internationally to compete as well, or he could take his chances next year, either winning on the PGA Tour or getting inside the second top-50 cutoff, the week prior to the Masters.
“What I’ve accomplished so far has been really awesome, just to be in this position to even think about the Masters next year before even playing a PGA Tour event as a full-time member,” Keefer said a couple weeks ago on Golf Channel’s College Golf Talk podcast. “I’m not a huge fan of trying to think too much about the numbers. If I get into an event or two this fall, I’ll be super excited and ready to go out there and ready to compete, but I think it’s the same as thinking about the cut line instead of thinking about winning. … I’m not trying to just make it to the Masters; even if I don’t make it this year, I’ll have plenty of opportunities next year.”
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The WWT Championship will take place at the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal course at Diamante in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Two recent major winners are in the field, J.J. Spaun and Wyndham Clark, as is last week’s winner Michael Brennan, who was headed to the KFT next year before making the most of his sponsor invite into the Bank of Utah Championship.
The other three unrestricted sponsor exemptions are Will Gordon, Peter Knade and current Florida State junior Tyler Weaver, who won last spring’s Cabo Collegiate.
David Lipsky, currently No. 100 in FedExCup points, is in the field, though No. 101 Billy Horschel is not; Horschel isn’t in danger of losing his fully-exempt status, though. That’s not the case for No. 102 Sami Valimaki, No. 103 Isaiah Salinda and No. 104 Patrick Fishburn, all of whom are playing Cabo.
Here’s the full field list:
The World Wide Technology Championship became the first official PGA TOUR event played in Mexico in the modern era when it debuted in 2007, and holds the distinction as the first official TOUR event played outside the U.S. or Canada.
This year marks the 19th playing of the event… pic.twitter.com/Hdsq2ouO6q
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) October 31, 2025
