Ryan Ruffels, Brett Drewitt, Harrison Endycott, Daniel Nisbet and New Zealand’s Nick Voke have advanced to the 72-hole tournament that rewards the medallist with fully exempt status on the secondary US tour in 2020 and varying stages of opportunity for those who finish in the upper echelon of the leaderboard.

To be held across the Panther Lake and Crooked Cat courses at Orange Country National just outside Orlando, more than 150 golfers will compete this week for a chance to improve their status or earn guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2020.

Given that he finished the 2019 season 88th on the Order of Merit from 22 starts Sydney’s Brett Drewitt was forced to start his Q School quest at Second Stage at TPC Craig Ranch in Texas where he, Voke and Harrison Endycott all advanced.

Nisbet, the 2019 Queensland PGA champion, will take part in the Korn Ferry Tour finals for the first time in his career courtesy of his top-five finish on the PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit in 2018.

The likes of Cameron Champ, Adam Long, Martin Trainer, Max Homa and Dylan Frittelli converted Korn Ferry Tour graduation into PGA TOUR wins this past season but key to that is a regular schedule with which to build from.

The best over 72 holes this week will have no such concerns while those who finish from second to 10th will receive exempt status for the first 12 events of the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour regular season and will then be subject to subsequent reshuffles which occur in four-event intervals.

Those who finish between 11th and 40th will receive exempt status for the first eight events and then subject to the following reshuffles, the first of which will follow the Country Club de Bogota Championship that concludes on February 9.

The best of the Aussies 12 months ago were Jamie Arnold and Brett Coletta who were both tied for 25th and just missed out on advancing to the PGA TOUR this year, the pair with the chance to push for that promotion again in 2020 will full Korn Ferry Tour status.

For those Australasian players who earned status on the PGA TOUR for the 2019-2020 season via the Korn Ferry Tour the first of the graduate reshuffles came following the RSM Classic on November 24.

Currently sitting 54th in the FedEx Cup standings, Cameron Percy has improved his position to be now ranked ninth among the Korn Ferry Tour graduates with Rhein Gibson 28th, Kiwi Tim Wilkinson 33rd and Cameron Davis 36th of the 49 players within that category.

The next reshuffle for the Korn Ferry Tour graduates will occur at the conclusion of the Genesis Invitational on February 16.