Seven-year wait but SA's MJ Daffue earns PGA Tour card

South African golfer MJ Daffue secured his PGA Tour card for the 2022/23 season thanks to his position on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Daffue increased his season points to 911, eclipsing the 900-point Tour-bound threshold and earning his spot on the lucrative PGA Tour.

This month, Daffue secured back-to-back third-place finishes at the Korn Ferry Tour's Knoxville Open and this past weekend's AdventHealth Championship. 

At the AdventHealth Championship in Kansas City this past weekend, Missouri, Daffue reached 14-under par for the tournament to finish third and gain enough points to earn his PGA Tour card.

Despite not tasting victory this year, the 33-year-old from Pretoria has four top-four finishes and seven top-25s in 13 starts.

"I barely got in the first event this season and I've locked (a PGA Tour card) up 13 events in. Just a year ago, I was Monday qualifying. Now I have my card," said Daffue.

"I didn't really feel anything until the last one went in. It didn't even kick in until I walked off the green. I can't believe it."

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He joins China's Carl Yuan and South Korea's Seonghyeon Kim as the only players to achieve PGA Tour status.

Daffue, who is in his first full season on the Korn Ferry Tour, turned professional out of Lamar University in 2012 but struggled to obtain status for the first seven years of his career.

The South African earned his Korn Ferry Tour membership for the second time last year and from February 2020 through November 2021, Daffue qualified for six of his 13 career PGA Tour starts. 

After a battle with Covid-19 in January, Daffue was the seventh-to-last player in the field at the season-opening The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay, where he finished T15.

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