After his putt slid by the cup on the 18th hole of TPC Scottsdale, Luke Clanton said it just wasn’t his time. Three weeks later at the Cognizant Classic, it is: Clanton, the No. 1 amateur in the world and a current junior at Florida State University, secured his PGA Tour card Friday.
The Hialeah, Fla., native had to make the cut to secure his final point to get through the PGA Tour University’s new Accelerated Program for college players on the rise.
Instead, he went out and shot rounds of 67 and 66 to climb up the leaderboard and put himself in contention at 9-under par, four strokes behind the solo leader, Jake Knapp.
Clanton drained a 10-foot birdie putt on his final hole of the day Friday and was immediately moved to tears.
Luke Clanton secures his PGA TOUR card in emphatic fashion with a birdie on 18! 🙌🥹
📺 Golf Channel | @The_Cognizant pic.twitter.com/78hiTF1UlJ
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) February 28, 2025
Sporting a newly unveiled Nike NIL sponsorship, Clanton made his 12th PGA Tour start this week in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The setting was comfortable for Clanton, who grew up just an hour from the venue and had a robust crew of friends and family watching from outside the ropes in the hopes that he locked up his card.
“It’s pretty cool to do it here,” Clanton said. “I’ve watched this event growing up a ton, and to be on 18 walking up and seeing all the people there, it’s breathtaking. I’m just excited to get this journey started and go back and win a national championship with the college team first.”
Clanton has been chasing his full PGA Tour membership since he started quickly racking up points recognized by PGA Tour University. College wins, awards, rankings and performances in PGA Tour events count toward players’ status in the Accelerated program. Clanton entered the week with 19 points, needing just a made-cut to secure his 20th.
He becomes the second player to earn membership through the new pathway, joining Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent. Clanton will finish his junior season at FSU — vying to win a national championship with his teammates — before he can opt to play a full tour schedule, per the program’s guidelines.
Clanton earned his first point after qualifying for the U.S. Open and making the cut — a feat that quickly snowballed into playing opportunities on the PGA Tour as an amateur. He capitalized on those starts in historic fashion. Clanton posted a T10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, a T2 at the John Deere Classic and a fifth-place finish at the Wyndham Championship to become the first amateur to post three top-10s in one PGA Tour season since Jack Nicklaus in 1961.
The invitations kept coming even as he continued his junior year at FSU. This week is Clanton’s sixth PGA Tour start since September. Most recently, he made a dramatic final push at the WM Phoenix Open to secure his card after a slow Thursday start. Clanton birdied four of his final eight holes to miss the cut by one stroke. In between the heartbreak in Phoenix and his card-securing performance in Florida, Clanton won his college tournament, the Watersound Invitational, as an individual.
(Photo: Mike Mulholland / Getty Images)
