After this week, only two more events remain before the Korn Ferry Tour 2025 season comes to an end. With that, the hopes of many to make it to the top 20 of the leaderboard and get their PGA Tour card will also end for the year. And Bryson Nimmer would be disappointed at how things ended for him after the excellent season he had, winning his first KFT title.

Nimmer had a terrible start to the first round of the 2025 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. The second Korn Ferry Tour Finals event gives him a critical shot at securing enough points to improve on his current position of 36th in the Korn Ferry Tour points list. All he had to do was get a great finish. However, what happened on the 18th hole might have derailed any shot at Nimmer being able to flip the script at the Ohio State University Golf Club.

Playing on the par-4 18th hole, he took 68 seconds to play his second shot. While he wasn’t notified earlier, it was later revealed that he had received a single stroke penalty for the long delay in hitting his iron. So what he believed to be a par turned into a bogey. And his 1-over 72 for the day turned into a +2. Interestingly, Ryan French of Monday Q School also shared the story and suggested that the ruling might be disputed.

French wrote, “The issue the players have with the rule is that the group is put on the clock, not a certain player. And one bad time equals a penalty. I don’t know the circumstances leading up to the penalty, but as the rule is written, other players in the group could have been the reason they were on the clock, and this could have been Bryson’s first bad time.”

While the situation isn’t entirely clear, one thing is certain: the first bad time rule doesn’t apply in this situation. Following the 2025 Lecom Suncoast Classic in April, a new pace of play policy was rolled out, stating that the officials have to penalize the players immediately after they commit their first bad time. Previously, the rule stated that they needed to wait if the pros commit the offense for the second time before penalizing them.

So what does this mean for Bryson Nimmer? Let’s look at his position on the leaderboard for the tournament and on the Korn Ferry season standings to understand where he stands.

Bryson Nimmer’s chances for a PGA Tour card

As mentioned, Bryson Nimmer is sitting at 36th on the Korn Ferry Tour points list at present, 16 spots away from receiving a PGA Tour card in 2026. He is also T90 on the 2025 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship leaderboard. With only a few players left to complete their round, Nimmer’s position in the tournament might not change much at the end of the day.

To get into the top 20 of the points list, the 28-year-old will need to get a really good finish at the Ohio State University Golf Club. He is approximately 254 points away from cracking it into the rankings. Should he get a top-10 finish in the second Korn Ferry Tour Finals, then that would certainly help his cause. But to get that, Bryson Nimmer will need to cover a deficit of 6 strokes. Seems doable in 54 holes, but it would require a serious effort, a lot of luck, and patience for him to achieve the goal two events before the Korn Ferry Tour 2025 season ends.