Last year, Matt McCarty had an incredible run. He won 3 times in six starts on the Korn Ferry Tour and earned his way onto the PGA Tour via the Three-Victory promotion pathway. While he was the 13th player to earn that promotion, he was one of the few who went on to win a PGA Tour title in the same season. But now, there might be another player who might be joining him in that feat, and McCarty suggests his own success might be the reason behind it.

At the BOU press conference following his third round, the media asked defending champion McCarty about his perspective on Michael Brennan, who is leading in Utah with 18 holes to play. Brennan currently holds the solo lead at 17-under, with McCarty following closely behind, just two shots back.

“Yeah, it’s crazy. I saw him leading after two days. It’s nuts. To be able to play well today and be in that spot is impressive,” McCarty spoke of Brennan. “I think just how competitive America’s Korn Ferry, everything is now, you can win out there, kind of shows you can win out here. I think I kind of proved that out here last year. Hopefully, he’s got a little bit of that motivation from me last year, and maybe it helped him with that a little bit. It’s all right.”

So, Michael Brennan usually plays on the PGA Tour Americas and is playing this week via a sponsor exemption. He, too, like McCarty, has had three wins on the PGA Tour Americas (this season), and if he wins on Sunday, not only would he have achieved the three-victory promotion but also would become one of the few players to win on a feeder tour and the PGA Tour in the same season. With a victory in Utah, Brennan would secure exempt PGA Tour status through 2027, effective immediately, without needing to make a single Korn Ferry Tour start.

And with the way Brennan has played this week, the win seems inevitable. He shot a decent 4-under opening round at the Black Desert Resort, but fired an incredible 13-under par over the last two days. His surge on the third day included an extraordinary eight-hole stretch of 7-under after a double bogey on the 2nd hole, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 7th.

There’s no denying the rookie is in impeccable form right now, which is putting a lot of pressure on Matt McCarty. But instead of faltering, McCarty is using his own experiences to stay focused. “Yeah, I think 100%. No matter what tour, who you’re playing against, winning a golf tournament, you feel that same thing…  It’s trying to win, and winning is a great accomplishment no matter what level,” McCarty said, when asked if his Korn Ferry Tour victories gave him confidence for situations like this.

He seems confident, despite the confession he made a few days ago that the PGA Tour’s courses are “tougher and demanding,” and is eager to meet his rival on the tee on Sunday. McCarty admitted he hasn’t yet met Brennan, but the way he worded that, he’d meet him on the final day, suggests a showdown is imminent, and he’s more than ready for it.

But while Brennan and McCarty will go head-to-head, let’s understand what the Three-Victory promotion really is.

Understanding what the Three-Victory Promotion is all about

Usually, every season on the Korn Ferry Tour, the top finishers earn their PGA Tour membership for the following season. It sounds easy, but it’s a tough way to get there, and usually requires players to compete in most events. But there’s a way to fast-track that process, but hardly easy. And what do players need to do for that? Just win three events in a single season. An almost impossible feat.

But those wins help grant a player immediate membership on the PGA Tour, effective from the following season. This system, known as the Three-Victory Promotion, was established before the 1997 Korn Ferry Tour season to ensure the game’s top performers could compete at the highest level without waiting until the following year. And while it sounds impossible to achieve given the levels of competition these days, it has been accomplished 13 times in the past.

Perhaps the most famous example came in 2005, when Jason Gore won three times within a month on the Korn Ferry Tour and then went on to claim a PGA Tour victory that same fall. A feat that Matt McCarty achieved last season, when he earned the Three-Victory promotion and went on to win the Black Desert Championship (now Bank of Utah) on the PGA Tour. Winning even a single event on the Korn Ferry Tour is tough, but winning three in one season and then on the PGA Tour is extraordinary.