“That is wild, 20 or less.” That was one fan’s reply to the cost of watching the KFT Championship, the Korn Ferry Tour’s season finale at The Federal Club in Glen Allen, Virginia. He wasn’t alone, and the irony is hard to miss.
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Back in 2019, Scottie Scheffler was a young pro sprinting through the final three events of the Korn Ferry Tour season to earn his PGA Tour card. Years later, he’s one of golf’s biggest names. That is the whole pitch of this event: come watch the next star before everyone else does. This week that pitch comes with a 19-year-old leading the pack, but the story fans can’t stop talking about has nothing to do with birdies.
Late Saturday night, Monday Q Info, a golf news account that regularly covers the Korn Ferry Tour, shared a screenshot of the Saturday grounds ticket. A grounds ticket is the standard pass that lets you walk the course of the KFT Championship. It showed $40 plus $8 in fees, so $48 in total.
“$50 a ticket for the KFT kinda stinks. The Korn Ferry Tour is for marketing the next members of the pga tour, young stars. We need to find more ways for people to come out and see them, not less. If you’re in the area and want to go, let me know, and I’ll try to find some tickets.”
The post struck a nerve. One reply said he took his family of four to a Double-A baseball game last summer for about the same total. Another fan wrote, “I think I paid $25 for adults at Lecom. Under 16 were free.”
The fan later added that the Tour may not set the price, saying the company running the event does. We couldn’t find anything that confirms who set it.
On Sunday morning, the conversation moved from what fans paid to what they got for it.
“I spent 3 days at the event. It is over a mile walk from parking to the 1st tee. No spectator shuttle available unless you say you have a disability. Almost a mile from 9 green to 10 tee again no spectator shuttle available. No benches to sit on the course. Brutal,” a fan said.
Monday Q Info said it had heard the same from multiple people and asked how something this basic got overlooked. The fan then added more detail.
“I walked just under 10 miles each day. At least half the spectators are 50+ in age. Heard some of the older attendees ask for rides and were told no. I felt like going to get my car and shuttle them back and forth. Many people did not come back for a second day, unfortunately”
Walking long distances at a golf event can make fans think twice about coming back for another round. One fan claimed that people were denied rides and that fewer spectators returned for the second round. However, this is only one fan’s account, and no official attendance figures have been released.
Other tournaments have found ways to make things easier for fans. The LECOM Suncoast Classic offers free parking at an off-site lot, with trolleys taking spectators to the course. In Omaha, the Pinnacle Bank Championship offers free shuttle rides from a nearby community college lot because there is no public parking next to the course. It also offers free admission to children aged 15 and under when they come with a ticketed adult. Active-duty military members, veterans, and first responders can also attend for free.
The tournament’s former home, Victoria National in Indiana, also made a change in 2021. It replaced its shuttle service with on-site parking. Fans who spoke to local TV said the walk was easy. The Federal Club does get one thing right. According to its official website, children aged 18 and under can enter for free when accompanied by an adult with a ticket. This answers a question raised by a fan in Saturday’s discussion, who said they could not find that information. Military members, veterans, and healthcare workers can also get free admission if they register in advance.
Designed by Arnold Palmer and opened in 2007, The Federal Club originally welcomed the public for tee times. However, it has been a private club for more than a decade. The Korn Ferry Tour signed a four-year deal with Henrico County and local tourism groups to bring its season-ending event to the course.
Richmond also has experience hosting golf crowds. The city recently lost its PGA Tour Champions event, which ran for 10 years before ending in 2025. The tour features players aged 50 and older. According to Richmond Magazine, the event attracted around 30,000 spectators each year and generated nearly $35 million in economic impact. These numbers suggest that Richmond has an established golf audience, although they do not prove that most fans are older. Still, if many spectators are older, making the course easier to access becomes even more important. That would support the concerns raised by Bennett.
Meanwhile, there is plenty of excitement on the course. Nineteen-year-old Blades Brown shot a 68 on Saturday to take the lead at 16-under par. He is one shot ahead of Austin Hitt. Brown has now held a 54-hole lead four times in his career. A 54-hole lead simply means being ahead after three rounds. However, he has yet to turn any of those four leads into a victory. He has already experienced the pressure of playing on a big stage, having shared the final group with Scottie Scheffler at The American Express in January.
A win would make Brown the second-youngest champion in Korn Ferry Tour history and the fifth teenager to win an event on the tour. The four teenagers who achieved the feat before him were Aldrich Potgieter, Jason Day, Sungjae Im and Akshay Bhatia. All four went on to win on the PGA Tour.
The weather also affected Sunday’s final round. With Hurricane Isaias approaching, tee times were moved earlier, with groups scheduled to start between 7:30 and 9:18 a.m. from the first and 10th holes. However, the tournament’s updated schedule listed the gates as opening at 9 a.m. This suggests that some groups may have started playing before spectators could enter the course. The tournament warned that all times could change. The Korn Ferry Tour presents itself as a place where fans can watch future stars before they reach the PGA Tour. If the next Jason Day, Sungjae Im or Akshay Bhatia is playing at The Federal Club, spectators should have a fair chance to watch them up close.
The current agreement gives the tournament three more editions at the venue. That leaves time for organisers to address fans’ concerns, whether by bringing back shuttle services, adding benches for spectators or reviewing admission prices. Sunday’s final round will decide the tournament, but the fan experience could remain an important talking point long after the winner is crowned.
With three more editions planned, spectators will be hoping the organisers make changes before next year’s event.