Lanto Griffin, who won the 2019 Houston Open, finished atop the Q-School leaderboard to secure one of six cards.
PGA Tour Q-School is in the books.
For most of the field, they will leave Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida, with a heavy heart, knowing they put forth a valiant effort to secure one of the few PGA Tour cards available. It’s a painful reality, though. Some of these players will never come this close to achieving their lifelong dreams again. Others might, yet it’s still a long road to get to Q-School finals in the first place.
On the other hand, however, a lucky handful of players will spend the Christmas season rejoicing.
Six players earned full status on the PGA Tour for the 2025 season on Sunday, thanks to their strong finish in the final round of Q-School. The top-5 players and ties earn cards; since three players tied for fourth, the tour handed out six cards.
Those six players are Lanto Griffin, Hayden Buckley, Takumi Kanaya, Alejandro Tosti, Will Chandler, and Matthew Riedel.
Griffin began the day outside, looking in. He needed to play well on Sunday to secure one of the five available cards, and he did just that. The former VCU Ram carded a 7-under 63 to soar to the top of the leaderboard and win the final stage of Q-School outright at 9-under overall. His eagle on the par-5 1st hole was a harbinger of things to come.
“I guess when your back’s against the wall you kind of just have to—you don’t have a choice,” Griffin said after.
“Obviously, it could have gone a different route this week for me, but my focus was good. The drive and everything is still there, and I really didn’t want it to end.”
Griffin knew that a poor round on Sunday could jeopardize his career. He has had a litany of back issues over the past few years, which explains why the tour granted him a Medical Extension for the 2024 season. But those extensions only last so long. He did not receive the same benefit for 2025, so he needed to play well. Talk about pressure.
“I don’t think there’s anything to really compare [Q-School] to because on a normal PGA TOUR event—maybe Monday qualifying in with no status and you need to top-10 or—but a top-10 only gets you to next week where Q-School gets you into a whole year,” Griffin explained.
“The kids I played with today—I call them kids because they just graduated college—the kid today had a shot on 10 that I doubt he’s ever hit in his life, and that’s Q-School pressure. It messes with your head, and he battled back unbelievably and played really solid. He’s just a really good player, and he just hit a shot that was 100 yards to the right. That’s what Q-School will do to you. It’s an absolute grind.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
