What is PGA Tour University with Director of Player Relations Justin Bardgett

With the PGA Tour University team onsite at the 2024 NCAA DI Men’s Golf Championship to award their #1 player with a PGA Tour card, Fairway to Green’s Kelly Okun chats with Justin Bardgett, their Director of Player Relations.

Bardgett dives into how PGA Tour U works and how excited he is that Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford will win the card.

Check out the full story and inner workings of the PGA Tour University Rankings:

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Justin B from PGA Tour University thank you so much for joining today how’s everything going so far here at the NCA championships yeah it’s been a great week it’s uh kind of our culmination of the the PJ tour U ranking so uh it’s an exciting week for us and then you know by the end of tomorrow’s round we’ll have our top 25 solidified and provide some access to the professional golf world so it’s a pretty exciting couple of days for us and it’s come a long ways so uh my first year being here in this position but obviously the growth of PGA toru it’s it’s a pretty great week for us yeah I love to see it and how did PGA toru get it start and how exactly does it work yeah so my boss it’s kind of his idea uh Brendan Von Dorne he created it from scratch about uh I think he probably came up with the idea five six years ago it implemented in uh 2021 but basically I mean I think he would say you look at other sports and the transition into professional sport into the professional world uh between the drafts you see in the NFL NHL uh that golf just really didn’t have anything so I think he kind of put pen to paper and came up with an idea of giving guys a providing access to the corn Fred tour and PGA Tour Americas as it is now and and now you have number one to the PGA Tour um he thought it just kind of was a logical thing that made sense and uh kudos to him because he kind of navigated the corporate world and has made a uh a pretty awesome idea reality great and I know it’s this is its fourth year right so how’s the success rate been so far with everyone who’s earned their cards so far through this program yeah that’s a it’s our fourth year it seems like it’s h growing each year it seems like each year that goes by you see more grads who have success on the corn freay tour PGA Tour um I think it’s three I should know this it’s two or three wins on the PGA tour now you look at the first guy to ever go directly to the PGA tour in LV goar um obviously a a great example of what the talent of college golf can and how it can translate to professional golf I think he’s up to sixth in the world runner up the Masters all within a year of graduating college so I think he validated a lot of the program almost on his own but then you look at the other guys who finished in the top five who are on the PGA tour um that have graduated through the corn fairy tour and how quick they’re making it there I think there’s I I don’t have the exact number but 13 or 14 guys have made it to the PGA Tour who came through PGA Tour u in a year and a half out of college um so I think that speaks a lot to it and it’s just you you you watch every day at the corn Fair tour PGA Tour and you see guys contending that are young up andc comers out of college and I think it kind of just shows that college golf’s in a great place I mean you watch you look at the guys in this golf course 7500 yards the scores they’re shooting um it’s just kind of a testament to the talent and and and us trying to help get it into the PGA Tour ecosystem yeah we it’s so much fun to watch honestly they had such great shots and we know Michael Thor bjornson’s in leading the pack right now and chrisa lamp had a sub out has that I guess how has that shaken up the PGA Tour Universe if at all having someone trying to get into that first place spot at the end of the the season unfortunately have to basically withdraw from trying to gain any points this week yeah I mean obviously you saw Christo play a really solid first round and it’s it’s really unfortunate I mean we want nothing but the best for him um and hopefully his health is not in question going forward hopefully he’s got a a bright future ahead of him I’m I’m kind of torn as being a former college golf coach for him that he had to kind of end it like that hopefully he’s healthy maybe can get sub back in here at some point but you know the having number one at stake this week was kind of fun I believe last year ludvig had it pretty secured so it was kind of creating some interesting drama uh to maybe unfold if Christo could contend and and where Thor would finish but we’re excited that uh it looks like Thor will finish number one with Christo not uh finishing uh excited to have Thor kind of transition into the PGA Tour ecosystem and you also have Gordon Sergeant here who is part of PGA Tour accelerated um he’s going to come back to school but then will join us on the PGA tour I mean just look at those two guys the caliber of their play uh the people they are were excited about their future and kind of keep telling their stories as they transition into professional golf yeah they definitely have some Bright Futures and you might not have an answer to this but any chance there’s going to be an LPGA Tour University in in the near future or far future i i i as a fan of golf in general I would hope so um I think it it makes sense right that’s unfortunately not within my realm of control um but I would hope so I think it’d be a great opportunity and a great way to just kind of continue to elevate the uh the women’s game as well thank you so much Justin really appreciate your your time yeah thank you as well I appreciate you having me