This week, the Korn Ferry Tour will go to Argentina for the 117 Visa Argentina Open, but it won’t be traveling with the reigning winner.
nevertheless, not as a result of Zack Fischer earning a spot on the PGA Tour this year.
Fischer begged for an invitation from a sponsor, but in the end, he did not receive an exemption, so on Friday he announced on social media that he would not be in the field. Former Masters champion Angel Cabera received one of those invitations as he makes his comeback from a prison term.
Fischer posted on X, saying, “I am extremely disappointed to say that I will not be able to defend my title at the Argentina Open on the @KornFerryTour next week.” “They have other intentions for the exemptions, but I have made my case. Nevertheless, 2024 will still be my finest year ever.
But hold on, aren’t the winners of events sanctioned by the PGA Tour invited back to defend their title? Indeed, they are. But things get a little trickier when it comes to the Argentina Open this year.
With the exception of the four Korn Ferry Tour Finals events, every tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour features an exemption category for “Past Champion of Current Week’s Event,” as certified by a PGA Tour representative to GOLF. The issue was that Fischer was not competing in a Korn Ferry Tour tournament when he won the Argentina Open.
The competition was last held in December 2022 as a part of the Latinoamerican season of the PGA Tour. Fischer defeated Linus Lilliedahl by one after shooting a final-round 68.
The PGA Tour declared in July of last year that the tournament would be moved to March and added to the Korn Ferry calendar. That implies that there isn’t officially a defending champion at the Argentina Open, according to a PGA Tour representative.
“There are no players in the ‘Past Champion of Current Week’s Event’ category since the Visa Argentina Open is in its first season as a Korn Ferry Tour event, and is technically a new event for the Korn Ferry Tour,” the representative stated in an email.
Fischer’s situation was complicated by the fact that, in 2024, he lost his status as a Korn Ferry after holding it in 2022 and 2023. He made just eight cuts in 2023 and finished 111th on the Tour points list, following his 36th-place showing in 2022.
Fischer’s best performance of the year was at the Open Championship, where he finished 76th and earned his first career cut in a major. Because of his victory in the Argentina Open, he was in the field. (Since 2016, the Argentina Open champion has received an Open exemption from the R&A.)
It is not uncommon for events to be promoted or downgraded among the PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, and other developing tours, with the defending champion of the event not usually exempt.
The Corales Puntacana Championship, which was previously held on the Korn Ferry circuit, debuted as a PGA Tour event in 2018. However, Nate Lashley, the last winner of the competition during its time on the Korn Ferry (formerly Web.com) Tour, was not excluded from the field for that particular category. (Lashley participated in the event and finished T28 in his title defense because he had already earned a spot on the PGA Tour at that point.)
In a subsequent tweet, Fischer announced that he will be competing this season on the PGA Tour Americas, a newly established development tour that was formed by the union of the PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the PGA Tour Canada.