Pro golf has been fractured for almost three years now, as the merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund crawls along. But while both sides have made missteps, one of the best tactical moves the PGA Tour has made once again shined this past weekend at the Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches, when top-ranked amateur Luke Clanton made the cut to secure his PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University Accelerated program.

The Florida State junior became the second player to earn his card through the Accelerated program, joining Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, who will join the Tour after this season.

The PGA Tour created the Accelerated program in November 2022 as part of a series of changes to the PGA Tour University program designed to give the best young amateurs a more direct path to the Tour and help keep them from joining LIV Golf (as No. 2-ranked amateur Eugenio Chacarra did).

As a result, the PGA Tour has watched Aberg flourish. Now Clanton and Sargent will have a chance, and that alone proves the PGA Tour University and Accelerated pathways have been a massive success.

After his late charge to make the cut and earn his PGA Tour card at the WM Phoenix Open came up just short, Clanton said he knew his “time would come.” It arrived Friday on a course he knew well. When his final putt dropped, the emotions of a dream realized started pouring out. Clanton immediately went to his family off the 18th green to pray.

After he received his card, Clanton and his family went to Chipotle for dinner. Aberg did the same thing after he clinched his in 2023.

Future stars often follow a similar path to the top, and this one leads to the Tour, which remains the place where (most of) the world’s best tee it up.