Northwest pro Highsmith qualifies for the PGA Tour

The 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season concluded at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, as 30 PGA Tour cards were awarded in a ceremony on the 18th green at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Ind.

Among the 30 was Joe Highsmith of Lakewood, Wash., who finished at No. 18 on the list.

The top 30 players on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List earned their cards for the 2024 season, which, for the latest group of Korn Ferry Tour graduates, begins in January at the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii.

Propelling Highsmith to earn his card were back-to-back top-three finishes (T2/Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship; T3/Korn Ferry Tour Championship) to close out his rookie season on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Highsmith, 23, played in the 2021 U.S. Open, earning medalist honors in both the Local and Final qualifier for that national championship.

While playing four years for Pepperdine University, Highsmith was a three-time All-West Coast Conference First Team selection, and was the WCC Freshman of the Year in 2019. He won the Western Intercollegiate and had seven top-10 tournament finishes as a junior. In 2021, he helped Pepperdine win the NCAA National Championship.

Highsmith won the 2019 Sahalee Players Championship, became the youngest player to ever win the Washington State Amateur in 2017, and finished T2 at the 2021 Pacific Coast Amateur.

Highsmith made his professional debut on the PGA Tour Canada circuit in June 2022, and lost in a playoff in his first start as a pro.