Gordon Sargent, if he wants to, will be a full-time PGA Tour member in less than a year.
The rising Vanderbilt junior was named Wednesday by the USGA to the three-man US squad for the World Amateur Team Championship, set for mid-October in Abu Dhabi. It will be Sargent’s second appearance in the event, and when he tees it up, he will officially accrue the final PGA Tour University Accelerated point needed to earn his PGA Tour card beginning in June 2024.
Accelerated is a program created late last year by PGA Tour U that will offer PGA Tour cards to non-seniors who earn 20 points via an assortment of college and amateur achievements. Sargent, the 2022 NCAA individual champion as a freshman, ended last season with 13 points. He then earned a point for playing the Arnold Palmer Cup, qualifying for the US Open and making the cut at both LACC and last week’s John Deere Classic, running his total to 17. He also is already on this year’s US Walker Cup team, which will give him two more points come September.
Sargent told GolfChannel.com earlier this year that while he definitely would return to Vanderbilt for a third year, he was undecided about a fourth, saying, “Obviously things could change a little bit after that [third year].”
Now, with a PGA Tour card waiting for him once his junior season culminates, likely at the NCAA Championship San Diego in early June, his decision becomes basically crystal clear.
Expect to see Sargent on the PGA Tour next summer.