AdventHealth Championship: Pre-tournament notes, storylines, more

The 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season continues with the AdventHealth Championship, the 11th event on the Tour's 26-event schedule, contested at Blue Hills Country Club in Kansas City, Missouri.

The field includes 16 PGA TOUR winners who have combined for 29 career victories, highlighted by Scott Piercy with four PGA TOUR titles. The field also features 56 Korn Ferry Tour winners with 81 total wins, led by four-time winner D.A. Points. Nine of the 10 winners from this season are in the field, with the exception being Johnny Keefer, who is making his major championship debut this week at the PGA Championship.

Hank Lebioda, who's in the field this week, stands atop the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, leading Keefer by just under six points through the first 10 events. Also headlining the field is Korn Ferry Tour rookie Neal Shipley, winner of the 2025 LECOM Suncoast Classic, who is also one of eight first-time winners this season, as well as one of seven winners under the age of 30.

Other tournament notes include:

• Zecheng Dou, winner of the 2017 AdventHealth Championship, is the only past champion of the event in this week's field. Dou later added Korn Ferry Tour titles at the 2019 The Bahamas Golf Classic and 2022 Ascendant presented by Blue.
• Five players in this week's field are inside the top 200 of the Official World Golf Ranking: No. 123 Kensei Hirata, No. 133 Neal Shipley, No. 164 S.H. Kim, No. 173 Pierceson Coody and No. 194 Hank Lebioda.
• Seven players in the field have ties to the state of Kansas or Missouri, including Kansas City resident and University of Kansas alum Harry Hillier, who stands No. 65 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List. Other players with local connections include:
  • Jeremy Gando: Kansas State University alum
  • Adam Long: plays from St. Louis, Missouri
  • Nicklaus Mason (sponsor exemption): senior at Kansas State University; hometown is Shawnee, Kansas
  • Ross Steelman: Columbia, Missouri, native who played two seasons at University of Missouri
  • Robert Streb: Kansas State University alum; Shawnee, Kansas, resident
  • Joseph Winslow (sponsor exemption): Overland Park, Kansas, native and resident

Tournament facts

• Course: Blue Hills Country Club, Kansas City, Missouri
  • Par 72, 7,383 yards
• Purse: $1 million ($180,000 to winner)
• Defending champion: Harry Higgs
• Scoring records:
  • Low 18-hole score: 60, Scott Dunlap (2011, Round 2), Tom Hoge (2014, Round 3)
  • Low 72-hole score: 258, James Nitties (2011), Martin Piller (2015)
• Scoring average (2024): 70.299 / -1.701
• Playoffs: two (last: Harry Higgs defeated Tanner Gore in 2024)