Adam Hadwin had been a PGA Tour mainstay since 2014But a 2025 down that he called a “blow to the ego” sent back to the Korn Ferry Tour to grind his way back to the top circuit in professional golf. The 2026 season saw Hadwin split his time between the KFT and the PGA Tour, but his golf wasn’t great on either circuit. Hadwin opened the year on the KFT with a runner-up finish in Panama, but has only had one top-10 since. On the PGA Tour, Hadwin made just five of 12 cuts, with his best finish being a T21 in Puerto Rico.
All that left Hadwin needing to win this week’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship to earn his PGA Tour card for 2027. That task became even tougher in Thursday’s opening round, when a mistake and a penalty cost him dearly.
Second to Golf Channel’s Brentley RomineHadwin self-assessed a two-stroke penalty on the par-3 second hole for playing one shot out of position. Hadwin’s tee shot landed short of the green and into the fairway cut. With the favorite lies in effect, Hadwin was allowed to take a scorecard-length relief. But the 38-year-old Canadian took a club-length break, which is something he was allowed to do at the Biltmore Championship on the PGA Tour last month. But at the KFT Championship, only the stretching of the scorecard is allowed. When Hadwin saw his fellow players take shorter relief on the next hole, he self-reported the violation to the rules official, and his par on No. 2 was changed to a double bogey.
Hadwin eventually shot a 1-under 70 in the first round and followed it up with a 4-under 67 in the second round. But that put Hadwin eight shots off the lead of Blades Brown and looking at another year of partial status on the PGA Tour.
Hadwin played 11 consecutive seasons on the PGA Tour before losing his card last fall. As he made a last-ditch effort to save his card last year, Hadwin said he believed 2025 was just a blip in his golf history and that brighter days were ahead, even if it meant things got darker first.
“I really believe I’ve got my best golf to come, I’ve got a lot more in me and then I’ll be a better player once I get past that,” Hadwin said at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship last year. “It was just a matter of when I got past that.”
As he began 2026 looking to return to the PGA Tour, Hadwin admitted that while he believed he could go up and compete on the PGA Tour, professional golf has become younger and more talented as he approaches his 40s.
“I have no illusions,” Hadwin he told TSN in January. “I don’t think it will be easy. The competition has gotten better and better over the years and is getting stronger every year.
“At the end of the day, good golf is going to take care of a lot of things,” Hadwin told TSN. “I’ve said that all my career and it’s really time to go back to that focus and maybe have a little fun outside for a change. At least, this will humble me a little and bring me back, back to reality, and, if there’s nothing else, it will probably show me if I really want it or not, and if I want to continue with the game.”
Except for a weekend load at The Federal Club, Hadwin will once again face another year on the feeder tour and questions about whether he wants to continue trying to climb the mountain.
