Eight of the top 200-ranked golfers in the world, including Neal Shipley, in field for The Ascendant at TPC Colorado — as are at least 5 PGA Tour winners — as commitment deadline passes
By Gary Baines – 7/4/2025
Eight players who currently sit in the top 200 in the Official World Golf Rankings — and six in the top 150 — are among the competitors who have committed to tee it up at next week’s Ascendant presented by Blue at TPC Colorado.
The Berthoud stop on the Korn Ferry Tour will be held for the seventh time, nowadays with a $1 million purse, with $180,000 going to the winner. The tournament will start on Thursday and continue through Sunday, July 13.
Friday afternoon marked the entry deadline for exempt players, and the top-200-ranked players in the world who committed to the Colorado event are John Keefer (ranked 82nd), Austin Smotherman (110th), Pierceson Coody (122nd), S.H. Kim (126th), Kensie Hirata (133rd), Neal Shipley (140th), Hank Lebioda (155th) and Trace Crowe (174th).
Shipley, a KFT tournament winner this year, was runner-up in the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club and the low amateur in the 2024 Masters and U.S. Open. Other 2025 KFT winners in The Ascendant field will be Keefer, Lebioda, Smotherman, Justin Suh, Kim, Crowe, Myles Creighton, Jeremy Gandon, Logan McAllister, Bryson Nimmer, Pontus Nyholm, Sudarshan Yellamaraju and Kyle Westmoreland. In fact, the only 2025 KFT winner not in the field is Josh Teater.
Westmoreland, who played regularly on the PGA Tour in 2022-23, is one of three 2025 Ascendant contestants with significant ties to Colorado and the area, joining fellow Air Force Academy golfer Tom Whitney and Josh Creel, a native of Cheyenne who started his college golf career at the University of Colorado before concluding it as an NCAA Division II champion at Central Oklahoma.
The sixth hole at TPC Colorado, which will host next week’s Ascendant presented by Blue.
Smotherman, winner of two of the last three Korn Ferry Tour events, will be looking to earn his PGA Tour card — immediately — by winning a third KFT tournament in 2025.
This year, the top 20 players on the season-long KFT points standings at the end of the season will earn 2026 PGA Tour cards — a reduction of 10 spots from last year.
Nine of the top 10 players in the current point standings are headed to TPC Colorado — Smotherman (first), Keefer (second), Lebioda (third), Kim (fourth), Coody (fifth), Davis Chatfield (sixth), Emilio Gonzalez (seventh), Mitchell Meissner (ninth) and Shipley (10th).
Several PGA Tour winners also will spice up The Ascendant field. Among them — Ben Crane (five victories), Russell Knox (two), Andrew Landry (two), Robert Streb (two) and Adam Long (one).
Nelson Ledesma (2019) and Marty Dou (2022) are planning to compete at TPC Colorado after previously winning the Colorado-based KFT event.
Several members of the 59 club — players who have shot 59 in a Korn Ferry Tour event — are scheduled to play in The Ascendant. They include Creighton, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Knox and David Kocher.
The Ascendant field will be finalized in the next few days as a sponsor-exemption qualifying tournament is held Saturday at TPC Colorado and two Monday qualifiers are set for (you guessed it) Monday — at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie and Walnut Creek Golf Preserve in Westminster. At each of those three sites, four spots in the field will be at stake.
This marks the second straight year The Ascendant will take the unique approach of awarding its sponsor exemptions to the top performers at a separate qualifying tournament — the one that will be held on Saturday. At that event, two spots in The Ascendant field will go to PGA Tour or Korn Ferry Tour members, one to an adult who doesn’t have PGA or Korn Ferry Tour status, and one to a player 21 or under.
For the entire Ascendanct field — as it now stands — CLICK HERE.
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2025 Ascendant Presented by Blue: The Essentials
What: The seventh annual Ascendant presented by Blue, a Korn Ferry Tour event.
Where: TPC Colorado in Berthoud.
When: Championship rounds Thursday-Sunday, July 10-13, which are the only days fans can attend unless participating in a pre-tournament event.
Junior-Am and junior clinic on Monday, July 7. Practice rounds Monday-Wednesday, July 7-9. Pro-am Wednesday, July 9. A Folds of Honor ceremony will be held at hole 18 at the conclusion of Friday play. Fans are encouraged to wear red, white and blue on Folds of Honor Friday.
Tee Times: Championship first-, second- and third-round tee times are expected to start at 6:30 a.m. For Sunday’s final round, tee times are tentatively planned to start at 7:18 a.m.
Cut: The 156-player field will be cut to the low 65 players and ties after 36 holes.
Trophy Presentation: On 18th green on Sunday, July 13, at approximately 5:30 p.m.
Purse: $1 million, with the winner receiving $180,000.
Junior Activity Area: Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Located between the first green and 14th hole.
Tickets: For ticket information, CLICK HERE. Kids 15 and under admitted free with a ticketed adult. Active-duty U.S. military and retirees — as well as first responders — and their families receive free admission when a valid military ID is presented at a ticket sales window.
Additional Information: For more information regarding The Ascendant presented by Blue, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com