Ross Steelman, who clinched the Korn Ferry Tour points title for 2026 with a tie for 12th last week at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, didn't develop his golf game at a country club, learning center or academy.
Steelman was hitting balls to the soundtrack of go-kart motors whining, the ping of aluminum bats meeting baseballs and people cheering when they putted a pink ball into a clown's mouth.
Steelman, a native of Columbia, Missouri, learned to play at the Perche Creek Golf Club, hard by I-70 in his hometown. He hit golf balls from bays and off mats, surrounded by an 18-hole par-3 course, a miniature golf course, batting cages and a go-kart track.
He did well enough. The 25-year-old played at Missouri and then transferred to Wake Forest, earning
all-conference honors in both the SEC and ACC along the way. Steelman led Georgia Tech to the 2023 ACC title by earning the winning point in both rounds of match play and finished second to Florida's Fred Biondi in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Steelman earned Korn Ferry Tour status by finishing fourth in the final PGA Tour University Rankings and won twice this season, with four other top-five finishes, earning $803,421, second most on the circuit in 2026.
He locked up the card with two months left in the season.
"Knowing that it's coming is just something that I've dreamed of since I was as small as the kids are waiting for autographs back there," he said after winning the Boise Albertson's Open in late August. "It's just a super cool moment and really surreal to be able to accomplish it.
"It's awesome. It's a dream come true. It's something, like I said, I've been dreaming of playing golf on the PGA Tour since I was 12 years old. It hasn't been a particularly easy road to get there. I've had injuries, come back from those, like transferred two schools away from my hometown to a completely new place and we've gone here, there and everywhere on this tour to the corners of the world. I wouldn't trade any of it for anything, it's just been amazing and I can't wait to play on the PGA Tour."
Steelman not only has his 2027 PGA Tour card in hand, but winning the Korn Ferry points title got him spots in the Players Championship and the U.S. Open.
"I'm 25 and a couple of my buddies that graduated with me have won on the PGA Tour and competed in majors. So, honestly, like, I would have liked for it to have moved faster, but I think the timing and the way it's all worked out has been in the sequence of events that have needed to," he said in Boise. "The last couple years, like I had good seasons but I wasn't ready to play on the PGA Tour. Like there were more things I needed to learn, like different skills that I needed to get better at."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: PGA Tour rookie-to-be Ross Steelman learned the game surrounded by batting cages, go-kart track
