BUIES CREEK, N.C. – For the second-straight year, a Campbell men's golf alum has earned his PGA Tour card.
 
Pontus Nyholm '21 finished among the top 20 players on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour points list to claim his PGA Tour membership for the 2026 season.
 
A native of Gavle, Sweden, Nyholm is among a group of 12 Korn Ferry graduates who will be PGA Tour rookies when the season starts in January.  The 2021 Big South Conference golfer of the year, Nyholm earned PGA TOUR membership for the first time after his fourth consecutive season on the Korn Ferry Tour.
 
"I was inside the top 20 most of the season and knew I had a really good chance of getting my card at the end of the year, but it literally came down to the final group of the season until it was decided," said Nyholm.  "Obviously, it was the hardest year ever to get your card from the Korn Ferry Tour. This year, it took over 1,000 points to get it."  
 
With former Camel teammate Josh Hetherington serving as his caddie, Nyholm defeated Johnny Keefer in a playoff at the 2025 Visit Knoxville Open to win his first Korn Ferry Tour title.  He placed 20th on the final 2025 points list.
 
"I was in the top 10 the week before, then won in Knoxville, and that can change your mind set a couple of different ways.  You're playing every week and have a number on your bib, reminding you where you stand," he said.  "I did a pretty good job of blocking that out and concentrating on golf."
 
This season, Nyholm also took home a career-best $371,817 in prize money, including a $180,000 check when he won in Knoxville.
 
"It's 26 tournaments and sometimes you play seven-straight weeks," said Nyholm.  "There's going to be a lot of weeks when your game doesn't feel great, and I've struggled with that in the past.  But this season, I learned and got lot better.  I made 22 of 26 cuts and they all didn't feel great but did a good job of getting the ball in the hole."
 
This offseason will be like no other for Nyholm.  Not only does he plan on spending plenty of time preparing for the start of the PGA season in January, but he and Mia Lee, a former Campbell lacrosse player will be married Nov. 1 in Washington, D.C.
 
"There's a few things I want to figure out.  I'll work hard like I always do," said Nyholm of his schedule over the next two and one-half months.  "I want to get to Hawaii in January, tee off and feel like I can win; that's my goal." 
 
Nyholm also finished in the top 75 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list each of his three previous seasons, including a career-high No. 40 finish in 2024.  Since joining the Korn Ferry Tour in 2022, he has made 67 of 102 cuts and produced seven top-10 finishes.  He also finished as runner-up at the 2022 Veritex Bank Championship, where he shot 62 in the final round.
 
During his career at Campbell (2017-21), Nyholm earned four individual victories and broke the school record for career scoring average (71.17). One of his four collegiate victories came on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Golf Resort (2019 Intercollegiate at Innisbrook), host of the PGA TOUR's Valspar Championship.
 
Alongside PGA TOUR winners Ludvig Åberg and Vincent Norrman, Nyholm also helped Sweden win the 2019 European Amateur Team Championship.
 
Nyholm's former teammate, Jesper Svensson '19, was the DP World Tour rookie of the year in 2024 and earned his PGA tour card for 2025 after finishing among the top 10 players in the Race to Dubai standings.  Svensson stands 115th in the FedEx Cup rankings heading into the Bank of Utah Championship, which will be held Oct. 23-26 at  Black Desert Resort in Ivins, Utah.