ELKHORN, Nebraska – Three players tied at the top, two rounds remaining in the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season, and one goal on nearly everyone’s mind: earn a PGA TOUR card.

While Taylor Montgomery knows his fate and will tee it up as a PGA TOUR rookie this fall, the future remains uncertain for 32-year-old Argentinian Nelson Ledesma and 31-year-old American Andrew Yun, who join Montgomery in a three-way tie at 8-under atop the leaderboard at the Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna. Heading into the weekend at The Club at Indian Creek, the mission is simple for Ledesma and Yun: win and you're headed to the PGA TOUR.

Montgomery, a five-time runner-up on the Korn Ferry Tour, had a quiet but steady start, parring the first six holes. The 27-year-old tallied his first birdie at the par-5 seventh, followed by another at the ninth to turn at 2-under par. Montgomery’s back nine was not quite as smooth as the front. The Las Vegas, Nevada native carded back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 13-14, sandwiched between birdies at the 12th and 15th. With a birdie on the 457-yard par-4 18th, the toughest hole of the second round, Montgomery finished the day with a 3-under 68.

"I've played pretty smart,” Montgomery said. “Even on my bad shots I've made a lot of pars, and then when I did hit good shots, I made quite a few birdies. I've rolled in a couple putts. It's been up and down, that's for sure but I'm happy with where I stand after two rounds.”

Montgomery is making his 15th start of the season and holds the second 36-hole lead of the year and his career, as he previously held an outright 36-hole lead at this year’s Panama Championship. With six top-10s already, Montgomery locked up his first PGA TOUR card a year after finishing 26th in both the 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season and Korn Ferry Tour Finals Points Standings.

“I feel bad for the guy that's going to finish No. 26,” Montgomery said. “Hopefully he still has the [Korn Ferry Tour] Finals. No matter what it's going to be, happiness and heartbreak for some guys here, but that's how life and golf is."

Ledesma, who carded his second-consecutive 4-under 67, racked up seven birdies in the second round, tied for the most by any player in the field. The Tucuman, Argentina native opened with a bogey at the par-4 10th. Pars at Nos. 11 and 12 preceded his first birdie of the day at the par-3 13th, the second-toughest hole relative to par in the second round. Ledesma closed his first nine holes with a birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey streak on Nos. 15-18, equating to an even-par score at the turn. Ledesma climbed the leaderboard with four birdies in a five-hole stretch (Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 7).

“I've been hitting the ball well for several weeks,” said Ledesma. “It's a course I like, a long course where you must hit well. That gave me peace of mind.”

Ledesma secured his second 36-hole lead of this season, with the other coming at June’s BMW Charity Pro-Am Classic presented by TD SYNNEX, where he was the 18- and 36-hole leader ahead of a T7 finish. That week marked his first of three top-10s, as he later finished T3 at the Live and Work in Maine Open and T9 at the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS.

Despite having fully exempt status this season from a 2019 victory, Ledesma is making just his 15th start of the year after sitting out the first eight events while recovering from surgery he had last December.

Entering the week at No. 56 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Eligibility Points List, the only scenario in which Ledesma can play his way into a PGA TOUR card this weekend is with a victory.

“Winning is on my mind,” said Ledesma. “It's the only thing that gives me a chance to make the top 25 so what I have in mind is to try and win.”

A two-time Korn Ferry Tour winner, Ledesma is making his 76th start this week. The Argentinian originally turned professional in 2007 at just 17 years old. He played majority of his early career on the Tour de Profesionales de Golf in Argentina, before joining PGA TOUR Canada in 2011 and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica in 2012. Ledesma remained on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica until 2017, when he finished No. 5 on the Order of Merit and earned Korn Ferry Tour status.

As a Korn Ferry Tour rookie in 2018, Ledesma won the LECOM Health Challenge but ultimately finished No. 33 on the regular season money list and missed out on a PGA TOUR card. The following year, Ledesma won The Ascendant presented by Blue, logged another pair of top-3 finishes and earned his first PGA TOUR card as he finished No. 8 on the 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List.

The last two seasons on the PGA TOUR, Ledesma finished No. 217 and No. 192 in the FedExCup Standings, bringing him back to the Korn Ferry Tour.

Entering Friday in a three-way T2, Yun carded a 3-under 68, earning the third lead of any kind in his Korn Ferry Tour career and his first since the 2017 Ellie Mae Classic, where he held the 36- and 54-hole lead before finishing T3.

“There's still a lot of golf to be played,” Yun said. “Obviously, I can't ask for a better position to be in so I'm super excited about that. I'm stoked to play these next 36 holes.”

Yun tallied six birdies and three bogeys in the second round. After opening with a birdie at the par-4 10th, Yun carded four pars before running into the same situation as Ledesma, going birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey on the 15th through 18th.

“Golf just seems to even itself out,” Yun said. “Sometimes you have bad breaks and some days you have good breaks and today was one of those days where I had a lot of good breaks.”

After making the turn at 1-under, Yun joined Montgomery and Ledesma atop the leaderboard by rolling in a pair of birdies on Nos. 1 and 2. With pars on each of the next five holes, it appeared that the three-way tie for the lead would hold, however, Yun bogeyed the par-3 eighth and dropped one shot behind the lead. After an errant drive on his final hole of the day, Yun re-joined Montgomery and Ledesma as he chipped in for birdie on No. 9.

“I was thinking of trying to make the most of the opportunity so I was deciding between putting it or chipping it,” Yun said of the chip-in. “There was too much fringe to go through, so I decided to chip it. I hit a great chip there and it went in so that was a good way to finish it."

Prior to this week, Yun made just seven cuts in 21 starts this season. Through the first 14 events, the 31-year-old cracked the top 25 just once prior to notching two top-15 finishes in June: a T15 at the Live and Work in Maine Open and a T2 at the REX Hospital Open, tied for the best finish of his Korn Ferry Tour career.

Yun originally joined the Korn Ferry Tour in 2015 after a T16 finish at Final Stage of the 2014 Qualifying Tournament. The Stanford University alum made 69 starts over a three-year span from 2015-17, recording 14 top-25 finishes, including nine top 10s. During the 2017 season, Yun recorded five top-10 finishes, including four inside the top three, ultimately securing his first PGA TOUR card for the 2017-18 season with a 13th-place finish on the regular season money list. Yun struggled to maintain status as he posted one finish inside the top-25 in 22 starts on TOUR.

Third-round tee times will run from 8:05 a.m. through 1:25 p.m. local time in twosomes off the first tee.

Second-Round Notes

• The cut was made at 1-under par with 65 players advancing to the weekend
• Taylor Montgomery (T1 / -8) has remained inside the top-5 for six consecutive rounds
• Tied for most birdies made through 36 holes with 12, Cody Gribble (T8 / -6) sits inside the top 5 for the first time this season; his previous best position after 36-holes was T23 at last month’s Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS
• Michael Johnson (T15 / -6 ) had the low round of the day with a 6-under 65; moving him up 75 spots to T15
• Seven of the 15 players who have already been declared #TOURBound survived the 36-hole cut: Montgomery, MJ Daffue (T4 / -7), Robby Shelton (T8 / -6), Justin Suh (T15 / -3), Carl Yuan (T37 / -2), Zecheng Dou (T52 / -1), Erik Barnes (T52 / -3),
• After the second round, Ledesma and Yun are the only players projected to move inside the top 25 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Eligibility Points List, while Anders Albertson (MC / +3) and Vincent Norrman (MC / -3) are the only players projected to fall outside the top 25
• 18-hole standings for Nos. 21-30 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List
• No. 21 Anders Albertson (MC / +3)
• No. 22 Kevin Roy (T20 / -4)
• No. 23 Ben Taylor (T20 / -4)
• No. 24 Vincent Norrman (MC / -3)
• No. 25 Michael Kim (T4 / -7)
• No. 26 Brandon Harkins (T37 / -2)
• No. 27 Ryan McCormick (MC / E)
• No. 28 Brent Grant (MC / +2)
• No. 29 Pierceson Coody (MC / +5)
• No. 30 Akshay Bhatia (T15 / -5)
• No. 31 T.J. Vogel (T8 / -6)
• The Pinnacle Bank Championship is 23rd and final regular season tournament of the 26-event 2022 Korn Ferry Tour schedule; the first set of 25 PGA TOUR cards will be awarded to the top 25 players (i.e. – The 25) on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Eligibility Points List following the conclusion of Sunday’s final round.
• An additional 25 TOUR cards will be awarded following the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which conclude with the Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance (September 1-4)
• This week’s purse is $850,000, with $153,000 going to the champion; the champion will also receive 600 Korn Ferry Tour points
• All 2022 Korn Ferry Tour regular season events feature a minimum purse of $750,000, a 25 percent increase from last season, and will boast minimum purses of $1 million in 2023 for a total increase of 66.7 percent from 2021 to 2022

Second-Round Course Statistics

• Scoring Average (Total - Par 71): 71.234 [+0.234]
• Scoring Average (Front Nine - 36): 35.766 [-0.234]
• Scoring Average (Back Nine - 35): 35.468 [+0.468]
• Toughest Hole: No. 18, Par 4, 463 yards – 4.468 [+0.468]
• Easiest Hole: No. 15, Par 5, 573 yards – 4.539 [-0.461]