Alistair Docherty Earns 2027 PGA Tour Card After Barstool Backing
The Vancouver, Washington golfer Riggs funded with a personal check now has a PGA Tour card, and Fore Play was there when he found out.
The Fore Play hosts broke the news to Docherty live, on camera
Alistair Docherty is going to the PGA Tour. The Korn Ferry Tour pro officially clinched his 2027 card, finishing inside the top 20 on the points list that determines who graduates, according to The Columbian. For a guy who was caddying to pay rent a few years ago, that sentence alone is the story.
Fore Play@ForePlayPodIt’s official… ALISTAIR DOCHERTY IS #TOURBOUND After years of ups & downs, heartbreak, and the narrowest of misses, our guy Al has OFFICIALLY locked up his PGA Tour Card for 2027, and we got to break the news to him. @KornFerryTour @adocherty16
But the reason Barstool is treating this like family news instead of just golf news goes back to Silverleaf Country Club in Scottsdale, where Docherty spent stretches caddying just to stay afloat as a pro. He crossed paths there with Sam "Riggs" Bozoian, played well enough in front of him to leave an impression, and Riggs responded by writing him a personal check for $50,000 to keep his career alive, per PGA Tour reporting. It turned into a full Barstool sponsorship, and a sponsor exemption into the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic that Docherty rewarded with a final-round 64 and a runner-up finish worth $356,000.
That still wasn't a straight line to the Tour. Docherty was hit by a vehicle going 55 mph while driving in May 2025, an accident bad enough that he later admitted he shouldn't have been playing golf at all when he teed it up at the U.S. Open at Oakmont less than three weeks later. The physical and mental toll lingered through the rest of that season, and by his own account he considered walking away from the pursuit entirely before deciding, after getting help, to make one more push.
That push produced his first Korn Ferry Tour win at the Visa Argentina Open in March, a result that also punched his ticket into this year's British Open at Royal Birkdale. It was the platform that carried him through the rest of the season and into the top 20 on the points list — the number that actually mattered heading into this week.
Fore Play@ForePlayPodLadies and gentlemen, our guy @adocherty16 is officially #TOURBOUND Full interview in today’s Fore Play Pod — OUT NOW!
Riggs summed up his reaction the way you'd expect from someone who's been in the foxhole with Docherty since the caddie days: "Well earned stud." The Fore Play crew has spent years bringing him on as a recurring guest through every near-miss, so getting to deliver the actual good news themselves is the payoff of that whole bit. Riggs also teased that the new episode covers a lot more ground than just the card — bankruptcy, Pinehurst No. 11, and his own run on Surviving Barstool are apparently all in play.
What happens now is the fun part: a guy who was hustling caddie loops to fund Monday qualifiers gets a full card on the biggest tour in golf for 2027. Barstool's golf audience has been following this arc for going on 3 years, through the funding, the crash, and the near-misses at Q-School — and for once, the update is unambiguously good.