PGA Tour plans to chop membership, discipline sizes; cites “Tempo of Play”

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Extra adjustments are coming to the PGA Tour.

In accordance with Josh Carpenter of Sports activities Enterprise Journal and different studies, the PGA Tour’s Participant Advisory Council (PAC) has proposed that the tour scale back membership numbers and discipline sizes for the 2026 season. Per the PAC, the primary purpose for this proposition is poor “tempo of play,” which has plagued skilled golf for many years. The PAC additionally needs to remove a circumstance that appears to occur virtually weekly: the tour suspending play as a result of darkness.

But, this proposal consists of eliminating the fines for gamers who play slowly throughout main championships. In the meantime, throughout common PGA Tour occasions, gamers who violate tempo of play insurance policies may have their fines decreased considerably. Gamers may also have extra time to “discover a mounted reference level and tempo again to their ball.” Basically, PGA Tour members may have extra time however pay much less fines. Go determine.

However there’s a important undercurrent as the game continues to evolve. The most effective gamers will proceed to get the very best alternatives. Look no additional than creating Signature Occasions forward of the 2024 season. It’s additionally no coincidence that the prime 36 gamers will obtain probably the most vital fairness stake—$750 million—within the newly established, for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises. The wealthy will get richer. On the flip aspect, the journeymen, lengthy pictures, and, frankly, Korn Ferry Tour up-and-comers will see their probabilities of enjoying decreased considerably.

Most discipline sizes for a one-course, full-field occasion will now be 144 gamers, down from the earlier iteration of 156. The Gamers Championship, the tour’s greatest occasion of the 12 months, will see a large discount, too, trimming all the way down to 120 from 144.

Moreover, the Tour will change exempt standing from the highest 125 within the FedEx Cup standings to the highest 100, squeezing out one-fifth of those that beforehand earned membership for the next season. The PGA Tour additionally plans to lower the variety of Korn Ferry Tour gamers who earn playing cards from 30 to twenty.

On prime of that, the tour will “scale back or remove” Monday Qualifiers, a lot to the heartbreak of Ryan French, who runs and facilitates the Monday Q Data web site and X account. He at all times helps these gamers who usually don’t obtain consideration, the tales that assist make golf particular. Everybody loves an underdog, a narrative of somebody attaining the inconceivable. French brings mild to those that are grinding arduous and pursuing their dream. Jason Caron securing his PGA Tour Champions card for 2025 is an ideal instance of this. Nonetheless, Monday Qualifiers will probably be both decreased or eradicated at common season occasions with fewer than 144 gamers. Nonetheless, they may stay intact for the FedEx Cup Fall.

A whole abstract of the adjustments follows beneath:

  • Beginning fields decreased from 156 to 144, with a discount to 120 or 132 “based mostly on circumstances comparable to daylight”
  • Exempt standing for full PGA Tour members decreased from 125 to 100, decided by prior 12 months’s FedEx Cup standings. Conditional standing granted to those that end between one hundred and first and a hundred and twenty fifth, down from the present iteration of 126th to a hundred and fiftieth
  • PGA Tour playing cards for Korn Ferry Tour graduates down from 30 to twenty
  • PGA Tour playing cards for prime 10 finishers on the DP World Tour not in any other case exempt stay the identical
  • PGA Tour playing cards for the highest 5 finishers and ties at Q-Faculty keep the identical
  • Monday Qualifiers decreased or eradicated

As for particular PGA Tour occasions themselves, Carpenter posted the whole checklist of tournaments, which incorporates with the proposed amendments:

Solely 5 tournaments would hold the identical discipline dimension, with three coming through the FedEx Cup Fall.

The American Specific, the third occasion of the season performed throughout three programs within the Coachella Valley, is not going to see any adjustments.

In the meantime, the Charles Schwab Basic, performed at Colonial in Fort Value yearly, may have adjustments applied into how its 132-person discipline is set. The exempt class for this occasion will diminish to the highest 100 from the prior season’s FedEx Cup factors checklist, down from 125. The highest 15 finishers from the 12 months earlier than may also see their exemptions eliminated.

A Coverage Board vote will happen on Nov. 18 to resolve whether or not or to not implement these adjustments for the 2026 season.

Somewhat than trimming the underside of those fields, which the tour argues results in numerous rounds ending at the hours of darkness, the glacial tempo of play that has annoyed followers for years needs to be enforced as a substitute. If everybody might play quicker—or maybe not search Short-term Immovable Object (TIO) reduction in important moments—then extra gamers would have the ability to end within the mild. In principle, that ought to enable the tour to have extra tee occasions and, subsequently, extra gamers of their fields.

However the tour is extra aware of its stars and prime gamers, who drive the sponsorship {dollars} and tv income, not the underside feeders. That’s what this all comes all the way down to.

Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By means of. You’ll want to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.



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