The PGA Tour Participant Advisory Council is recommending sweeping adjustments to discipline sizes, exemption standing and the variety of PGA Tour playing cards that may be obtained every season via the Korn Ferry Tour and Q-school, in addition to a slight adjustment to the FedEx Cup factors allocations for main championships, the Gamers Championship and signature occasions.
The adjustments, which would not take impact till the 2026 season, have to be authorized by the PGA Tour coverage board at its subsequent assembly on Nov. 18.
The PGA Tour Participant Advisory Council unveiled the proposed adjustments to golfers in a 23-page govt abstract, a duplicate of which was obtained by ESPN on Tuesday.
Among the many proposed adjustments:
The PGA Tour would alter the utmost variety of gamers in a beginning discipline of an open one-course, full-field event from 156 to 144, with an extra discount from 132 to 120 as required by circumstances reminiscent of darkness.
Within the govt abstract, the PAC famous that 28% of tournaments in 2024 (12 of 43) had a minimum of one spherical that wasn’t accomplished on the scheduled day resulting from darkness.
“Area sizes which can be too giant make it troublesome to complete the competitors on schedule every day and trigger delays within the total tempo of play, rising the typical spherical occasions on tour,” the manager abstract stated.
Beneath the proposed plan, as an example, the sphere for the Gamers Championship can be lowered from 144 gamers to 120 and the RBC Canadian Open and Genesis Scottish Open would go from 156 to 144.
Tournaments performed on a number of programs, such because the American Specific, would preserve fields of 156 golfers.
The PAC stated it thought-about adjusting the smaller restricted fields of the tour’s profitable signature occasions, such because the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Memorial Match, however concluded that “any modification at this stage can be disruptive and will enhance fan confusion.”
The PAC proposed lowering the variety of gamers who would preserve their PGA Tour card and full standing from the highest 125 finishers in FedEx Cup factors to the highest 100, whereas including a brand new conditional class for these gamers who end anyplace from 101 to 125.
The Korn Ferry Tour, which generally awards 30 PGA Tour playing cards per season, would now award solely 20 playing cards below the proposed adjustments. The DP World Tour would proceed to award 10 PGA Tour playing cards, and Q-school playing cards can be capped at 5.
In exploring methods to “reduce the affect of discipline measurement adjustments on the present membership,” the PAC additionally proposed a plan that would cut back or eradicate open qualifying (or Monday qualifying) positions for occasions with a discipline measurement smaller than 144 gamers. This is able to not apply to the FedEx Cup Fall occasions.
In line with the manager abstract, a overview of open qualifying metrics revealed that 65% to 75% of gamers who make the sphere through a Monday qualifier don’t make the reduce. The tour stated it plans to work with the PGA of America — whose sections run the native Monday qualifiers — ought to the proposed adjustments be authorized.
Restricted sponsor exemptions, which embrace two reserved PGA Tour spots and two DP World Tour spots, will now be awarded to the subsequent eligible members on the proposed precedence rating. Tournaments will nonetheless hold unrestricted sponsor exemptions.
The PAC can also be proposing slight changes to the FedEx Cup factors distribution system to account for elevated power of discipline below the brand new schedule mannequin. Second-place finishes on the Gamers Championship and the majors would obtain a slight enhance (100 extra factors), whereas gamers who end eleventh and past would obtain a slight lower (10 factors for eleventh, 20 factors for twelfth and so forth) in factors received. Throughout signature occasions, gamers who end seventh or worse would obtain a slight lower in factors.
Lower than two weeks in the past, PGA Tour Participant Advisory Council chairman Camilo Villegas despatched a letter to members alluding to the adjustments that will be proposed to the PGA Tour Coverage Board for approval.
“Lately, now we have needed to rapidly implement substantial adjustments to the PGA Tour’s aggressive construction and schedule,” Villegas stated within the letter. “Now, we see a possibility to shift our focus to handle sure points which can be getting in the way in which of a good and supreme participant expertise, stopping us from reaching the very best stage of competitors.”
