Changes in eligibility could reshape the Tour as we know it.
CASTLE ROCK, Colo. – The PGA Tour Player Advisory Council is scheduled to meet this afternoon in person at Castle Pines (and via Zoom for members of the 16-person PAC not in the field this week at the BMW Championship) at 5 p.m. ET to vote on a range of eligibility proposals that would impact field sizes and number of Tour cards beginning as early as 2026.
Changes in eligibility could reshape the Tour, which first implemented the All-Exempt Tour for the top 125 in 1983, as we know it.
“You have to get it done for 2026 – 2025 is baked in – but it has to be set in motion so guys know what they are playing for (next season),” said a source who asked for anonymity because of that person’s involvement in the discussions.
The idea being discussed is to shape the schedule so the best players continue to play against each other as much as possible but also allow all exempt players to have a fair shake at keeping their card and making the all-important top 50, which guarantees entry into the Signature events.
Speaking in June, Lanto Griffin, a member of the PAC, told Golfweek there’s support among the PAC for reducing tournament sizes to 120 players across the board regardless of regular or signature event. To do so, they would reduce the number of players that keep exempt status from 125 and staggering down to a lower figure – perhaps 100 – over the course of several years.
It has become a growing concern that field sizes of 144 and 156 are causing too many occurrences of failing to make a cut on Friday due to not enough daylight. Reducing field sizes brings the question of how many members can the Tour realistically have and still provide enough starts. While fewer playing opportunities may be a tough sell to the full membership, the trade-off may be increasing the field size at signature events from 70 and give more players a chance to play in the big money, elevated FedEx Cup point events.
If the PAC approves the eligibility changes, the Policy Board could sign off for the changes to be implemented for the 2026 season at its next meeting in November at Sea Island ahead of the RSM Classic.
The field is nearly set for the PGA Tour’s fourth signature event of the season, the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando.
Countless stars will tee off Thursday in the Tour’s second stop of the Florida Swing, including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 2 Rory McIlroy, No. 4 Viktor Hovland, No. 5 Xander Schauffele, No. 6 Patrick Cantlay, No. 7 Wyndham Clark, No. 8 Max Homa, No. 9 Matt Fitzpatrick and No. 10 Brian Harman.
Defending champion Kurt Kitayama has made the weekend in all five of his starts this year, highlighted by a tie for eighth at the WM Phoenix Open.
Three of the four exemptions were given to player directors on the Policy Board, who will soon vote on the Tour’s future.
The PGA Tour’s rank and file are rankled again.
The latest reason? The implementation of the Aon Swing 5 and sponsor exemptions into this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which features an 80-man field, purse of $20 million, no cut and beefed up FedEx Cup points, with 700 awarded to the winner.
“The Tour rated the Swing 5 category above being a Tour winner, which makes absolutely no sense. In every other instance, winning is at the top of the food chain, the No. 1 category, and it should be. Winning on the PGA Tour is hard,” said a veteran PGA Tour player, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’s just another thing the Tour has done that is complete bullshit.”
The 80-player field at Pebble Beach includes the top 50 on the 2023 FedEx Cup, Nos. 51-60 on the 2023 FedEx Cup Fall standings, the top finisher on the 2023 Race to Dubai not otherwise exempt (Nicolai Hojgaard), the Aon Swing 5, tournament winners not otherwise exempt (Nick Dunlap), players inside the top 30 on the Official World Golf Ranking not otherwise exempt (Justin Thomas) and four sponsor exemptions. This adds up to 72 players, leaving eight remaining spots via the “fill the field” category.
Multiple players reached out to Golfweek to argue players were originally told during a meeting at the Players Championship last March that winners would be automatically exempt into Signature events. That is still true, but the Swing 5 category, which was designed to give hot and trending players a shot to play their way into the big-money events, falls higher on the priority list than winning.
“Now it’s like, oh, no, winners are part of the Swing 5. That is allowing fewer players to qualify for these events,” a veteran player said. “It’s really disappointing that you’re under the impression that if you play well, you’re going to have the opportunity to get into one of these events and then you don’t. If there are an extra two or three players in this field, who cares at this point? There’s $20 million in the purse.”
Indeed, for the AT&T the Tour resorted to the “fill the field” category, admitting Nos. 62-69 on the 2023 FedEx Cup Fall standings to bring the field to 80 for the pro-am.
A PGA Tour spokesman said staff have been on the road and available to educate players on the makeup of the fields for the signature events and infographics were distributed to players in December. The reason why the winner category is a lower priority than the Swing 5 is to avoid fields exceeding 78 players later in the year, such as at the Travelers in June, when more winners will have become exempt. Based on projections, the Tour says that outside the top 50, an additional 70 unique players will play in at least one signature event this season.
Webb Simpson watches his shot from the 11th tee during the third round of the 2023 Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports)
The AT&T’s sponsor invites also are a hot topic of conversation among players. Sponsor invites were granted to four players. Three of the four exemptions to AT&T were handed out to members of the Tour’s independent Board of Directors – Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson – as well as local product Maverick McNealy, who last week fulfilled his medical exemption.
“It seems like collusion, a political game that should never happen on Tour,” said one veteran player. “It’s very shady, if you ask me.”
Given that Malnati, Scott and Simpson are on the verge of being three of the six players to vote on the Tour’s deals with private equity groups and potentially Saudi Arabia’s PIF, it could be perceived as a kickback for their unpaid efforts on behalf of the Tour or even as a way of buying their votes.
Another veteran Tour winner said, “It doesn’t pass the smell test. The cool thing about sports is it used to be the outlet where everything was determined on the field or court. Golf has always been the ultimate meritocracy.”
Malnati, a one-time winner, currently ranks No. 245 in the world. He finished T-4 at the AT&T last year and has supported the event consistently and knows how to show his amateur partner a good time. Simpson, a former major winner, has slipped to No. 225 in the world and has resorted to playing a limited schedule in recent years to spend more time with his large family. He has played at Pebble in only two of the last 10 years.
Gary Woodland, who won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and is making a comeback from brain surgery last year, and Daniel Berger, a tournament winner at Pebble in 2021 who is making his own comeback after being sidelined for more than a year, would seem to have more box-office appeal and attract more attention but are among the players who won’t be teeing it up this week.
Tournaments are allowed to offer sponsor exemptions at their discretion – and they have run the gamut from the NFL’s Tony Romo to the LPGA’s Lexi Thompson in recent years – but those selections will be greeted with greater scrutiny given the heightened stakes. AT&T Pebble Beach tournament director Steve John didn’t respond to an email requesting an explanation for his tournament’s choices, but at least one player wasn’t interested in hearing his reasoning.
“Peter Malnati has zero business getting an invite into a signature event and Webb shouldn’t really either,” a veteran pro said. “It just seems very fishy.”
The 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am field was announced Friday, and it’s one of the best in the event’s history.
Sure, Pebble Beach has seen its fair share of the world’s best players to walk along the Monterey Peninsula plenty over the last century. Numerous U.S. Opens have brought stars of the game to take the famed walk.
However, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is a PGA Tour signature event this year, which means most of the big names are in the field.
Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffle and more are set to tee it up next week. All in all, 18 of the world’s top 20 are in the field, which will be fully set after the conclusion of the Farmers Insurance Open.
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Nick Dunlap, who last week became the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson in 1991, will make his professional debut at Pebble Beach. Also, players like Grayson Murray and Justin Thomas are expected to be added to the field.
Unlike in the past, amateurs will only be around for the first two rounds with 80 two-person teams. Monterey Peninsula won’t be in the rotation for play this year, either, with only Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill being used the first two days. There will be no cut, and the purse is $20 million with $3.6 million going to the winner.
Here’s a look at the full field for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am:
All 67 players eligible for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am via one of these categories are committed:
– Top 50 in 2022-23 FedExCup – Aon Next 10 (51-60 in the 2022-23 FedExCup Fall) – Race to Dubai (top finisher not otherwise exempt) – 2024 TOUR winners – Sponsor exemptions (*) pic.twitter.com/qR95qUksgq
– Grayson Murray is qualified as a 2024 TOUR winner but likely to finish in the Aon Swing 5 – Justin Thomas is expected to qualify either through the Aon Swing 5 or top 30 OWGR – The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is the only Signature Event with a set field size (80)
