Five questions into his pre-tournament press conference, Ben Griffin was waiting. Then, he was finally asked about the PGA Tour's recently approved changes.
“How did I know this question was going to come up?” he said.
On Monday, the Tour’s policy board agreed to cut field sizes and reduce the number of fully exempt members from 125 to 100 in 2026.
Many players teeing up this week at the RSM Classic, the last official event of the year, have obtained their Tour cards by the skin of their teeth—or haven’t ever been fully exempt. Griffin earned his card last season through the Korn Ferry Tour and has finished well within the top 100 of the FedExCup in the last two years.
Playing well, he says, is the best way to negate a player’s worries about the new number of Tour cards granted each season.
“There's a lot of different thoughts about these changes,” Griffin said. “As a player, I don't necessarily have the authority without being on the (Player Advisory Council) or the board to vote on these decisions. For me, my goal is just to play as well as possible. I think as a result of some of these changes, what we're going to see next year is going to be extremely competitive.
“I don't mind playing a lot of golf, but I think more guys are going to maybe play more tournaments."
Chris Kirk, who has been through highs and lows in a career that spans over a decade, echoed Griffin’s sentiment.
“I understand the reasoning, for sure,” the six-time winner said. “I don't really know if I like it or not and I don't really know if that matters ... I feel like, as a whole, the PGA Tour has done an amazing job of running this organization from the time that I first made it out here.
“I have found over the years that when you play really well, it doesn't matter a whole lot what the Tour policy board decides, things will work out pretty well in your favor.”
The other significant change the Tour approved is shrinking the field sizes in an effort to complete as many rounds as possible before sunset. Davis Thompson, who won the John Deere Classic this year, sees that as a positive, but agrees with Kirk and Griffin on about decreasing the amount of fully exempt members.
“Seems like with the field size thing, the guys that tee off late usually never finish because of daylight, so I would like to think that would be a positive thing,” he said. “Going from 125 to 100, I don't know yet. It seems like there are a lot of really good players on the PGA Tour that finish from 100 to 125. It just makes it harder, but that's just the challenge of being out here. You're playing against the best of the best and sometimes you've just got to do it.”
Brian Harman, a member of the PAC, was involved in making these decisions. It wasn’t easy, he said, but the board feels it's for the betterment of the sport.
“I can't even begin to elaborate on how many discussions that we had and ideas going back and forth,” the 2023 British Open champion said. “Daylight's a big thing, can't finish. The Tour's been expanding for the last I don't know how many years and just we're trying to come up with the best possible product for television, for the players and to make sure that people have pathways to get in.
“It's so nuanced and it's so detailed that it's not like a short interview about it isn't going to do it justice, but we were in the room, we discussed every possible scenario and this is kind of what everyone came up with.”
It’s a hot topic, and almost everyone has an opinion. But regardless of how a player feels, the Tour will be different in 2026.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Amid Approved PGA Tour Changes, Players Say Good Golf Takes Care of Everything.
