The PGA Tour is looking at ways to offer more competitive and compelling action thanks to proposed changes from a review of its competitive landscape, with a vote on the proposals by the PGA Tour Policy Board due next month.
The Player Advisory Council-led examination sought feedback from PGA Tour members on issues including field size, pace of play, playing privileges and the FedEx Cup points system.
Proposals to be voted on include reducing the maximum number of players in the starting field of an open tournament played on one course from 156 to 144. That’s not the full extent of it, though, with a plan to reduce field sizes from 132 to 120 if dictated by issues such as daylight.
Part of the reason field sizes are under review is to counter the issue of slow pace of play at some tournaments, with the PGA announcement on the proposals stating: "Fields that are too large make it difficult to finish the competition on schedule and cause delays in the overall pace of play, increasing the average round times on Tour."
Currently, the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings retain fully exempt PGA Tour status for the following season, but another proposal seeks to change that to the top 100, with those finishing between 101st 125th falling under a conditional category.
That proposal would go down well with at least two big-name PGA Tour pros, Wyndham Clark and Rory McIlroy.
In March, McIlroy said: "I'm all for making it more cut throat, more competitive. Probably won't be very popular for saying this, but I'm all for less players and less Tour cards, and the best of the best."
That sentiment was echoed by Clark later in the month, who said: "I think it would be amazing if our Tour was a hundred guys. I kind of said this a few times, a hundred guys and we have 20 guys that get relegated every time, every year, doesn't matter who you are."
There is the possibility of the number of PGA Tour cards earned by the season-closing Korn Ferry Tour Championship being reduced from 30 to 20, too, while the number joining from Q-School would reduce to five under the proposals. However, there are no plans to change the PGA Tour cards awarded to the top 10 DP World Tour players in the Race to Dubai rankings at the end of the season.
Monday qualifiers would also be affected, with a proposal to remove them completely from tournaments with 120 or fewer players, while tournaments with 132-player fields would see only two rather than four Monday qualifiers.
Per the Golf Channel's Brentley Romine, Monday qualifiers would disappear from the Sony Open in Hawaii, the WM Phoenix Open, the Mexico Open, the Cognizant Classic, the Puerto Rico Open, the Corales Puntacana Championship and the Myrtle Beach Classic. Meanwhile, the Valspar Championship, the Texas Children's Houston Open and the Valero Texas Open would see the number of its Monday qualifiers reduced to two.
Monday qualifier updates for 2026:GOING AWAYSonyWMPOMexicoCognizantPRPuntacanaMyrtle BeachDOWN TO 2 SPOTSValsparHoustonValeroAll others status quo.October 29, 2024
Another proposal seeks to reallocate places in the field currently used for restricted sponsor exemptions to the next eligible member on the Priority Ranking, while there is also a move to adjust the FedEx Cup points distribution table.
That would offer more to those who finish second at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, The Players Championship, decreasing slightly for those 11th and lower. Players finishing seventh or lower in signature events would also be subject to a slight decrease in the points.
The general urge to make the product provided by the PGA Tour more entertaining could indicate the influence of the Strategic Sports Group, which announced a $3bn investment in the PGA Tour in January. However, regardless of whose influence is behind the proposals, we won't need to wait long to find out if they will be put into practice - the Policy Board will vote on the findings, which would come into place in time for the 2026 season, on 18 November.
