The PGA Tour has announced proposals including reducing the field sizes of some tournaments, reducing the number of Monday qualifiers and trimming the number of Korn Ferry Tour graduates earning cards at the end of the season.
Another would see the exempt status on the PGA Tour altered from the top 125 to the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup standings.
The plans will be put to a vote at a PGA Tour Policy Board meeting on 18 November. If they are voted through, they won’t come into effect until the start of the 2026 season, but even the possibility of them being implemented has led to criticism on social media, including from at least one PGA Tour pro, who thinks the proposals are flawed.
Tommy Gainey, who won the PGA Tour’s McGladrey Classic in 2012, described the move as “insane,” writing on X: “I think they’re not looking at big picture. Golf has never been this good and this deep. To think they’re eliminating jobs is the right move is insane just my opinion.”
I think they’re not looking at big picture. Golf has never been this good and this deep. To think they’re eliminating jobs is the right move is insane just my opinionOctober 29, 2024
Certainly, Gainey will be familiar with the difficulties of gaining a foothold on the PGA Tour. He is currently in the reorder category of its Priority Ranking, making his opportunities to compete limited.
Sitting 217th in the FedEx Cup Fall Standings, that also leaves him well short of the position needed to earn fully exempt PGA Tour status via that route, and the proposal to reduce the number who make it by 25 in a little over a year from now would make that gap even more daunting.
This season, Gainey has largely been seen on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he finished 52nd on the Points List. Currently, the top 30 are given PGA Tour cards at the end of the season, but that would be reduced to only 20 under the proposals, which come after a PAC-led review of the PGA Tour's competitive landscape.
However, the plans, which also include making adjustments to the FedExCup points distribution table, are unlikely to be as poorly received by other PGA Tour pros.
Back in March, Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark argued that there would be a benefit to making the competition more intense.
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’s a sentiment Clark was also on board with, who said later in the month: “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."
It is perhaps significant that McIlroy and Clark are two of the PGA Tour’s biggest names, with the prospect of either losing their fully exempt status barely conceivable. However, Gainey’s concerns suggest that, for those lower down the pecking order, the proposals are likely to be considerably less popular.
