PGA Tour Card Status: Winners and Losers from 2023 Graduates

PGA Tour players are about to face an even tougher road to success, especially for newcomers trying to break into the big leagues.

It’s been a rough year for many of the Tour’s newest members. Most of them couldn’t even get into seven of the first 10 tournaments of 2024, leaving them scrambling to prove themselves when they did get chances to play.

The numbers tell a brutal story. While half of the Korn Ferry Tour graduates managed to keep their cards (pretty good by historical standards), things were especially tough for players at the bottom of the priority list.

Of the bottom 15 players who came up through the Korn Ferry Tour or Q-School, 13 lost their full playing privileges. Even worse? All five Q-School graduates failed to make the cut.

“It’s crazy that I feel like I’ve played better than being 100th on the points,” said Chandler Phillips, who barely held onto his card by finishing 94th. “But hey, you know what, whatever, you know?”

And 2025 is looking even more challenging.

The Tour is planning to shrink its membership in 2026, making next year a pressure cooker for players trying to secure their spots. They’ll need to finish in the top 100 to keep full playing rights – tougher than the current top 125 cutoff.

Some established pros aren’t happy about these changes.

Fresh off his win at the RSM Classic, Maverick McNealy voiced his concerns about the Tour’s direction. He thinks there’s a better way to handle things, especially with the exclusive “signature events.”

“I have a hard time defending signature-event fields of 72 players if we’re going to limit the number of players that have a card,” McNealy said. He believes expanding these tournaments to 120 players would create hundreds more playing opportunities throughout the season.

There is one silver lining: By 2026, most Tour members should have clearer schedules, knowing which events they can enter – except maybe the Phoenix Open, which will likely remain ultra-competitive to get into.

But that’s small comfort for the many pros who might not make it that far. The path to professional golf’s biggest stage is getting narrower, and some promising careers might end before they really get started.