The PGA Tour is strengthening support for players in its developmental pathways while reducing the number of full cards on the main tour.
In a memo sent to players Tuesday morning, the Tour outlined two new financial initiatives launching next year to help former fully exempt PGA Tour members and Korn Ferry Tour members.
The first initiative, called the Member Support Program, will provide $150,000 in earnings assurance to players who finished No. 126 and beyond on the previous season’s FedExCup points list who had exempt status that year. Players will receive this money at season’s end if they play at least 12 events combined on the PGA and Korn Ferry tours. There’s no requirement to repay any difference if a player doesn’t earn $150,000 across all tours.
The second program, the Pathways Player Achievement Grant, gives exempt Korn Ferry Tour members $15,000 grants at the start of each season with no restrictions on how it’s used. This grant targets players ranked Nos. 21-75 on the previous year’s KFT points list, the top 10 players from PGA Tour Americas, and the top five available players from PGA Tour University. Unlike the first program, there’s no minimum tournament requirement to receive this grant.
The money for these initiatives comes from redistributing funds from the Earnings Assurance Program, which was established three years ago and gave fully exempt PGA Tour members $500,000 advances at the beginning of each season. With fewer exempt players starting in 2026, there’ll be fewer of these advances to pay out.
The PGA Tour policy board approved these changes to support both rising players and those returning from the main tour. It’s a significant shift in how the Tour allocates resources throughout its developmental system.
On top of that, the Korn Ferry Tour will allow distance-measuring devices throughout the 2026 season and will continue using its revised pace-of-play policy introduced last spring. Under this policy, a player being timed receives a one-shot penalty for their first bad time, a two-shot penalty for the second, and disqualification for the third. Last season, three players received one-shot penalties for bad times.
