PGA Tour is making some big changes that’ll shake up professional golf starting in 2026, and not everyone’s happy about it.
The Tour’s policy board just approved a plan to make tournament fields smaller and cut the number of fully-exempt players from 125 to 100. It’s a major shift in how the Tour operates.
Name
Events
Top 10
Money
Lucas Glover
541
63
$37,146,697
“Today’s changes are all about making the PGA Tour better for fans, players, tournaments and partners,” Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said. He praised the Player Advisory Council for their work on the plan.
But some players aren’t buying it.
“I thought it was asinine, like most of our recent changes,” said Lucas Glover, not holding back. “We’re the only sport that’s actually decreasing our numbers. Every other sport is expanding.”
Here’s what’s changing:
Popular events like the Sony Open and Phoenix Open will drop from 144 players to 120. Summer tournaments will shrink from 156 to 144 players.
Even The Players Championship, the Tour’s biggest event, is getting smaller – going from 144 to 120 players.
The path to earning a Tour card is getting tougher too. Only the top 20 players from the Korn Ferry Tour will earn cards, down from 30. And Q-School? Still just the top 5 players make it through.
Tyler Dennis, the Tour’s competition chief, says it’s about making a Tour card more prestigious. “Once players make it here, they’ll have a fair shot at keeping their spot and making the playoffs.”
Monday qualifying spots are getting squeezed too – just 2 spots for smaller events and 4 for bigger ones.
The Tour’s also tweaking how FedExCup points work in 2025, making it harder to earn points outside the top spots in major tournaments.
One thing stays the same: The American Express tournament keeps its 156-player field, since it’s played across three courses.
These changes mark the biggest shift in Tour membership rules since the 1980s, setting up what could be a very different looking PGA Tour in the years ahead.
