PGA Tour reveals proposal for lowering discipline sizes, altering eligibility starting in 2026

The PGA Tour is poised to chop the variety of absolutely exempt gamers by roughly 20%, starting in 2026, in accordance with a 17-page memo that was despatched to the membership Tuesday.

The proposed adjustments are a part of an ongoing evaluation by the circuit’s Participant Advisory Council that started this summer time to look at enjoying privileges, stream of play and the present FedExCup level construction with a deal with “preferrred discipline sizes.”

In keeping with the memo which was obtained by GolfChannel.com, 28% of tournaments this yr had not less than one spherical that wasn’t accomplished due to darkness.

With daylight and tempo of play being the first causes rounds are usually not accomplished as scheduled, the proposal would scale back discipline sizes for many full-field occasions earlier than daylight saving time to 120 gamers and cap all discipline sizes at 144 gamers (with one exception: the American Categorical, which is performed on three programs and stays at 156).

Here’s a deeper take a look at the latest adjustments proposed by the PGA Tour and what every of them imply.

The Sony Open, WM Phoenix Open and Cognizant Basic, that are all 144-player fields, could be diminished to 120 gamers and occasions through the summer time months — such because the RBC Canadian Open, Rocket Mortgage Basic and Genesis Scottish Open — could be diminished from 156- to 144-player fields.

The adjustments would additionally cut back the sector measurement for The Gamers Championship from 144 to 120 gamers (proposed event-by-event breakdown at backside of article).

Some members of the PAC had instructed the Tour may offset the misplaced enjoying alternatives in full-field occasions by increasing fields at signature occasions, which have a minimal discipline measurement of 72 gamers.

“Any modifications at this stage could be disruptive and will improve fan confusion,” the memo learn. “No adjustments to the sector sizes of signature occasions have been beneficial.”

Beneath the plan, the discount of discipline sizes would require the Tour to regulate the variety of absolutely exempt gamers to the highest 100 from the earlier season’s (2025) FedExCup factors checklist, down from the present cutoff of prime 125. The variety of full playing cards supplied to Korn Ferry Tour gamers would even be diminished beneath the proposed plan from 30 to twenty.

Q-Faculty would award membership to the highest 5 finishers, down from the present top-5-and-ties mannequin, and the plan would additionally cut back or get rid of the variety of spots out there into open occasions through Monday qualifying and sponsor exemptions.

The adjusted precedence rankings would now slot the Korn Ferry Tour, Q-Faculty and DP World Tour (prime 10) members forward of gamers ending 101^st via 125^th on the earlier yr’s factors checklist within the conditional standing class.

The plan, which should be accepted by the Tour’s coverage board on the yr’s closing assembly subsequent month on the RSM Basic, would additionally barely regulate the factors awarded at signature occasions.

“It was decided that the center of the factors distribution for signature occasions is barely misaligned with participant efficiency. Subsequently, there’s additionally a proposal for a minor adjustment to the FedExCup factors distribution desk,” the memo learn.

The adjustment to factors distribution would lower the variety of FedExCup factors out there for middle-of-the-pack finishes (seventh place and past). A seventh-place end at a significant, for instance, would stay 250 factors however the allocation could be diminished 25 factors at a signature occasion.

If accepted by the coverage board, the adjustments would start with the 2026 season.