Tiger Woods is just days into officially being a member of the PGA Tour policy board and already his influence is being felt.
Golfweek has learned that the Tour has reversed field and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Memorial hosted by Jack Nicklaus and the Genesis Invitational hosted by Tiger Woods will continue to have a cut. The rest of the limited-field designated events, which reportedly will be renamed “signature events,” will still have no cut as was first announced in March.
The PGA Tour is expected to officially release the 2024 schedule on Tuesday.
This decision has Tiger’s fingerprints all over it. When the plan to introduce limited-field, no-cut events was announced by the Tour in March, Rory McIlroy was quick to defend them at the Players Championship, and attempted to explain how they differed from LIV’s no-cut events.
“There’s precedent for no-cut events [on the PGA Tour],” McIlroy said. “But I think the – like cuts that you have to make to get into those events, so making the playoffs, getting into the top 50, so there’s certain things that you have to do to qualify for those events. I think that’s more than fair to warrant eight events a year that are guaranteeing the players four days.”
Patrick Cantlay, who is serving a term as a player director on the Tour’s policy board, has been a vocal supporter of the concept of no-cut events.
“With it being a limited field, I don’t think it makes sense to have a cut,” he said. “I think there’s real power in knowing that the best players are going to be there all four days no matter what.”
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy look on from the 11th tee during a practice round prior to the 2023 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 03, 2023, in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
But Woods took a different stance. In April at the Masters, when asked how he felt about the majority of the Tour’s biggest events with the exception of the Players Championship becoming limited field (70-to-80 players) and without a cut, he said, “I certainly am pushing for my event to have a cut. I think that maybe the player-hosted events may have cuts. These are things that Jack and I are still in discussion with Jay and the board and the Tour and the rest of the guys. That still is in flux,” he said. “I still think that there needs to be a penalty for not playing well, and to have that — every event shouldn’t be always…
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