Possible PGA Tour changes could have players chasing starts

Back in the 1970s and the early 1980s, a full exemption for the PGA Tour meant a player had finished in the top 60 of the money winners the previous year. Not the top 125 as it is today, but just the top 60.

That meant a player who was, say, 70th on the money list one year would spend the following year chasing qualifying tournaments – like a rabbit, they used to say – just to get in tournaments week to week.

Then came 1983 and what has since been called the all-exempt tour. The number of full exemptions for the next year more than doubled, and the chances for rabbits to qualify on a weekly basis was drastically reduced.

That’s been the way the PGA Tour has filled its fields for the most part for more than 40 years. But if you believe the talk and even words from a player on the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Board, changes might be coming to the all-exempt tour and events like The American Express event in La Quinta as early as 2026.

Websites like Monday Q, which tracks Monday qualifying events for various tours among other things, have been talking about changes being considered by the tour. Then last week, a letter from Camilo Villegas, the chairman of the PAC, to tour players confirmed that the tour has been engaged in talks that could send the tour back to the days of rabbit qualifying, though not all the way back to a 60-player exempt list.

Here’s a look at what are believed to be the proposals and how they might impact events like The American Express:

Ben Griffin watches his tee shot on one of the Pete Dye Stadium Course during the final round of The American Express at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.

Fewer exemptions

Details are sketchy, but the gist of this is to have fewer fully exempt players both on the PGA Tour and coming to the tour from the Korn Ferry development circuit. Likely the exemption list will shrink from 125 on the FedEx Cup points list to something like 90 or 100 players. On the surface, that doesn’t change much at The American Express, which is a tournament that relies on younger players or recent graduates from the Korn Ferry Tour to fill its field. But a reduction in the number of cards handed out to Korn Ferry players is also apparently on the table, and that could mean fewer available players there.

“We look to redefine what it means to have a PGA Tour ‘card’ and when you earn that card, how that translates to certainty of schedule,” Villegas said in his letter to players.

The simple…