First, there was a memo. Then came a proposal. The next step is a formal vote by the highest level of PGA Tour Government.

What do we know now? Changes are coming to the PGA Tour.

The Tour’s middle level of player management – ​​the Player Advisory Council (PAC) – sent a 23-page document to the rest of the Tour membership on Tuesday morning, detailing key changes that will take effect in 2026, the pace of game, Monday qualifying tournaments and – perhaps most importantly – the number of pros who can qualify as fully exempt members.

The document follows an Oct. 16 memo from PAC President Camilo Villegas, who informed members that meetings had taken place, changes were needed and to prepare for them. Tuesday’s document should therefore not come as a surprise, but rather as a glimpse into the likely future of the PGA Tour.

GOLF.com had access to the document via a reader. Although the changes are technically only a proposal, it is very likely that they will be approved in full. THE Tour Guidance Boardled by Tiger Woods, five other Tour veterans and six businessmen, will formally vote on the proposal on November 18.

Below is an overview of the biggest changes, who they would affect, and why they were pushed.

What is the biggest change?

The future PGA Tour would only have 100 totally exempt players, up from 125. One hundred PGA Tour cards – a very round number of those that can get into almost every tournament in a given season – have been discussed by players for months. For years, the Tour’s 125 totally exempt players changed the arithmetic of the sport. When the FedEx Cup Playoffs happened, it was always Who is Mr. 125 inside? And, Who is Mr. 126, sweating outside?

With the new system, the level of play would increase on the PGA Tour. Nos. 90 to 99 could not feel that their work is completely safe, while nos. 100-110 will feel like they have some serious work to do to gain job security for the following season. The Tour would move its objectives by 20%, which would make it even more difficult to maintain its status from year to year.

Currently, 2023 Ryder Cup player Nicolai Hojgaard – who has largely struggled in 2024 – is ranked 100th. Matt Kuchar, who had a decent run of form late in the summer, is ranked 105th. Sam Stevens, a 2024 rookie, made 22 of 27 cuts, but just didn’t do better than a team T4 at Zurich and an individual T10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. A future year like the one he compiled this season puts him poised to maintain his full-fledged status.

It is important to note that finishing outside the top 100 will not mean players lose their PGA Tour status completely. Conditional status has long existed for those who finish outside the sweet spot. Pros who finish 109th, for example, will still be able to enter tournaments, but they’ll just have to wait to see how many spots are available. Often they will be left on the outside looking in.

And the second biggest change?

The size of the fields will decrease. The Tour has spent the last few years opening its door a little further to accommodate the competitive threat posed by LIV, adding Tour cards for additional Korn Ferry Tour graduates and top performers from the DP World Tour. But just because more people were allowed into the restaurant didn’t mean everyone had a seat.

Lower-ranked Korn Ferry Tour and DP World Tour graduates struggled to enter tournaments early in the season when demand was at its highest, raising questions about whether their status had been devalued. After all, it’s one thing to to have Join the tour, but then you have to do something with it. How well to play!

But the Tour had to battle factors like weather, daylight and pace of play to simply complete tournament days (or entire tournaments) on time. If the Tour must make cuts on Fridays while battling limited daylight hours, the size of the peloton will have to shrink at almost every tournament. For early spring events, like the WM Phoenix Openthe proposed field size is now 120 players (instead of 132). As the year progresses and the days get longer – like at the Valspar Championship in March – the field size will be capped at 132 instead of the usual 144. And by the time summer rolls around, the typical field of 156 players will be capped at 144.

In short, Tour events will have approximately 10% fewer players and the Tour itself will have 20% fewer fully exempt members. Both moves reinforce the importance of every place, every tournament… every shot.

Why is this necessary?

Several reasons. For starters, the wicked combination of pace of play and daylight. In 2024, according to the document, 28% of tournaments saw at least one round not completed due to darkness. Due to difficulties with the tournament’s pace of play, the Tour begins as close to sunrise as possible and usually ends at or near sunset (or often after). This means practicing in the dark, before or after your game. These changes are partly intended to make tournaments more efficient.

A natural answer would be: Make them play faster!

The Tour has established and modification of the regulations on the pace of play seriously over the last few years, but when it comes to finishing a tournament on time, the easiest way according to them is clearly to limit the number of players on the field rather than readjusting the time constraints according to the planned game.

Is there anything else that changes?

Yes! Qualification will also changein all categories. This includes those coming from the Korn Ferry Tour, end-of-year Q-school, and those weekly Monday qualifying tournaments that give non-exempt players a chance to make their way.

We will start with the qualifying events on Monday. For all regular season events with 120 players or fewer – largely spring events with increased demand for entries – Monday qualifying will be eliminated. In the past, most of them offered four positions to the lowest scoring players on Monday of that week, but with 12 fewer places in the tournament, a Monday Q would counteract the decrease in field size by offering four places again. lower-ranking members. Evidence shared in the document sent to players indicates that 65-70% of players who enter the field via Monday’s qualifier end up missing the cut.

Monday events are not entirely eliminated, however. Regular season events with 132 players will see qualifying spots on Monday cut in half, from four to two. Monday’s qualifiers, spread across 144 participants, will remain the same, as will the FedEx Cup Fall.

Graduation on the PGA Tour should also be reduced. In 2024, 30 Korn Ferry Tour players have earned full status, with 10 more coming from the DP World Tour, as well as the top five and ties from the year-end Q-School. Going forward, according to the proposal, those numbers would be 20 players from the KFT, 10 from the DPWT, and just five from the Q-School, not top five and ties.

How did we get here?

The PGA Tour has long had around 200 to 250 players with varying status levels. Each year when the FedEx Cup standings are finalized, one player from each membership subsection is elected to the advisory board to hold monthly meetings on the status of the tour. The PAC for 2024 included Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Keith Mitchell, Mackenzie Hughes, Josh Teater, Adam Schenk and 10 others.

Essentially, these actors are the local representatives that other members can speak to to raise concerns. Every year a new group of 16 people is assembled, and sometimes they don’t have much work to do, but this year’s group was put to work. For the first time, the PAC grouped its 16 players into four subcommittees: Competitions and Regulations; Lanes; Tournaments, fans and sponsors; Business.

While it may seem extremely formal to professional golfers in an unpaid position, the PAC meetings have been instrumental in bringing about changes to the Tour’s business model, according to those involved. Putting Justin Thomas, for example, on the Tournaments, Fans and Sponsors subcommittee was more effective than having JT collect members’ thoughts on all aspects of the Tour.

Nearing the end of the first year of this new PAC, this is the most thorough reassessment of the PGA Tour’s membership infrastructure in a very long time. It will undoubtedly be defended by some and vilified by others.

Is LIV Golf’s fault?

Sort of! The Tour was moving forward in the early 2020s, dealing with the thorny issues of COVID protocols and simply tournament scheduling. But with the rise of LIV Golf and guaranteed contracts inconsistent with PGA Tour regulations, a significant portion of the Tour’s best and most marketable players have left. This forced the Tour to increase the size of purses, invite more European players to play in America and seriously work on changing its product.

Although the measures to reduce field sizes and membership opportunities may appear as a stiff arm toward the middle ranks of professional golf, they effectively make the Tour a more meritocratic system – a point of pride that its players and supporters Leaders have long stood in the battle against competing golf leagues.