What to Make of New PGA Tour Field Size Proposals

View From The Fairway by Derek Clements

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. And to your correspondent’s admittedly cynical eye, the PGA Tour’s much-vaunted revamp owes more than a little to what is going on with LIV Golf.

The tour has announced plans to slash the size of its fields at regular events from 2026.

The maximum field size will go down from 156 players to 144 (other than for multiple-course events such as the American Express), while single-course events played prior to daylight savings time will drop to 120 - they currently stand at 144 or 132. Events from daylight savings time until the Masters will cap at 132 players, and post-Masters they will grow to 144 for the summer season. 

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On the face of it, this makes some sense. 

All too often we see darkness falling before the full field gets back into the clubhouse on Friday nights, meaning that we don’t actually get the cut made until Saturday mornings. And that is quite clearly unacceptable. 

To be brutally honest, a lot of this is down to the funereal pace of play. I still believe with all my heart that one- and two-stroke penalties would solve this problem in an instant.

We are told that one of the prime motivators for the field reductions is to ensure that, other than weeks when extreme weather causes unavoidable delays, play finishes on time each and every day. It is interesting to note that the DP World Tour does not have this problem. 

The Open, US Open and US PGA have fields of 156 players and they get the job done.

There is more. The number of new cards being handed out is going to tumble.

The Korn Ferry Tour is seen as the pathway to the Tour. Every year we see rookies move up and claim victories that change their lives. It is what professional golf is all about - working your way up to the top level and proving that you can mix it with the best in the business.

This year 30 players from that tour received cards - that number is going to be cut to 20. Qualifying school will go from the top five and ties to just the top five. However, there will still be 10 cards available via the DP World Tour.

The upshot of this is that there will be fewer spots available for young talent - and let’s be honest here, the game needs young players challenging for the sport’s biggest prizes if it is to continue to attract new young fans to the sport. 

The 30 players who made it to the Tour Championship get into all the signature events and the four majors, as do the top 50 in the world rankings. And after the FedEx Cup fall season there will be more places available at the top table for those who climb the rankings. What all of this means is that those who are already swimming in money simply get the opportunity to earn even more.

The tour have also announced an end to Monday qualifying, and that is a real kick in the teeth to those local golfers for whom that route represented their only shot at glory. That has now gone.

The powers-that-be will cite the fact that 65-70% of Monday qualifiers miss the cut. But that misses the point - 30-35% of them do make it all the way to Sunday, with the chance of changing their lives for ever.

If a player finishes in the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings, he is entitled to believe that he has full playing rights for all but the signature events the following year. With fields of 120, something is going to have to give, especially if sponsors’ exemptions continue to be handed out. Well, the PGA Tour have solved that one too - they plan to reduce the number who keep their cards to just 100.

One thing they have got right is the number of points awarded at signature events is going to be cut. Why should a player who finishes 30th in a tournament with no cut receive more points than a player finishing 10th in a regular full-event event?

The proposals still have to be ratified by the player board but since they have been consulted throughout the process this is surely a formality. I just can’t help thinking that some young players and a whole bunch of lower-ranked golfers are going to feel that they have been short-changed. Again!