Pro Golf Now
Fansided

PGA Tour Exemptions: How Does Coronavirus Change Them for 2020 and 2021?

By Kathlene Bissell

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Dustin Johnson plays a shot on the 11th hole during the first round of The PLAYERS at the TPC Stadium course on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Dustin Johnson plays a shot on the 11th hole during the first round of The PLAYERS at the TPC Stadium course on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

As diehard PGA Tour fans know, each year, PGA Tour players are required to play a minimum of 15 events, and that includes the four “major” championships.

As diehard PGA Tour fans know, each year, PGA Tour players are required to play a minimum of 15 events, and that includes the four “major” championships.  The rest can be selected from the PGA Tour schedule at a player’s discretion.  Usually the choices come from more than forty events.

Those who finished in the top 125 in FedEx points the previous season, in this case the 2019 season, are considered exempt players for 2020 and can enter any regular PGA Tour event. But this season, with three months of tournaments cancelled and some postponed, golfers were left to wonder what the shortened schedule would mean for their eligibility.

Morning Read, a subscription golf newsletter, has reported that they have seen a letter that was sent to PGA Tour players which will allow those with exempt status for 2020 to keep their cards for 2021.

More from Golf News

According to the letter, the Korn Ferry Tour is also affected by the worldwide medical emergency. Korn Ferry will not allow the top 25 players to move up to the PGA Tour for 2021.  Only the top 10 at the end of the 2021 season will advance to the PGA Tour.

Exemptions for PGA Tour players are determined by a number of things including golfer’s achievements, world ranking, victories and so forth. Some, like a Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods, are lifetime members because of the number of victories they have won.  Another lifetime winner is Davis Love III.  Lifetime means 20 victories and 15 years of play.  Vijay Singh qualifies, but he spends his time on the PGA Tour Champions circuit these days.

The most recent PGA Tour player with a lifetime exemption is Dustin Johnson who is right on the number with 20 which he got by winning the WGC Mexico tournament in 2019.

So, all golfers who finished in the top 125 in FedEx points for 2019 will continue their exemptions through 2021.  That is the most basic exemption.

However, winners of PGA Tour events are exempt tournament winners in the last two seasons next up on the list, with winners of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Memorial receiving three years of exemption for victories. In addition, winners of WGCs and the Tour Championship also receive three-year exemptions.  We don’t yet know if a year is going to be added to those exemptions.

Going up the ladder of status, next are the winners of major championships.  Those golfers have five-year exemptions. Again, we don’t know if that will become six years, or if the majors will be played.  They are on the schedule, but as we have all learned since mid-March, nothing is certain.

Practically speaking, what this means is that if a golfer decided to play just a few of the 10 fall tournaments, or if a player decided to play on the Florida swing and not the west coast, anticipating adding several spring and summer events only to find that those are cancelled or moved, the player’s status is still secure, so long as he had his card for 2020.

The rest of the details will be discovered as we go, but as usual, the PGA Tour has done the right thing for its members.

Home/Golf News