PGA Tour Reveals 2024 Plan with $25 million to FedEx Cup Winner

As promised, the 2024 Schedule of PGA Tour events was released this week during the FedEx St. Jude Championship. There’s something for the top players, something for the middle of the pack, and something for those who are striving to break into any rung on the Tour ladder. Buckle up.  There are some mental bumps in the road.

The tournaments with the biggest purses are now called Signature Events. No more designated or elevated. Only two mentions of money were included in the Tour’s announcement. One was the top prize for the FedEx Cup, and that’s a gobsmacking $25 million. The other was the payout for the winner of three “Signature Events,” which is $4 million. Just assume the rest of the Signature Events have a slightly lower honkingly gigantic first-place prize.

Signature Events is truly a great name for the tippy top of the regular tour schedule. There are eight of them. Three are associated with legends: Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, and Jack Nicklaus. There are five more that are associated with sponsors. They are the Sentry, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the RBC Heritage, the Wells Fargo Championship, and Travelers.

It is interesting that several sponsors who ponied up the big dollars this year have decided to participate again next season.

Signature Events will have one other thing in addition to gargantuan money. Each will award 700 FedEx points to the winner instead of 500. As Ed Sullivan would have said, while hugging himself, “It’s a really big shew.”

For those at the top, and by this, we mean the top 50 on FedEx points at the end of the 2023 season, there are financial opportunities not unlike those in 2023. In other words, Big Money. And there are other changes.

"These three player-associated tournaments will have a cut, but they will probably start with around 80 players."

Next year, the three legendary invitationals, one by Arnold Palmer’s foundation, one by Tiger Woods (Genesis Invitational) and one by Jack Nicklaus (The Memorial presented by Workday) offer a three-year exemption for victory, which is a nod to the extraordinary men associated with them. Regular PGA tour events offer two-year exemptions.

These three player-associated tournaments will have a cut, but they will probably start with around 80 players. The cut will be top 50 and ties as well as any player within 10 shots of the lead.

If you are wondering why Woods’ and Nicklaus’ events are not named for them as Palmer’s is, there’s a rule somewhere in the PGA Tour roll call of rules that a tournament cannot have a player’s name in the title so long as he is alive. So, we should all be glad that Nicklaus and Woods do not have tournaments named after them.

Those who are eligible for Signature Events include the top 50 from 2023, winners from the current season, and PGA Tour players inside the top 30 in World Rankings. The Sentry, which kicks off the year, includes the top 50 from 2023 plus PGA Tour winners from 2023.

The rest of the signature tournaments include the top 50 from 2023 plus 15 others who can play their way in through one of two ways. One is called The Next 10 and the other is called The Swing 5.

To be honest, I can never figure out why the Tour does this kind of thing, naming stuff like Next 10 and Swing 5 and expecting fans to remember it. Most people have enough trouble keeping track of the names of their children and pets and cars and favorite golf clubs, much less a group of contestants in a PGA Tour event. But back to the main story, who else gains entry to the biggest money events.

The Next 10 are the next 10 players eligible for the Signature Events not otherwise exempt based on the 2023 FedEx points. The Swing 5 are the top five in current FedEx points, not otherwise exempt from the last Signature Event to the upcoming one.

In other words, The Next 10 and The Swing 5 will begin with the AT&T National Pro-Am. The Next 10 are still the next 10 players from the 2023 FedEx points list and The Swing 5 are the top FedEx point-getters from Sony Open in Hawaii, The American Express, and Farmers Insurance Open who are not already in the event.

And it will continue like that for every Signature Event with the tournaments between Signature Events being used to gain entry into the Signature tournaments for those who do not have entry another way.  Until the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Then everything changes. I told you it was confusing.

At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, last year’s top 50 gets tossed and is replaced by the 2024 top 50 FedEx points earners.

After The Sentry, here’s how it works. In addition to the top 50:

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (January 29-February 4)
The Next 10 – from the final FedEx Cup Fall standings
The Swing 5 – top FedEx Cup points earners from Sony Open in Hawaii, The American Express, and Farmers Insurance Open

The Genesis Invitational (February 12-18)
The Next 10 – from the final FedEx Cup Fall standings
The Swing 5 – top FedEx Cup points earners from Sony Open in Hawaii, The American Express, Farmers Insurance Open, and WM Phoenix Open

Then everything changes a bit. Who’s in who’s out:

Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard (March 4-10)
The Next 10 – from the current FedEx Cup standings through The Classic in The Palm Beaches
The Swing 5 – top FedEx Cup points earners from Mexico Open at Vidanta and The Classic in The Palm Beaches

RBC Heritage (April 15-21)
The Next 10 – from the current FedEx Cup standings through the Masters Tournament
The Swing 5 – top FedEx Cup points earners from Puerto Rico Open, Valspar Championship, Texas Children’s Houston Open, and Valero Texas Open

Wells Fargo Championship (May 6-12)
The Next 10 – from the current FedEx Cup standings through AT&T Byron Nelson
The Swing 5 – top FedEx Cup points earners from Corales Puntacana Championship, Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and AT&T Byron Nelson

The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday (June 3-9)
The Next 10 – from the current FedEx Cup standings through RBC Canadian Open
The Swing 5 – top FedEx Cup points earners from Myrtle Beach Classic, Charles Schwab Challenge, and RBC Canadian Open

Travelers Championship (June 17-23)
The Next 10 – from the current FedEx Cup standings through U.S. Open
The Swing 5 – top FedEx Cup points earners from Myrtle Beach Classic, Charles Schwab Challenge, and RBC Canadian Open

Who can play regular PGA Tour events?

The top 125 from 2023 can enter the non-Signature Events because they are exempt. However, most fields include somewhere between 120 and 156 players, depending on the season and how much daylight there is.

That means players beyond 125 will get into events. Those from the DP World Tour may also be playing from time to time. The only ones we won’t see are golfers from that tour that shall not be named. (Meaning LIV, in case you were under a rock for the last two years.)

What about next fall?

Next fall has some bonuses. Each winner will be awarded 500 FedEx points. They get into The Players and The Sentry, probably The Masters and the PGA Championship, as winners of PGA Tour events.  The Tour phrased it as “eligibility into those Major Championships that invite PGA TOUR winners,” mainly because the Tour does not make up the criteria for invitations to the others.

The fall is where guys who finish No. 71 and higher have what you could call a make-up test.  Players who are 71 and up can enter the 2024 fall tournaments and continue to add to their FedEx point total.

So, say next year somebody like a Justin Thomas ends up No. 71.  He plays several times in the fall and adds enough points to equal No. 55.  While he might not boot the No. 55 player out of the list, he probably becomes part of The Next 10. He can get into the AT&T National Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational.

Then at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he has to rely on his own points for 2024 to get into events. So does everybody else.

It will probably all make more sense as it happens, but right now, it’s a bit like undoing a big ball of twine that has some kinks and loops and a couple knots in it.

What about the rest of the PGA Tour schedule? 

Well, thankfully, that’s easier to understand. It’s almost like normal. Except there are a couple new events. And there are a couple date changes. The rest are full-field events – except the Playoffs. And everyone is used to those by now.

The Mexico Open returns to the end of February.

The Honda Classic has been renamed The Classic in The Palm Beaches, with a sponsor to be named soon. It will be played at PGA National.

The Houston tournament moves to the last week of March and becomes Texas Children’s Houston Open.

A new tournament, The Myrtle Beach Classic, will be played opposite the Wells Fargo in May. Its venue: The Dunes Golf & Beach Club (which all the golf writers used to play prior to the Masters).

The RBC Canadian Open moves to just before the Memorial and ends on June 2, which may be a replay of last year’s weather at the PGA. Hamilton, Ontario, the location for it for 2024, is at a similar latitude to Rochester, NY, but the Canadian Open will be two weeks later than the PGA was. Probably too late for snow.

The PGA Tour will be dark the week of July 29 – August 4 because of men’s golf at the Olympics.

The regular PGA Tour season finishes the week after the Olympics with the Wyndham.

In the Playoffs, the BMW Championship moves to Castle Pines Golf Club in Castle Rock, Colorado.  It’s a completely dramatic course, kind of like taking the TPC Stadium Sawgrass or TPC Stadium PGA West and placing it on the side of a mountain, so that instead of just plain trouble, it’s trouble on steep hillsides! Bonus: Watch for afternoon thunderstorms!

And, last but definitely not least, get ready for the hype now: It’s about to be the 50th PLAYERS!!