A Tiger Woods exemption? PGA Tour adjustments might be coming

The query of which gamers get in to Signature Occasions — the premier, mega-money tournaments held eight occasions yearly on the PGA Tour — has been controversial within the schedule’s debut season. Event sponsors are granted 4 exemptions to supply to Tour members of their selecting, with lots of these exemptions going to an identical checklist of names in 2024. Webb Simpson and Adam Scott — two Coverage Board members — have benefitted vastly, earning the ire of some critics. 

With the primary 12 months of Signature Occasions now almost full, the Tour membership is contemplating numerous tweaks to the make-up of these fields, led mainly by a brand new sponsor exemption for one participant specifically: Tiger Woods.

In keeping with a month-to-month publication of updates shared with Tour members, the Participant Advisory Council (PAC) — one of many middle-rungs of Tour governance — helps the creation of an additional, particular exemption for Woods and Woods solely, given his immense and unmatched profession success. The thought was mentioned formally for the primary time at a PAC assembly on Could 21, throughout the Charles Schwab Problem, and can be voted upon throughout a Coverage Board assembly Tuesday throughout subsequent week’s Vacationers Championship.

With 82 profession wins and greater than $120 million in lifetime, on-course earnings, Woods’ profession speaks for itself. Any occasion would transfer mountains for him to participate. However Woods doesn’t routinely qualify for these occasions. He has barely competed lately and hasn’t fared nicely sufficient to earn his manner in on his scores alone. With simply 4 exemptions on provide in a 70-80 participant subject competing for $20 million, these sponsor exemptions are in excessive demand. Achieved gamers not already in these fields have discovered themselves writing letters to sponsors for the primary time in years. If Woods had been to indicate curiosity in, say, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he would completely earn a kind of spots, eliminating an opportunity for others who, frankly, may use it greater than the 48-year-old value a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars}.

“These exemptions are supposed to seize gamers who’re necessary to the event sponsor however who should not in any other case certified,” the GREENSHEET publication says. “To maximise these spots for the membership and to supply optimum flexibility for the event sponsor, the PAC supported including a further sponsor exemption recognizing Tiger Woods in his personal class as a participant who has reached an distinctive lifetime achievement threshold of 80+ profession wins.”

Simply because the PAC helps the concept doesn’t routinely greenlight it, although it’s not anticipated to face a lot pushback. The PAC is a 16-player group that options members from numerous subsections of the earlier season’s FedEx Cup standings. It consists of the high-end likes of Max Homa and Scottie Scheffler in addition to gamers additional down the checklist like Josh Teater and Kevin Streelman. If the PAC helps one thing, usually the Tour membership helps it. First comes an official advice, then the Coverage Board votes on it. That’s coming this week. 

The Tour Coverage Board, which has been holding numerous conferences to resolve its future — including some with the Saudi Public Investment fund — will use the ultimate Signature Occasion of the 12 months, the Vacationers Championship, to take a severe take a look at what it needs to seem like in 2025. (Woods himself is a member of the Coverage Board, however can be anticipated to abstain from the vote.) If the Lifetime Achievement class is authorized, it will be carried out firstly of 2025, although it’s unclear if Woods’ exemption would apply to The Sentry, the annual season kickoff occasion held in Hawaii in January, which incorporates strictly the earlier season’s event winners and high 50 finishers within the FedEx Cup. 

An exemption class is just significant within the occasion that Woods truly makes use of it. He famous in December his intentions of, if wholesome, taking part in one event per 30 days in 2024, however has didn’t make that occur. By time constraints, rustiness or well being, Woods has solely performed in a single Signature Occasion this season, the one he hosts at Riviera Nation Membership in February. (He ultimately withdrew early in his first spherical battling flu-like signs.) The one different tournaments he has performed in 2024 had been the 12 months’s first two main championships, ending sixtieth on the Masters and lacking the reduce on the PGA Championship. Woods has made a profession out of profitable quite a few occasions he would thusly be exempt into, profitable the Arnold Palmer Invitational eight occasions and the Memorial event 5 occasions. 

Further Signature Occasion matters can be mentioned at Tuesday’s assembly, notably establishing a minimal of 72 rivals transferring ahead and implementing a reduce in each Signature Occasion, or eliminating a reduce from all of them. 

In keeping with the publication, the Signature Event System was created with an “very best subject measurement of 72 gamers,” and whereas, on common, the tournaments have seen that quantity qualify to play, solely 68 to 70 gamers have been collaborating. In different phrases, by way of damage or indifference or busyness, and so forth. just a few spots in $20 million races have gone unused. On a number of events, the ultimate subject has included precisely 69 gamers, leaving one professional to compete by himself throughout event rounds. The PAC is trying to keep away from that because it has supported the creation of an alternate checklist (by way of that season’s FedEx Cup standings) that may fill the sphere to a 72-player minimal (except The Sentry) at any time when certified gamers are unable to play. That may also be voted upon throughout Tuesday’s assembly, and with approval can be carried out in 2025.

As for a reduce at Signature Occasions? The dialog is ongoing, and there received’t be a conclusion quickly. Three of this 12 months’s Signature Occasions — the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial — trimmed the sphere after 36 holes. The opposite 5 didn’t. Gamers on the Advisory Council, in line with the publication, agreed it ought to be constant — both a reduce in any respect or a reduce at none — to make following the tour simpler for followers. Signature Occasion cuts can also be anticipated to be mentioned throughout Tuesday’s assembly however not voted on in any official capability.