PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan Announces the Changes in Schedule and Prizes

The PGA TOUR will get back to a calendar-year schedule in 2024, one of a sequence of changes announced Wednesday that likewise incorporates eight tournaments with incredibly improved purses, overhauled field sizes for the FedExCup Playoffs, and a reconsidered fall including up to three no-cut, restricted field international events.

Commissioner Jay Monahan announced the changes, made related to the Policy Board and Player Directors, in a press conference at the Travelers Championship.

He likewise announced the progressions in a letter to the players.

“These changes will further strengthen the FedExCup and create a strong, coordinated global schedule,” Monahan wrote, detailing a condensed FedExCup season that will run from January to August, “offering a more compelling product for our players, fans, and partners.”

In broad strokes, the FedExCup Playoffs will feature modified field sizes beginning one year from now. The main 70 will make the primary event of the Playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis. The main 50 will make the BMW Championship, and the best 30, to the surprise of no one, will seek the FedExCup at the TOUR Championship at East Lake.

The 70 players who fit the bill for the principal Playoffs event will be completely absolved for the accompanying season, including invitationals. Anybody outside that cutoff can work on his status in the fall events, at the conclusion of which the main 125 will be completely excluded for the accompanying season.

“While different than it’s been in the past, I think it’s going to be very exciting for fans and I think will create great energy in the fall,” said Monahan, who added that he expects the fall events to be “very consequential, very meaningful.”

Also, the TOUR is making room for up to three international, no-cut, restricted field events, taking the main 50 from the last FedExCup, and top performers from the fall. The format and different details of these events are under review by the Player Advisory Council.

Close to these changes, the Policy Board additionally amended the Resource Allocation Plan to increment purse sizes at the accompanying eight events in 2023:

• Sentry Tournament of Champions – $15 million (up from $8.2M in 2022)
• The Genesis Invitational – $20 million (up from $12 million in 2022)
• Arnold Palmer Invitational introduced by Mastercard – $20 million (up from $12 million in 2022)
• THE PLAYERS Championship – $25 million (up from $20 million in 2022)
• WGC – Dell Technologies Match Play – $20 million (up from $12 million in 2022)
• the Memorial Tournament introduced by Workday – $20 million (up from $12 million in 2022)
• FedEx St. Jude Championship – $20 million (up from $15 million in 2022)
• BMW Championship – $20 million (up from $15 million out of 2022)

“There is more work to be done and details to confirm,” Monahan said in a lengthy press conference at TPC River Highlands, “but implementing substantial changes to our schedule gives us the best opportunity to not only drive earnings to our players but also improve our product and create a platform for continued growth in the future.”

In his pre-tournament press conference at the Travelers Championship, double-cross FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy considered the effect that the PGA TOUR has on the communities it plays in while likewise thinking about the organization’s future.

“I think it’s not lost on me what PGA TOUR events … can do for the communities that they’re played in,” he said. “I think that’s not lost on the players that when they come and play PGA TOUR events they’re helping to do something really good in the community … and I think that’s important.”

As one of the four-player directors on the PGA TOUR Policy Board, McIlroy spent five hours in a board meeting Monday where the progressions to the schedule were examined.

McIlroy said the raised events are “important for the future of the TOUR” without limiting different events on the schedule.

“You’re going to have tournaments that guys love to play and they’re going to come back and keep playing them,” said McIlroy, who’s competing for the fourth week in a row.

The top three players in the FedExCup – Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, and McIlroy – – and six of the top 15 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are set to tee it up at the Travelers, where Harris English is the defending champ.

“On the PGA TOUR, our members compete for the opportunity to add their names to history books, and, yes, significant financial benefits, without having to wrestle with any sort of moral ambiguity,” Monahan said. “And pure competition creates relevancy and context, which is what fans need and expect in order to invest their time in a sport and in a player.

“That’s the beauty of the PGA TOUR,” he added. “We have and always will provide a global platform for members to compete against the very best, earn their stardom, and become household names.”