ST. SIMONS ISLAND, GEORGIA | There is a sea-of-tranquility look and feel to the season-ending RSM Classic that begins on Thursday at Sea Island Resort where the official PGA Tour makes a soft landing into its brief offseason.
There is no tangible sense of urgency on the practice tee which offers water views stretching to the Atlantic in the distance, the late fall breezes rustling the Spanish moss that droops from the live oaks framing what the water and the golf courses don’t.
The smoky smell of the famous Southern Soul barbecue also hangs in the air, the pulled pork and macaroni and cheese drawing a steady line of players, caddies and hangers-on to the back of the practice area at lunch time.
There is, however, a business side to what’s happening at the southern tip of this barrier island.
Of immediate importance is the task of finalizing the top 125 in the FedEx Cup points race to determine who has full tour status next year and who doesn’t.
Wesley Bryan sits at No. 125, with Joel Dahmen and Zac Blair just inside the line ahead of him while Henrik Norlander, Daniel Berger and Hayden Springer occupy the first three spots, respectively, on the outside with 72 holes to change their fate.
From a longer-term perspective, the PGA Tour announced Tuesday a restructuring is coming after next year when the value of earning and keeping a tour card will be harder and more valuable.
Players knew what was coming – the headline being the number of players who retain full tour privileges will be cut from 125 to 100 beginning in 2026 – and it became official at a tour Policy Board meeting on Monday.
Well, not every player knew it was coming.
“This is actually news to me,” Ludvig Åberg said Tuesday afternoon. “I’m sorry. I did not know that.”
The changes, which have been under discussion with the PAC since May, are significant: Many field sizes will be reduced, fewer tour cards will be available to the top players on the Korn Ferry Tour (top 20 rather than top 30) and a redistribution of points are among the noteworthy changes coming.
Part of the challenge was finding a way for players with tour privileges to get enough starts. For example, Rafael Campos, who won the Butterfield Bermuda Championship last week, was able to get into only two events before March, making it more difficult for him to retain his card.
“That’s not what it should mean to be handed a PGA Tour card and have a fair and equitable chance and to be able to plan out your year,” said Tyler Dennis, the tour’s chief competitions officer.
To golf fans, cutting the number of players who keep their tour cards each year by 25 probably won’t make a big difference. If you put a group of fans on the Sea Island practice tee Tuesday and asked them to identify the players currently holding the last 25 spots this year, they probably couldn’t name many or any without looking at the names on their golf bags.
For players whose job status is pegged by their performance each year, lopping off 20 percent of the work force is a big adjustment.
“I’m not numb to the fact that we’re cutting opportunities, right? It’s not something that sits well with me, and it doesn’t sit well with anyone that was in any of those discussions, but all these decisions that get made, they’re all not good or all bad,” said Brian Harman, a member of the Player Advisory Council which drafted the model that was voted into existence this week.
“We’re looking at every single kind of pro and con to every piece that moves around and trying to figure out the most equitable, fairest way to have a great product, at the same time providing enough playing opportunities for everyone.”
Harman said the 16-member PAC was subdivided with the different groups digging deep on their assigned topic within the changes in an attempt to fully understand the potential impacts.
“You look at all of the information that’s presented and you do your best to make the best possible decision for the most amount of people,” Harman said.
The changes don’t sit well with everyone. One long-time tour player wondered aloud whether this might be his last career start with the rules changing.
Chris Kirk is finishing his 14th full season on tour, and his perspective has evolved over the years.
“I have found over the years that when you play really well, it doesn’t matter a whole lot what the tour Policy Board decides. Things will work out pretty well in your favor. When you don’t play as well, that’s kind of when those things matter a little bit more,” Kirk said.
“Yes, it feels like maybe 20 to 25 percent of the access has kind of gone away in a certain way, but if you still play really good golf, it’s going to take care of itself and it’s going to create a compelling product, which is what the PGA Tour wants.” – Ben Griffin
In the press release detailing the changes, Adam Scott, a member of the tour’s Policy Board, said the goal is to make sure the tour is the “pinnacle of achievement in men’s professional golf.”
It is another adjustment to a tour that has settled into a new structure built around limited-field, big-money signature events. The latest changes further streamline the tour.
“There’s still plenty of access routes for players,” Ben Griffin said.
“Yes, it feels like maybe 20 to 25 percent of the access has kind of gone away in a certain way, but if you still play really good golf, it’s going to take care of itself and it’s going to create a compelling product, which is what the PGA Tour wants. The best players are going to rise to the top still, and we’ll see how everything shakes out.”