Report: PGA Tour follows LIV Golf with MAJOR changes given green light

The PGA Tour board has reportedly signed off on plans for some 2024 elevated events to have reduced fields and get rid of the 36-hole cut.

Ben Smith

01 Mar 2023

Report: PGA Tour follows LIV Golf with MAJOR changes given green light

In a move that will no doubt draw accusations of hypocrisy, the PGA Tour board has reportedly signed off on changes that will see some of their 2024 elevated events played with smaller fields without a cut.

Cast your mind back to last August and all hell was breaking loose in the war of attrition between the PGA Tour and their rival LIV Golf.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy spearheaded a players' only meeting where the elite pros discussed what they needed to do going forward to avoid other top players bolting from the established circuit.

The result of that 16 August meeting before the BMW Championship appears to have fundamentally changed the path of the PGA Tour.

Woods was later quoted as saying that the tour he has won 82 times on couldn't compete dollar for dollar with a sovereign wealth fund.

But what they could do is provide better opportunities for younger players getting onto the tour, adding:

"What it means to play the tour, how important it is, how important it is to have a legacy, be able to win major championships.

"There was a lot of talk of ways in which we can increase purses, reward players that are more visible than others that drive the tour.

"Reward them, and also give better access to the tour at different ages and in different ways than we ever have in the past."

More changes are coming.

According to a report by Golfweek's Eamon Lynch, on 28 February the PGA Tour board signed off on huge changes for the 2024 schedule that will see reduced fields in some, not all, of the elevated events and the removal of the 36 hole cut.

According to the report:

Fields in elevated events will be reduced to between 70-78 players with no halfway cut
The changes will not apply to all of the elevated events, the majors, Players Championship and FedEx Cup playoffs

A source told the publication:

"We want top players and hot players."

The decision to reduce the fields will no doubt cause concern for some PGA Tour members.

Jack Nicklaus previously outlined his concern that the tour would essentially be split into two tiers.

Lynch's report quotes one elite player anonymously promising that there will be ways for the rank-and-file members to play their way into the huge prize purse events.

The report states that fields for the events will be determined from the top 50 players who qualify for the BMW Championship during the previous season's FedEx Cup playoffs, plus the top 10 players "not otherwise eligible on the current FedEx Cup points race".

There will also be five spots available from non-designated events.