How PGA Tour Signature Events Affect the Rank-and-File Players
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Over the life of the FedEx Cup, which dates to 2007, one of the PGA Tour’s talking points is that every event—outside of the major championships, Players and the World Golf Championship tournaments—is equal. If you won at Pebble Beach or the John Deere, you were going to earn the same amount of points. There was a modest bump for the other tournaments, but not enough to have a huge overall bearing.
That is about to change in January when the signature events get a significant bump in FedEx points. All of them will give 700 points to the winner. The majors and Players will give 750. Regular PGA Tour events will get 500.
That was bound to cause some angst among players who are not in those lucrative tournaments.
Lanto Griffin sounded off on what he sees as an inequity in the signature events.
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“Give them all the money they want but when you start giving them the points, I’ve got a problem with that,” said PGA Tour player Lanto Griffin in an interview last week with Golfweek at the RSM Classic. “Do you know what fifth in an elevated (signature) event next year makes in FedEx Cup points? 300. It’s 110 for a normal event. So I go play Torrey Pines with 156 players and a cut and Rory (McIlroy) goes to L.A. the next week in a 78-players, no-cut field, and he gets nearly three times the points for the same finish.
“How is one going to compete with that? The guys that are making the decision are obviously going to look out for themselves. That’s where there is a disconnect for guys in my position, the normal guys. So having someone who will listen and not be only concerned about the top 10.”
Griffin, who was playing this year on a major medical extension, was asked who he might like to see replace McIlroy on the PGA Tour Policy Board. While he was complimentary of McIlroy, he also felt that the McIlroy was looking out for the stars and not the little guys. (Editor's note: It was announced Monday that Jordan Spieth is taking McIlroy's spot.)
The 50 players who qualified for all of the 2024 Signature events—the Sentry, AT&T Pebble Beach, Genesis, Arnold Palmer, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo, Memorial and Travelers—are already guaranteed points in five of those tournaments because they will not have a 36-hole cut.
With smaller fields, there will also be more points for all of them to earn. And even at the three events with cuts, the requirement will be to beat about 30 players to make it to the weekend—not a high threshold.
To Griffin’s point, the signature events are paying $20 million purses ($15 million at Sentry). Players who qualify for them are already assured of a hefty number of points, which puts that at a distinct advantage over those who are playing in regular events that have a cut and fewer points. It suggests that a good number in the top 50 will remain there, although the Tour has run simulations that say there will be a decent amount of turnover.
It is certainly fair to argue that the perks of qualifying for the signature events are plentiful enough. To be assured of being in all of them means making it to the lucrative BMW Championship, with another 30 advancing to the more lucrative Tour Championship.
From there, you’re assured of spots in eight big-money events and all their points. It seems leaving the points at 500 like the regular events—or perhaps a small bump up to 550 as was the case with the WGCs—was more in order.
But because there is no requirement to play any of these tournaments—players had to play all of the designated events this year, with one opt-out allowed—part of the thinking was this would be a further enhancement.
But there is, of course, another side to this argument.
There are opportunities to earn your way into the signature events, via the season-long FedEx Cup race that will always take the current top 10, as well as the top five from a mini run of events leading up to each signature event. Winning a tournament gets you in all of them. Playing well enough in the less events and a player has an opportunity to share in the same riches of points and money.
And then there is this: the fields of regular events will be weaker than the signature events. They will have far fewer top players. It means a player such as Griffin should have an easier path to success.
“The (top players) deserve a lot of credit, a lot of money, but Rory shouldn’t have an advantage over me in the FedEx Cup," Griffin said in the Golfweek interview. “If he wants $20 million purses and $100 million PIP (Player Impact Program) money, take it. ... To have the deck stacked against us—we’re losing points, money, starts, it feels like, who’s making these decisions?"